I missed exchange class...;((

As title says, today I missed the exchange class with JLP students… I have been looking forward to it since winter term had started… It is impossible for me to write about the class, but not writing anything is not fair for my section mates, so instead of that, I will write about yesterday’s chamber music concert which made me miss the class.

Yesterday, I had performed as violist for chamber music concert at Kodaira. It was first chamber music concert for CMS, and also it was my first time to play viola solo for me. For the concert, I had been practiced for long time, harder than other people and asked my senior and piano accompanist a lot of things related to my music because I wanted to be as better as I could be. Also I did not want to make excuse like “my performance is not good because I am beginner of viola”.

Though I practiced so hard, actually my performance was failed. If the concert went well, I think I was not so much exhausted as I was today. At the stage, in front of a lot of people, my arms were shaking and my bowing (the movement to make sound from viola) became extremely unstable. It was shocking that I felt my body and mind were segregated. I was so calm at the time in my mind and recalled what I had practiced; however, my body did not follow it at all. It was so scary for me because I had never felt that way before. I used to be a jazz saxophone player and I was used to stages because I had been there for many times. Even there were time that I felt nervous; I had never felt my mind and body were separated.After my performance, many people told me I did well, but I regret and irritated so much about my performance and could not be satisfied at all,and cried a lot ;(

It was not really good performance; however, I learnt important thing related to viola―orchestra conceals everything. In an orchestra, there is a little need to think about my own timbre because the sounds that others make conceal most of my mistakes or poor timbre. In contrast, solo or ensemble does not hide any mistakes. At the stage, there was no one who helped me to hide my mistakes. It is scary thing for player; however, I realize that facing that sort of situation is good practice. If I practice to be a good solo player, it also enables me to contribute to the orchestra with good sound. If players do not play as an individual, they cannot be better because they cannot realize their real timbre and do not try to improve it. It looks like very ordinal idea, but in orchestra, it is really hard to realize since there are someone who play with great sound and makes other players arrogant.

 

Though my performance was not good, I think it was worth performing because I could fully realize the fundamental idea. There will be a next time to perform as a solo, so that I want to try more hard and want to be a better violist and attend class next day.

The end of Bioethics

What did I learn about bioethics?

What I have learnt about bioethics was the importance to concern future impact before we make decision. Before I have learnt about bioethics, I thought genetic engineering and organ transplantation from brain-dead patients are very beneficial for society even though there are some objections caused by ethics. However, as I learnt about it, I realized that I concerned only today’s impact and missed out future impact that those bioethical issues have, such as the risk of enhancing illegal organ trade and child abuse. Though it is treated in RCA class, I also had never thought of the risk of legalizing euthanasia that has possibility that elderly may face pressure from family or society. I think the perspective that considers future impact is often missed by many people; however, it is essential to make better decision over bioethical issue.

First draft of Animal Testing

Animal Testing

Behind medicines and cosmetics that people are using in everyday life, there are a great number of animals suffering from great pains and itchiness imposed by humans.

 

Fig.1. A rabbit applied cosmetic products in his/her eyes for the Draize test to examine eye irritancy. Photograph by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

 

Today, approximately 100 million of animals are used for Animal Testing around the world (NAVS). Animals are sacrificed for experiments as counterparts of humans and the purposes of these testing can be classified into three main categories―to advance scientific research, to study diseases and develop medicines, and to confirm the safety of chemicals contained in products such as food or cosmetics. Owing to these researches, people could discover effective preventives and treatments for diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, polio and hepatitis C. Also the results of animal testing have also been prevented people from facing harmful effects of products (NCB).

It is true that animals can be useful models for studying specific aspects of human biology and diseases and the likely effects of chemicals and medicines in humans. However, many people are ignorant of potential risks of those outcomes experimented upon animals. Also, for the experiment, animals are inflicted with great suffering given by people―for example, they are force to have chemicals which might have toxicity, or they are genetically engineered to have specific diseases which scientists want to study(JAVA). It is obviously what people call animal abuse. In order to conduct more reliable research and to improve treatment of animals involved in Animal Testing for products, Japanese government should obligate companies 1) to promote its treatment according to the principle of “3Rs” (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement)and 2)to improve the availability of information related to Animal Testing.

