My revising has gotten as far as rereading my paper over and over trying to make sense of the point I am trying to make. I had a lot of trouble delving into this essay to begin with because I chose to write about a topic that I have a lot of conflicting opinions about. We all have personal experience with forgiveness and I believe that sometimes when you are so close to a subject it makes it harder to take a stance on.

The biggest problem I’m having with approaching my essay is figuring out what the appropriate order would be to make it flow the best. I think the root problem of that is the fact that I’m having trouble sticking to one direction. I’m going to try writing on a sheet of paper my thesis, and then scribble down all the things I have to say about it and then go from there. I think that will help me add some structure to my paper.

I’m excited to see the final product of my work. I know how passionate I am about the topic of forgiveness and I think that is shown through my paper, I hope it is at least! I’m really going to work hard to pull the paper together and give it some direction and it turns out to be a persuasive piece.

This article disgusts me. I understand that it is only in good intentions to consider putting a chimpanzees heart into a human being, but that is wrong. Putting an animals heart into a humans is defying the laws of nature. Although some may argue that we are all animals, is still doesn’t make it right to put the heart of a chimpanzee into a human. If you turn the tables, think about if a article was published saying that human hearts were being transplanted into chimps, what would you say? I believe that you, as well as most people would say that is completely wrong, so why does it make it right to put chimpanzees hearts into humans?

So now lets think about the hypothetical scenario of what would happen if chimpanzee hearts started to be used as a “bridge” for a human heart transplant. If chimpanzee hearts became of demand in the international medical field that would mean that chimpanzee would start to be harvested for their hearts. So would chimpanzees be raised in farms just to be killed for there hearts only to keep a human being alive for just a few months? Now what if a black market for chimpanzees’ hearts arose with the supply of chimp hearts coming from illegal hunting and capturing of chimpanzees. This could not only endanger the chimpanzee population but it cause a direct conflict between animal rights advocates and the world of medicine.

These hypothetical questions as well as the turning the tables in the the first paragraph all highlight why this blog post is titled “thats messed up”.

Reading this text definitely had me thinking all types of things; and to be honest, i truly didn’t know myself as to what side i think is morally correct. Yes i do believe that the human race is no doubt the superior race on earth so therefore surrounding means are there to fulfill our needs. However, does that mean they are not deserving of any other type of care or importance? Along with that, i also am a major believer of the natural equilibrium. That being said, if chimpanzees are already endangered, how can humans interfere and haste the process even more?

Okay yes the implants of chimpanzee hearts in human bodies may act as a temporary “bridge” and may delay death. But have people ever given thought to the idea that if these implants keep occurring and chimpanzees keep being sacrificed for the human race ( as they are already endangered) what will happen when the chimpanzees become extinct? Will we move on with scientific advancement and target/extinct the next closest species to humans? yeah i hope not. It needs to be realized that this is just a temporary solution and science cannot be depended on all the time to continue to delay death or prevent death for each individual. If we become consistent on taking the wrong advantage of other important species on earth, we may just become the last species to survive with no other biological surrounding! (extreme thought) Therefore, i believe other species are inferior to the human race and exemplify to do so as well by becoming our meals and clothing however, taking an even further advantage through scientific means and that too temporary is not worth the extinction of a significant species.

While I was reading this case a thousand things were going through my head at once, I mean how can’t it when I’m a sucker for animals and believe in their right to life and being able to keep it. I feel like some humans are very egotistic; all they seem to do is worry about themselves and their own kind which drives me crazy. Don’t get me wrong heart transplants are no joke to me, if you can save a person save them but don’t sacrifice another living thing against their will to do it. I believe that sometimes when it’s time to go then leave life in God’s hands. Now a lot of people make the argument that animals are not comparable to humans or less in worth because they have no morals, I know because I hear it countless number of times and every time I have to give myself a second and count to 10 just so I don’t burst from anger. But you know what!? Some humans that treat animals like they do have no worth to me. How is it that everyone claims we are the smartest, most innovative and powerful people when we don’t even know the simple concept of respect; and I mean respect to everything including the smallest bug. I know that this reading is especially applied to chimpanzees and a chance to get more hearts for people in need but no, I don’t think this is right at all because it is violating animals to the hugest extent. Why is it that we look at animals as a whole while we look at humans as individuals? Why is it that we let animals gain trust and compassion just to mistreat them, why is it that humans can’t be as compassionate as animals and just treat them right, respectfully? For example, whenever i am walking on the street and see an ant I deliberately walk around it and make sure I don’t step on it because I believe that every life that doesn’t need to end shouldn’t. I really like animals, I worked at a zoo. 🙂

Taking a life, whether human or ape, is a hard thing to do. Hell, it is probably the hardest thing to do, as seen by all of our troops coming home all messed up from what goes on in war. Killing, particularly killing something with such strong human qualities and characteristics, changes a person. As the old saying goes, you lose a bit of yourself. It is why after reading some of the other posts on this topic that its easy to see why we all have such varying opinions on this topic.

On the other hand, there is no better feeling in the world than helping someone. Particularly when you know that you have actually saved that person’s life. That is why I am in support of using chimpanzee hearts for human medical transplant.  I am of the opinion that helping to save a human life is one of the most important things one can do.

That being said I also believe that we shouldn’t make a species extinct to do so. We should only pursue this path if there are enough preliminary data to say that this will work. With a species like Chimpanzees on the cusp of extinction as is there is no room for starting the experiments here. If however we do know that it will work, than I am all for it.

Heart of the Matter… I think the transplant process has already begun and the incorporation of entire hearts is just an expansion of existing heart valve transplants. Modern medicine has already dictated that using pig valves are ethically correct if it can extend someone life thus why should people be allowed to use the heart of a chimpanzee to also extend someones life. So from an ethical view i think this procedure would be justified.

As controversial it may be, if this keeps developing i believe that we will be able to create human animal hybrids. If we can use the heart of a chimp whats to say we cant other organs of animals to our benefit. At the rate of scientific development i would not be surprised if in a couple of years we start implanting livers and lungs from other animals into humans.

http://rt.com/news/animal-donor-save-human-lives/

When is enough enough? I cannot even believe that they would even think to kill an individual that was part of an endangered species to salvage a human life. There are 7,038,044,500 people in the world. The IUNC believes there to be between 170,000 and 300,300 chimpanzees still existing on this planet. It looks as though maybe we should be sharing our organs with them? But chimpanzees have yet to start wearing white lab coats or attempt to overthrow the human population. So this makes their lives mean less? It is just mind boggling that since the year 1500, 800 known species have gone extinct and we would think to expedite yet another. It’s just not okay!

I think the part that bothers me the most about all the crazy tactics we come up with to extend our lives, is the fact that eventually we’re ALL going to have to die. I mean honestly, when somebody’s time comes, that should be that. I understand that that’s a very morbid way to think about it but it’s the truth. Everything that is living, will one day day. We have no right to decide to prematurely end some other beings life to temporarily cheat death. I’m all for using science and medicine to do this, because that is not a trade of a life for a life.

It’s incredible that we have fallen under such a dominant mindset that just because we have the ability to use whatever we’d like, that we’re entitled to. It almost makes me sick to my stomach that we could be so cruel. I think there are many moral lines that have been crossed and we need to come up with some sort of checks and balances system to keep each other under control so we don’t go too far. This has got to stop.

Below I have attached a link to an article that relates to a process that I believe crosses moral lines as far as how we are using animals to further science. Check it out!

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2006/06/02/1644154.htm