Charity

Happy Holidays everybody! In the spirit of the season, I've decided to make this week's topic of debate about charity.

First let's all get on the same page, since charity can be defined in a number of different ways. According to http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=charity , Charity is:

• S: (n) charity (a foundation created to promote the public good (not for assistance to any particular individuals))
• S: (n) charity, brotherly love (a kindly and lenient attitude toward people)
• S: (n) charity (an activity or gift that benefits the public at large)
• S: (n) Jacob's ladder, Greek valerian, charity, Polemonium caeruleum, Polemonium van-bruntiae, Polymonium caeruleum van-bruntiae (pinnate-leaved European perennial having bright blue or white flowers)
• S: (n) charity (an institution set up to provide help to the needy)

Okay well for our purposes, let's rule out definition two, since most people would agree that a kindly attitude is almost always to strive for (it would be interesting to see people debate for and against that as well though!). Also, unless you really REALLY want to, we probably shouldn't need to argue about the nomenclature of plants.

So, compiling the other three definitions, the type of charity we are discussing is supplying aid (financially or physically) to large-scale foundations our institutions set up with the express purpose of helping the needy.

The question is, should these charities exist, and is it right or beneficial to donate to them? The people it helps are on the lowest rungs of society, and don't give anything back in the form of social good. Social Darwinists would describe them as "unfit", and argue that by helping the unfit survive, social and technological progress is halted. Helping the "unfit" survive is ensuring that there will be countless more generations of poor citizens with a negative social value to weigh down the "fit". The "race of life" in Capitalism is inherently unfair: Nobody starts out equally, and nobody should expect a fair finish.

Is that correct? Or does every human have enough value to be given aid? Does a crack whore deserve to be on equal footing with the president? Are handouts okay, or should all aid be given to helping to educate people to better themselves? Do people who are well-off have a moral obligation to assist those who are needy? At the end of the day, are people actually helped by charity, or are charities just slapping a big band-aid over a much bigger problem?

You can decide for yourself which institutions to talk about, but make sure you express where the aid is allocated: Straight handouts, education programs, etc. Also, don't feel like you are constrained to only discuss private institutions, welfare and unemployment are certainly types of charity -albeit forced charity- as well!

I hope this thread doesn't make anybody too cynical to enjoy the holidays. (: Have a great break/vacation/relaxing time over the next few days!

Regeneration of Species

According to an article in the New York Times, with the new generation of genome-mapping machines, some scientists now believe they have the capability to resurrect formerly living organisms up to 60,000 years old using DNA samples and genetic coupling (much like in Jurassic Park, except for reals.). The process would cost around 10 million dollars, which means that for 20 million dollars, it is theoretically possible to resurrect and repopulate any extinct species from the past 60,000 years. This has huge ramifications for nearly every field of study, including ecology, evolutionary science, paleontology, geology and biology. It would even be possible to reconstruct a Neanderthal, ending practically every debate in developmental anthropology. The possibilities for this procedure are nearly infinite.

Applications of this procedure have the potential to be one of the greatest breakthroughs ever in the field of genetics. The entire article can be accessed here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/science/20mammoth.html?_r=4&pagewanted=1&bl&ei=5087&en=cb254b577ccf4790&ex=1227330000

Here is an excerpt which is particularly descriptive: "There is no present way to synthesize a genome-size chunk of mammoth DNA, let alone to develop it into a whole animal. But Dr. Schuster said a shortcut would be to modify the genome of an elephant’s cell at the 400,000 or more sites necessary to make it resemble a mammoth’s genome. The cell could be converted into an embryo and brought to term by an elephant, a project he estimated would cost some $10 million. “This is something that could work, though it will be tedious and expensive,” he said."

What do you think about this process?

Some things to consider:

-Are there ethical violations involved in resurrecting extinct species, including Neanderthal?

-How would a possible re-population effect the current ecosystems, for the better or worse?

-Corporations by nature examine every action based on a cost/benefit analysis. Does the ability to reconstruct extinct species give corporations a clean slate to exploit nature even further, knowing that they can just pay for the reconstruction of what they have destroyed?

-How much emphasis should be placed on funding this project, given the current political and economic climate?


Hopefully this topic catches on more than the last one. Enjoy!

Prostitution

I hope everyone had a fun, relaxing, and delicious Thanksgiving. Time to get back to debating!

The topic for today is: Why or why not should Prostitution be legalized? This comes from idebate.org:

As the world’s oldest profession, legal prohibition of prostitution has failed to eradicate the business. There have long been clear religious and ethical objections to the practice of selling sexual services, and indeed to sex outside of the marital union.However, prostitution has also become associated with several modern problems. The sexually transmitted virus HIV poses greater dangers to the health of prostitutes and their clients. Gangs which perpetrate organised crime force prostitutes to work on their behalf and compel them to become involved in the dealing and use of drugs. The UN has recently reported that many young women from Eastern European countries such as Kosovo and Albania are being brought into Germany and Italy as illegal immigrants and forced to work as prostitutes. Nonetheless, many feminists and advocates of individual liberty have recently expressed support for prostitution. As an alternative to ethical concepts, the realist might acknowledge that when the law has so conspicuously failed to preclude prostitution, it may be better to eliminate the problems associated with it, rather than the trade itself. Different solutions to these problems have been proposed, and these can be divided into the options of prohibition, ‘decriminalisation’ and ‘legalisation’. To decriminalise prostitution is to remove laws against it; to legalise it is, in addition, to provide regulations and licences for legally run brothels. In Britain and some German states, the receipt of money in exchange for sex is not illegal, but the action of ‘soliciting’ the business is unlawful. It is also illegal for a prostitute to work in partnership with another, or for a pimp to offer their services. These laws amount to making prostitution prohibited. In the Dutch city of Amsterdam and the state of New South Wales in Australia, the decriminalisation approach has been followed. Although prostitution is not explicitly regarded as being lawful, there are not laws that prohibit it.

Enjoy.