Animal testing involves two main problems: biological difference between human and animals, and artificial process to make animals ill. First problem, biological difference between human and animals is most common argument against animal testing. According to Japan Anti-Vivisection Association (JAVA), one of the Japanese non-profit organizations against animal experiment, even though human and animals share same DNA to some extents, there are specific differences such as body structure and metabolic activity. JAVA claims that these specific differences greatly affect the results of testing and those results are not reliable enough to apply to human beings. There are a lot of evidences that supports JAVA’s view―For instance, the widely prescribed arthritis painkiller called Vioxx was considered to be safe and even beneficial because of the positive result achieved by animal testing on mice. However, Vioxx was withdrawn from the market around the world in 2004 because it caused heart attacks and strokes to approximately 320,000 people and 140,000 of them have died (MRMC). Another instance is the case of the drug called monoclonal antibody (TGN1412).This drug was tested on monkeys and though to be harmless since it did no harm on monkeys even 500 times the dose were given to them. However, when six human volunteers who participated in the clinical trial were given a dose of the drug, all of them became fatal (BUAV). From these instances, it is obvious that the results gained by animal testing cannot be applied to human because it has possibility to cause harmful side effects on humans. On the other hand, there are many scientists who realized problems caused by specific differences and try to use chimpanzees as a model for human biology because humans and chimpanzees share 98.4 percent of their DNA and almost same creature. However, Andre Menarche, expert of animal testing and former president of Doctors and Lawyers for Responsible Medicine in UK, argues that the tiny difference in DNA is huge in terms of biological effects. According to Menarche, chimpanzees are immune to fatal human diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B and Malaria.

Artificial process to make animals ill is the second scientific problem of animal testing. According to JAVA, the data of animal testing cannot be applied to humans because humans’ diseases are caused by complicated factors such as living environment, diet, inheritance and stress.

The Case Against Perfection / Michael J. Sandel

Summary

 

    The Case Against Perfection composed by Michael J. Sandel is an article which he wrote about whether genetic engineering should be allowed or not. This article consists of two parts―the controversy of genetic engineering and his opinion.

     In the first part, Sandel points out the benefits of genetic engineering and the weakness of today’s ethical controversy that concerns autonomy, fairness, and individual rights.

     In the second part, Sandel mainly argue that even if people developed the technology to design themselves, they should not employ it because it would make people not to appreciate our lives as a gift. In order to support his view of genetic engineering, he made three points with three keywords―humility, responsibility, and solidarity. According to Sandel’s First point, genetic engineering deprives people of humility. This is because it makes people think their talents are created by their own doing, and they would be intolerant of unexpected. For Second point, genetic engineering disables people from putting the onus of their lives on god and obliges people to have more responsibility of their talents. For Third point, genetic engineering makes people not to feel sympathy for others because people can avoid risks by employing it and there is no need to share same risks. It will lead people to lessen their social solidarity.

 

Reaction 

I mainly agree with Sandel’s idea especially in the sections of humility. In the section, he states that people might be arrogant since they would misunderstand their talents are wholly designed by themselves, and people would be unaccustomed to the unbidden. When I read this section, I thought this idea was very serious for us since people might be really upset when they came to face unexpected things. If this situation came true,  it would lead people to act improperly to cope with the unexpected and cause various problems. For example― if a genetically designed child was born with unwelcomed characteristics, it would be one of the causes of child neglect. If the society was confident of their technique of genetic engineering, parents of the child would be really confused and perhaps they could not love their child. I was really concerned this sort of situation caused by genetic engineering.

 

 

What I think about his way of writing

     I thought it was a pretty persuasive article, however, the construction made his argument hard to understand. His main argument was in the section of “effort and giftedness” which was quite long chapter. This chapter has a lot of contents; however, he did not use any indications (like a small title) or noticeable transitions. If he used it, I think it would help readers to understand his argument more effectively.

My best memories in 2012 and my goals for 2013:D

      2012 was very impressive year for me because I experienced hundreds of new things!!!! In those new things, CMS Autumn Concert and my first visit to Tokyo Disney Land were particularly unforgettable.

      CMS Autumn regular Concert, held on October 20th, was my first stage as a member of the orchestra and a violist. It was very challenging because I had just started viola in this spring, but it was awesome experience to play music with a lot of people with different instruments.

      My first visit to Disney Land with my friends from CMS, including Sayaka from 3L, was also good memory. I love Disney movie but had never had a chance to go to Disney Land since I am from western Japan, so that it was just like a dream:D

     My main goal for 2013 is to improve my time management skill. In 2012, I could not manage time well and waste a lot of time over playing. Consequently, I often had to spend all night with red bull and no time to study other things besides English. I think I really need this skill to be healthier, to learn as many as I can in college and to choose a major without regret in the end of sophomore. In order to accomplish my goal for 2013, I bought schedule book as a first step!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!