Bioethics Society
By: Amanda L
How would your society define "legally human"?
Legally human, it is an act, a choice, more of a representation of who you are to the government or controllers. My dream society would think a person who is "legal," is someone who is a person, more than a robot. Legally human in my eyes is someone who still has the traits of a normal human, such as the instinct to solve problems. Someone who does not have those traits is not accepted in my personal view, therefore they are not legal. There is no other way to keep this planet made of human beings, without getting rid of the ones that are robots. That is where Jenna's society didn't handle the scene correctly. After Jenna broke the law, they didn't stop her. They just made that the next law, which I thought was wrong. This is how she describes it, "But I am still the standard. The Jenna standard, they, sometimes call it." Once you let her brake the law, what stops other people from breaking the Jenna minimum? There is no foundation to a correctly formatted society in the book. Human beings are characterized by the ability to speak. Our society thinks and believes this,.... humans have a high capacity for thinking and creativity, they are mostly thought to have a spirit or soul. Robots have a capacity, they are a computer with a body, not a human. This is absolutely true and our society and government is heading in the right direction for a legal human-being.
Resource: "Human Beings Law & Legal Definition." Human Beings Law & Legal Definition. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.
How would your society regulate the laws concerning bioethics?
My society is a strict, well-balanced community with a balanced learning of life. The morals of life are taught in school and portrayed in adulthood. Your job represents your view of saving people with technology. People who are in the government are mostly against it, because of that most of the people who do believe have poor jobs. The laws in my society will include, being at least 51% human and having at least 51% of your original brain. This is different from Jenna's society, they just kept lowering the standard and now people are more robot than human. A society that we have today is not as aware as we should be concerning technology for humans life. I think the our understanding of technology is growing and the government needs to decide if they want to head towards my society or Jenna's society. In 2001 George W. Bush created a thing where the council must notify the president when there is anything or any issues pertaining to biomedical science and technology, but the promise expired in 2009. So our focus it being taken away from bioethics and we need to put our brain back on bioethics, before someone is completely a robot.
Resource: "The President's Council on Bioethics: Former Bioethics Commissions." The President's Council on Bioethics: Former Bioethics Commissions. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.
Adult Stem Cell Research.m4v
What would the consequences be if someone broke these laws?
In my society laws are strictly in forced and there are NO exceptions. There will be many rules you could break, but all will have different consequences depending on the scenario. You may think, how are you going to catch people who are robots? Well, every single person will be scanned once each month to make sure they pass the laws. If they don't have at least 51% of their original brain, then them and all the people who are involved with their life including friends and family will be deeply interviewed to see who caused or had the idea to make them illegal. Then whoever is suspected, will be put in to jail until they confess and pay a fine of $2,000. The same goes for the 51% of there body, but the fine is $10,000 because a robot starts with the body and we don't want anybody to be a robot. In Jenna's society there was no real consequences, that is exactly where they went wrong. There was no consequence for Jenna breaking the law, or the doctors and parents involved. This is how the book describes it, "There are others like us now. The world is more accepting." In our society today there are many consequences for some bioethics. They are not always from the government though, sometimes they are health related. Scientist in the present tense don't have as much knowledge as the ones in Jenna Fox. Therefore,some of the medicines we take today may not be 100% safe. They could have some side effects and consequences. Some of those could result in death or loss of senses, like Jenna. I think before we give out any more harmful medicine, we should do a medical study on each prescription and drug out there to make sure we aren't harming our human beings.
Resource: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2267612/