The genetic engineering and cloning have always been very interesting topics, because science-fiction showed people lots of different sides of it, and not one of the great state-of-art inventions are based on these ideas. Sci-fi predicted even the cell phones, the portable computers and the teleportation. „Beam me up, Scotty” is a very well-known sentence from captain Kirk in the Star-Trek series, and these days as the modern technique improves, it is even possible now to teleport small things in short distances, so who knows when can happen that due to genetic engineering, a plant can wave back at us.

Back to cloning, it turned out to be really useful, as doctors can reproduce one’s injured body parts and organs. It’s not only about having one more from oneself, who goes to school and work, but it’s better for medical reasons.

Some people still disagree with the idea of genetic engineering and cloning, because it is definitely not natural, and sometimes may be harmful for the environment or for the humans and animals. Just let’s take the gardening for an example. There are hybrids of different plants, mostly for corn. They might smell/look/taste better, but we also should take into consideration the price, the healthiness, which is not always tested, due to the youth of these experiments, and even there are engineered plants which will not have seeds, so it takes other genetic engineering to get new seeds you can plant, but again, you can only eat these plants and won’t get anything to plant.

This situation leads to a circle of experiments of genetic engineering, planting, using, like eating or planting, and then again the seed problem, or further engineering programs. During this experiments they might involve animals too, because of the fact that some plants or their engineered versions may be harmful or poisonous to human beings, so scientists use animals first to decide whether real people can test it, or not.

Big companies and factories also test cosmetics and other chemicals on animals. There are a lot of animal-rights activists who try to protest against these animal experiments, as they think that the animals also have feelings and rights for the life, for a healthy and livable life. For example, PETA is an organization for the animal rights. Some people are interested in it, some don’t know anything about it, but bigger percentage of people simply just don’t care about it and buy the things they see on the shelves and in the advertisements.

However, there are companies which don’t do any experiments on animals and they are still famous for their products. Mostly they don’t use any chemicals, just plants and herbs, as it was in the past, when people hadn’t have great knowledge of the things, but had known if something was or was not good for them. (GIGI, Himalaya Herbals)

 If we care about the animals rights a bit, we can search after, buy and use cosmetics which were not tested on dogs, cats, rodents and on other pets. Because they test chemicals on smaller animals, which may even happen to be our favorite family dog’s puppy we sold last week to a kind stranger.

 To talk about rights, we have to mention the human rights, too, as there are important issues in it, like euthanasia, death penalty, discrimination and even nuclear experiments.

 First, let’s start with death penalty and euthanasia. They are a bit similar, because both end up in death, but one is chosen, the other is deserved. Capital punishment has been used in almost every part of the globe, but in the last few decades many countries have abolished it. The United States is a complicated case, because in most of the states it has been abolished, but in some states, it is still alive and in use. These states, like Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Carolina may seem to discriminate people who live or commit crime there, but the truth about is that most of the most serious crimes happen there.

 Nowadays, there are 5 options to choose from for the people on the death-row. These are the lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, hanging and firing squad. Centuries ago, decapitation was the most popular, as it was the easiest way to take away a sinners life. After doctor Guillotine invented his huge blade, which cut the heads off, it became even easier.

Despite of its easiness, death penalty is a very serious issue, due to the fact that even now, with the so much developed techniques we can’t always say with 100% sureness that the suspected perpetrator was the one who really committed the crime which deserve the punishment. This is why it is dangerous and has been abolished in almost every country. Even people started to think that if someone commits such a big crime, their life should not end in a few minutes, but they should suffer a lifetime in prison. Personally, I agree with this idea, and in my opinion even creating longer prison sentences for convicted criminals would deter others from committing violent crimes. If somebody took an other humans life, they should feel its weight and not just pass away with the easiness that they will not suffer, because they still have rights even in the moment of their death, which prevents them from suffering and painful end.

 To talk about the other form of the artificial death, euthanasia is abolished in a lot of countries, too. This is a method for gracious death, when somebody is suffering from something which is unquestionably lethal, like cancer or HIV/AIDS. This type of death is requested by the suffering people, who are not able to live with the fact that they would die in any moment, like in the last period of cancer, or have so serious and life-threatening injuries or other illnesses.

 Though in some countries and states it is forbidden, people firmly and completely have the rights to their own lives and even death, which can’ be taken by others. According to the law, people can take their own life by suicide or euthanasia. If one’s forbidden, they choose the other desperately.

 By euthanasia, people can be prevented from suffering at the end of their life, from low living standards, even from abusement and forced prostitution. It may be a relief in these situations, and can free up more medical funds to others, who really need it, who wants to keep alive.

