Applied_Health_Perspectives Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Applied_Health_Perspectives - Essay Example    "We must guard against the increasing commodification of human life, its tissues and body parts †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦which has the potential to debase human dignity and steer society towards a state where anything goes - if you have the money" Anon, 2010 Analyse the ethical basis of the views expressed in this quotation. Discuss any alternate views which are relevant to the topic and their ethical basis. Conclude by evaluating the effectiveness of any methods used to 'guard against' increasing commodification of human life. You are expected to use illustrative examples throughout and refer to primary literature. Money, money, money: the availability of which opens doors to a lot of possibilities especially in the utilization of human body and/or culture for one’s pleasure. The definition of commodification is based on the Marxist political theory. According to which, anything without a value is given a certain value. This could be anything such as an identity or an idea. This sh ows how with time, the social values have been replaced by market values. Hence, commodification can be defined as the process whereby things are treated as commodities and market trade is expanded to areas that were non-market previously (Stilwell & Argyrous, 2003). Commodification in relation to people is characterized with genetic engineering, cloning, eugenics, social engineering, fascism, social Darwinism, mass marketing and employment. And the most active participants to these forms of human commodification are those with the resources. All these would be discussed further in the following paragraphs. Genetic engineering is referred to the science of manipulating the genetic contents in order to insert genes of desirable traits into the organism. This induction could be done directly to the organism or it could be through an external cell that is permeated with the organism. Genetic engineering does not include traditional breeding of species, and allows man to choose the gene tic traits for its subject. When the genetic content of an organism is added to another host then the resultant is given the name of transgenic. Removing genetic content from an organism is also a part of genetic engineering. Genetic material is the commodity in subject, and when one has the capability and resources to acquire the desired genes the values in human reproduction and childbirth becomes skewed The same holds true for human cloning. Human cloning  can be defined as the process of creating a twin that is a human being who is a copy of another person based on genetics. There is usually not derived from a single fertilized embryonic cell mass. There have been plethoras of ethical outburst related to the concept of cloning. There are two types of human cloning that are discussed more frequently. These are reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning. Reproductive cloning can be described is the development of cloned humans and is considered a crime in many parts of the wor ld, hence, not done legally. The latter, therapeutic cloning is the area of cloning which uses human cells cloning for research and medicine. Another category which is rather novel is the replacement of damaged or failing body with the help of cloning supported by brain transplant. This type of cloning is referred to as replacement cloning. There have been supporters as well as opponents to the concept of cloning. Advocates argue that there is a considerable difference