Essay on What Is It to Be Human

Submitted By tibblerjoe
Words: 732
Pages: 3

WHAT IS IT TO BE HUMAN

Hannah Narduzzi
066967506
HSP3M1
17-11-2012
Mr. Morris

PART A
After reading the article, Inside the Animal Mind, the passage is trying to outline the fact that animals can share similar social behaviours or characteristics, like suffering from stress and consciousness of thought. emotions are accompanied by biochemical changes in the brain, while social emotion is the product of attaching emotional meaning to certain behaviours.
We are often compared to chimps because of the close similarities of our biological __, but we share another trait with our monkey friends, suffering from stress. Studies conducted on African baboons prove that many members are under and immense amount of stress by intimidating lower ranked individuals.
Bees are also a great example of animals experiencing conscious thought. They can create mental maps; images created in the mind to help navigate through picturing themselves in their desired scene.
Dolphins exhibit conscious of self because they are able to recognize themselves in mirrors and are aware of the different rankings in their highly social groups. Dolphins have the capability of recognizing who their mother is and also how to behave around certain individuals, therefore passing one consciousness test.
In conclusion, though we rarely consider it, animals really can be consciously aware of themselves and their surroundings, and can also suffer from stress.

PART B
Clones are thought to be, on a vast majority, a huge step in the science industry, but at the same time, because the concept is fairly new, a big mystery for citizens. There are many myths surrounding cloning, like immortality, or creating ‘designer babies’. Some would not even consider cloned babies human because they weren’t created with the will of god or some shit like that. Each social science has a way of defining humanness, so let’s see what science has to say about these babies. Psychology is the most popular and well known social science, based solely off a persons thoughts and behaviours. According to psychology, our motivation, ability to reason, moral development (respect for authority, satisfying one's own needs etc.), and ability to communicate in a highly effective manner are what mark us as human beings. Cloning, or single parent children, according to Lee Silver, would be the same as any other infant. They would grow up living a normal life, motivated by parents and self, they would be able to reason and think things through, communicate. Single parents children act no differently than that of two parented kids, with the exception of being quite similar to one parent. Because they share identical DNA, their shared genes would result in similar characteristics, like being loud, or having ADHD.

If a baby were to be cloned, it would be done so with genetic material taken from an adult cell and that genetic material would placed into an egg whose own genetic material