This was the day which the debates happened. The two topics were; Embryonic stem cells, and genetically engineered children, which are commonly referred to as designer babies. Designer babies are quite literally babies that have been designed. So far all that can be selected for a child to have is; skin color,hair color,eye color, and gender. Embryonic stem cells are cells derived form embryos that can be used to create a cell culture of any type of cell.
Designer babies overview
Embryonic stem cells overview
There are two videos that briefly explain what the two topics are.
At the beginning of class we had fifteen minutes to make final preparations. Most groups printed out their text, organized what was going to happen or made a few final changes to their work.
To be fair Ms. D decided that a game of rock paper scissors would decide who would go first. One person from each of the topics was selected and the winning group would go second. The embryonic stem cell side lost the game and went first. Since it was an informal debate their was no order and when the starting speakers on each side had long introductions Ms. D told them to just convey the points with no accompanying science.
The con team took the approach that it is unethical and costs to much money to research and adult stem cells should be used instead. Adult stem cells are tissue samples taken from an adult who remains alive throughout the testing and then converted to use on other patients.
Example on how Adult stem cells to cure heart injuries
The pro team explained that it had the opportunity to save many lives with just one cell, and that it could be turned into anything and that the embryo most of the time would be aborted anyway so we should use the resource.
At the end there was a class vote. Most of the class thought that the pro had won, one person thought the con had won, and a few including Ms. D didn't know who won the debate.
We then immediately moved on to the designer baby debate.
The con team talked about the theoretical risks of creating babies like this such as eliminating helpful DNA by accident, Upset parents not getting what they paid for with the only 60% chance with the best luck, the wanting to create a pure society, intellectually difference causing gap between designer and natural babies much like the gap between rich and poor, the expense, and genetic war weapons (referred to in the debate as babies of mass destruction).
The pro team disputed the cons ideas by saying it was only theoretical ideas about what could happen. They also burst out laughing at the idea of babies of mass destruction and cast it off as irrelevant. The main point that was brought up was that diseases and mutations would no longer exist because they could be fixed before birth.
The end vote concluded that the pro team won this debate.
With this genetics is officially over and 8th grade is moving into astronomy.
T
o start this our homework is to record the position of the moon for seven days.More information
The next scribe is Fabi.
If I forgot a point in the debate please tell me in your comment.
Hi Bryce,
ReplyDeleteI liked your post. It took me a while to understand who you were. You have no labels. Your font was clear but you could add some colors to it to make it more intresting. You had a few spelling mistakes. One of them was in this sentence: (Embryonic stem cells are cells derived form embryos that can be used to create a cell culture of any type of cell.) The word form it is supposed to be from. You could explain in more details the following words: embryos and genetic. You could be more specific with the title. Overall good post!
Bryce - Your post covers the debate topics and the different sides clearly and in an understandable manner. I do like how you included a brief introductory video about each. Plus I enjoyed the video about the use of adult stem cells, although it was more confusing than the other two based on scientific language. You brought new information about these topics through the video clips. The pictures you have included are well related, but you forgot captions. Plus you have no labels on this post. Spelling looks good, only a few errors, as does grammar/punctuation with no errors. Overall in my opinion, the organization and hyperlinks were the best parts of this post. Nice work! ~Ms. D.
ReplyDeleteHi Bryce,
ReplyDeleteI liked your post about the debates. You explained what designer babies and embryonic stem cells were and you also explained what happened in each debate and who won each debate. I liked the videos that you put on your post. They gave new information about each topic. You had good pictures but you forgot captions. You also forgot to add labels for your post. You could have added more colors. Overall cool post.
Hi Bryce,
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a great post! You had awesome hyperlinks, amazing detail, and nice pictures. Some things you cuold change are adding more color to the post, have captions with the pcitures, and check your grammar; you are missing commas in a few places. You are also missing labels for your post, and your voice isn't really exciting, although it is interesting. It was good that you had the date in your title, though. Great job!
Hey Bryce! First (like Chiara said) I couldn't tell who wrote the post, so you should have tagged yourself. The descriptions of the two topics were good and the video links were helpful. The pro and con analysis was clear and understandable so that anyone could come on our blog and see what we did and talked about. Also, the pictures and organization were nice. The spelling and grammar were fine with some slight mistakes. Another good thing was that I didn't catch some of the information in the debate, but from reading your post I now know. For example, there is the chance that helpful DNA may be destroyed by accident. In the end, I think this was a great post.
ReplyDeleteHey Bryce,
ReplyDeleteI thought your post was well-written and informative. I liked your use of scientific vocabulary, pictures and hyperlinks. However, you had a few spelling and grammar mistakes, and the structure of your sentences occasionally rambled a little bit, making it a well-done post, but a little bit confusing (if I hadn't been there) at times. As was mentioned above, you didn't add captions or labels, however it was a very good post overall.
Hey Bryce great post but there are a few problems. First you didn't say your name which made it hard to see who wrote it i only figured it out by reading the comments. Also you could have explained the science a little more or added some of the things from your own topic. Also you could have used more pictures. You also should have included pics of embryos or something of that nature. This was a great post because you included alot of information and good detail of what happened. Good job.
ReplyDeleteCalvin
Hi Bryce!
ReplyDeleteI like your Blog, and your first picture. You have explained the science very well at the beginning and made a general overview about the stem cells and the designer babies. This helped a lot because your Blog is pretty long. Then I liked how you have explained with very much detail what happened in, before and between the discussions. You also have multiple hyperlinked links to Moodle and other sources. But you could have used more colours and bigger fonts to show what a paragraph is about and to general make the Blog more organized and easier to read. You also don't have labels and you also could have changed the title to words so there won't be European/American misunderstands. So I think the Blog was pretty ok.
Hi Bryce!
ReplyDeleteYour post is better than the first one and I like this one very much, because you put the links after every paragraph, which explains it a bit more about what you did in class. You didn't put a title and labels, which can confuse other people. The pictures you chose are great but there are no captions under them. The font size and color are fine, also the text was divided into paragraphs, but you could have used subtitles a bit more. It's a good post, keep going that way.
Dave 3:-D