Grade 9 ELA
- I studied this with Mr. Adam -
Socrates and his punishment
Death is not the opposite of life, but it is a part of it. In 469BC, Socrates had admitted his punishment of execution; he got accused of going against God and corrupting the youth. Socrates believed that he should die either because he did not need to worry about all of his accusations and other problems anymore or if there is an afterlife, he would be able to continue his mission.
Since the beginning of time, people have been expressing their thoughts on death in many ways. Socrates believed that there are two directions to go afterlife. According to the text, “To have died means one of two things: either to be in a state of nothingness and to have no awareness of anything; or else, as they say, it’s a kind of change and migration of the soul from where it is to somewhere else.” This demonstrated that Socrates believed that there are two ways to go afterlife: the first direction is being in nothing and not needing to be aware of anything. The second direction is being in heaven or the underworld, which he could continue his mission in the afterlife.
Death is a word, and it is the word, the image, that creates fear. Socrates thought that he was not scared of death because he knew nothing about it, so Socrates didn’t need to worry about the afterlife, but he also thought about what he would do if there were an afterlife. Based on the text, “Best of all would be to spend my time examining and questioning the people there as I do here to discover who’s wise and who thinks he is but isn’t.” This implied that he thought he would talk and ask the famous people in his afterlife because he wanted to know who is the wisest and not wise.
Life is trouble. Only death is not. Socrates believed that his accusation had created many problems for his life. According to the text, “It’s clear to me that it’s better for me to die now and be free from all my troubles.” This shown that he should die because he won’t need to defend himself from his accusations and what others blamed him.
Socrates admitted getting an execution because of going against God and corrupting the youth. Socrates thought he should die because he didn’t want to worry about his accusation and could do anything he wanted to do and continue his mission. He believed that life hurt more than death, so he accepted the execution rather than living without happiness.
Gene Therapy Acceptance
There are many potential ways to treat diseases. One of the effective ways is gene therapy, a new technology that modifies a patient’s gene to treat or prevent disease. Although gene therapy is relatively new and may have unpredictable risks, gene therapy should be allowed for human use because it can effectively cure genetic diseases without affecting future generations.
As a new scientific technology, gene therapy brings many benefits to humans. Gene therapy can efficiently eliminate genetic diseases and pathogens. According to an article in Nature, “It has countless applications: researchers hope to use it to alter human genes to eliminate diseases; create hardier plants; wipe out pathogens and more” (Ledford and Callaway). This implies that there are many benefits from using this treating method, scientists hope to use them to create hardier plants, wipe out pathogens, and eliminate diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, hemophilia, and AIDS.
There are two types of gene therapy, somatic cell and germline therapy. Somatic cell therapy aims to treat the disorder only in a target patient, not their children; it’s not heritable. The following quote is from the book International Encyclopedia of Social & Behavioral Sciences: “Somatic cell gene therapy involves the placement of a human gene into a living person’s somatic cells—cells that do not produce the eggs and sperm that in turn produce the next generation” (Greely). This treatment technique aims to treat only a patient person, which will not pass to their offspring, meaning that only the treated individual would have the modification.
However, several scientists have concerned about the risks of gene therapy as it’s a new technology without much data surrounding it. This is being addressed with clinical trials, which are research studies that help doctors and scientists determine whether a gene therapy technique is safe for people. According to the FDA’s research, “Gene therapy uses carriers called ‘vectors’ to deliver genes to tissues where they are needed. Researchers are currently investigating the safety and effectiveness of a variety of different gene therapy vectors in hundreds of clinical trials in the US” (Byrnes). Many organizations, including the FDA, the United States Food and Drug Administration, are currently investigating the effectiveness and the risks of this technology, which will be completely safe soon.
Gene therapy can prevent or treat many genetic diseases without inheriting the modification or the side effect to the offspring and should be allowed for human use because of its benefits. Even though there are some risks from using this therapy method, many researchers investigate the risks and effectiveness of gene therapy to ensure that it will be safe for the patients to use this technology. In the future, gene therapy will bring many benefits to humans with fewer risks or no risks so that patients can use this method without any concern