 Also, people who live in places where euthanasia is forbidden, they invented the „euthanasia-tourism”, which is about that they go to a country, where it is legal and according to their wish, they die there. This is another method for being free. Switzerland, the Netherlands.

 As I see it, euthanasia is not a bad thing, as it keeps away people from suffering and everything is happening as they want it to be like. In front of me, the only one thing that would deter me from it if I would be so ill, like in the last period of cancer, the fact that my beloved ones may forgive it to me, as they could understand it, but this is the only sin that God does not forgive. This is only because I’m religious, but everybody sees it in this way. By the way, as we mention the religion, we should talk a bit more about the Ten Commandments, as they make the base of the laws in every country.

 Another important topic is the discrimination. When somebody goes to a new place and joins a new group of people, a new society, they have to fight with several integration problems. Even the color of their skin can make troubles, or their religion. Not all of the society are tolerant with differences and some of them have problems with accepting new cultures or new attributions in their closeness.

 That’s why these excluded people start to search for others who are they similar to and make their own little societies, like the different quarters in New York: Chinatown, Little Italy and other places. If people like diversity so much on the shelves of supermarkets, why don’t they like it on the streets? Well, this is a very interesting question.

 Even, the overpopulation or the under population can be a problem. People want privacy, so they decide to live alone in a house, or they want a big family, but they can’t live their lives in small flats, both are problems. One of my acquaintances said that the number of your children is inversely proportional to your living standards. I see the point in her words, because when you have a child, you may give everything he or she could need, but if you have two children, you split your money into two, and now you can’t afford every need of your family. Even the ancient Greek people knew these disadvantages, that’s why they didn’t have so many children.

 And in the not so wealthy families, they try to help each other and to find the other’s company, so they start to move closer to each other. This may be the beginning of a slum. And even if you were born into a place like this, you can try to do your best, to learn and work as hard as you can, as long as they see your address on your papers, you won’t get the best jobs, because the employers would give the jobs for somebody else who may be less clever and intelligent, but can show a better living environment on their papers.

 Even in China, the overpopulations has a very important role in the Chinese families’ lives. They are supposed to have only one child, because the Chinese society grows bigger and bigger each minute, until not just the government, but the Earth can’t provide enough things for their needs. That’s why the families with one child can get supplies and different aids and bill reductions. Parents with two children are supposed to pay everything and they don’t get anything from the government. In families with more children, from the third kid they can’t even go to school and get educated. This is how the government tries to stop or at least reduce a bit the Chinese overpopulation problems.

 Also, people want to be ready for everything, even if somebody attacks them. They invent and produce more and more dangerous weapons, like the nuclear ones.

 There are many experiments on them, and in my opinion they are really disgusting and not for neurasthenic people or the ones living in families. I have heard that there were even experiments on babies and stillborns without the permission of the parents. Despite of the fact that some got Nobel-prizes for their experiments, it is still an unbearable thing for me, and I was not even able to read or hear anything else about this topic. I don’t feel myself able to talk a lot about this, since it made a deep and bad impression on me, and it caused me really unpleasant dreams.

 But there were other terrible events in the history of the nuclear experiments, like in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, during WWII. But let’s go back to the beginning. According to a few years ago released reports, some 45,000 people, mainly Soviet soldiers, were deliberately exposed in 1954 to radiation from a bomb twice as powerful as the one dropped on Hiroshima just nine years before. At 9:33 a.m. on 14 September 1954, a Soviet bomber plane dropped an atomic weapon. The bomb exploded above Totskoye testing range near the provincial town of Orenburg. Thousands are believed to have died in the immediate aftermath and in the years following. The pilot flying the bomber developed leukemia and his co-pilot developed bone cancer.

 The experiment was designed to test the performance of military hardware and soldiers in the event of a nuclear war. There are no official figures showing how many of the 45,000 people sent to Totskoye testing range died as a result of the test. Tamara Zlotnikova, a former member of the Russian Duma, is helping survivors fight for compensation. She believes that the toll from the test was enormous. According to Zlotnikova, "Even today, the incidence of some cancers in Orenburg, a city 130 miles from the range, is double that of the people who suffered in Chernobyl. A study carried out by the health ministry on cities with the worst health problems puts Orenburg second out of 88. Thousands died. These people were used as guinea pigs, tested, and then left to die slowly of cancer. The state does not want their tragedy recognized, because it would cost money. Nobody wants to know."
(source: The Sunday Times (UK), 24 June 2001)