Hello Fellow bloggers,
There have been a few interesting developments over this last week. Everyone is doing really well. Thank you to everyone who has been stopping in to read my blog. This week has been good and I'm finally feeling like I have a handle on life and its daily challenges; school is at the half way point so only a little bit to go for this first semester at UCF to be over, my family has gotten into a groove and its really nice, work is good. So overall, life is good. I hope all of you are doing well.
Its been another week and midterms are almost over. Gosh I never realized how much I've learned until this week. I can say I'm somewhat educated on HIV/AIDS disease in ways that I never knew before. Even though my brother had AIDS, I wasn't around very much because my family lived in another country at the time. When we returned other opportunistic illnesses had overcome his body and within a few years of us living in the states again he lost his battle. I'm going to call my sister today for some help on the next assignment regarding daily-living with HIV/AIDS including all its medications and schedules. It is the M & M's substitute for the cocktail of HIV/AIDS medications taken daily by positive patients. I hope my asking her about the side effects of HIV/AIDS medications will not upset her, but I am confident that she will see me wanting to expand my knowledge and be safer out there in our sexual world. That will help with the assignment, I hope.
This weeks QOTW was quite the fire starter. You never really know what kind of passion one sparks when posing an ethical question such that includes animals, children, religion, politics, and research. Topics that really shouldn't be talked about in mixed company and definitely seeing the responses proves that theory to be very true. Reading some of the responses about yes continuing research and some no stop hurting the poor animals. Here is how I look at it... Animals and humans have life... life is breath and a heartbeat, a brain with brainwaves, some debate on emotions and feelings, but nevertheless its a life. Now if we think about animal research specifically chimps and the prospect of finding a viable cure to HIV/AIDS or any other disease, I am a firm believer that research should continue. People have been studied and experimented on since 6th Century B.C. with an experiment of meat and vegetables on Jewish prisoners(ahrp.org). There are alot of experiments on prisoners, Jews, children, Japanese, Chinese as well as other races and some of these experiments are absolutely horrific and were performed by very influential doctors at the time but have impacted our society in such ways that diseases have been eradicated and certain luxury's have been improved.
Through all of these horrors and human casualties we have learned something,tests were performed and I can almost guarantee anyone who has a family member who has won their battle on cancer via radiation therapy does not realize this fact. In 1931, "Dr. Cornelius Rhoads, a pathologist, conducted a cancer experiment in Puerto Rico under the auspices of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Investigations. Dr. Rhoads has been accused of purposely infecting his Puerto Rican subjects with cancer cells. Thirteen of the subjects died. A Puerto Rican physician uncovered the experiment an investigation covered-up the facts. Despite Rhoads' hand written statements that the Puerto Rican population should be eradicated, Rhoads went on to establish U.S. Army Biological Warfare facilities in Maryland, Utah, and Panama, and was later named to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Rhoads was also responsible for the radiation experiments on prisoners, hospital patients, and soldiers. The American Association for Cancer Research honored him by naming its exemplary scientist award the Cornelius Rhoads Award." (ahrp.org)
The point is that humans perform tests and experiments on any particular living thing. We are hypocritical beasts. We criticize all the research but don't take the opportunity to thank those who gave us hope and knowledge after their sacrifice to produce the results that eventually save lives. Did you know that in as early as 1984, guidelines were established to regulate confidentiality, procedures for the purpose of researching AIDS and the protection of patients' human rights living with the disease? Even during the early years of the pandemic, we were humane enough to adopt certain protections to prevent cruelty for the sole purpose of research. We have vaccines that now cure diseases like polio and other little things we take for granted such as the effects of high altitudes tested on Jewish prisoners of the Dachua Concentration Camp in 1942(ahrp.org)and all of this thanks to experimentation on animals and humans. Think about that next time you board a plane and complain that your seat won't recline and the soft cushy pillow just doesn't make you comfortable. Wow, thinking about this really ticks me off so on that note I'm calling it a night.
Laterz fellow bloggers, until next week or the next soap box.
Works Cited:
AIDS research and humans. (December 26, 1984). AIDS research. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website. Retrieved November 5, 2009 from http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/hsdc84dec.htm
World War II and human research. (October 28, 2009). Human Experiments: A Chronology of Human Research. ahrp website. Retrieved November 5, 2009 from http://www.ahrp.org/history/chronology.php
Thursday, November 5, 2009
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