On My Way Back Home

For me to get back home, it will be either I have to hop on three different jeeps. Jeeps in Angeles City could be really confusing especially if it’s your first time to take a public vehicle there even though they are color-coded (e.g. If you are in SM City Clark and you want to go to the City Proper, hop on to a blue jeep). Or I have to ride a tricycle and one jeepney.

I prefer the latter option because with that, I can get home earlier. Traffic in Angeles City, especially in the City Proper is terrible!

I spend thirty pesos just to get back home. Pretty expensive, eh?

On the jeepney ride back home today, we (that’s I and some of my blockmates) were talking about our latest topic in Ethics… family planning. Our voices were a little bit louder than usual, but I didn’t notice if the other passengers were looking at us. You know, we were talking about various methods of contraception. And what we’re discussing is like crackers, everybody likes talking about it. So it was a bit strange that nobody was looking at us.

Christian: Alam mo ba na puwedeng tawaging prophylactic1 ang condom? (Did you know that you can call a condom as prophylactic?)
Digi: Talaga? (Really?)
Ruiz: Ay, gusto ko ng ganun. Matagal na akong hindi nakakatikim ng ganun! (Hey, I like that. I haven’t tasted that for a while).
Christian: *shocked, eyes are bulging* ANO? (WHAT?)
Ruiz: Ang sabi ko, gusto ko ng Tofi Luk. (I said that I want a Tofi Luk.)
Christian: Ah, prophylactic or condom ang pinag-uusapan namin at hindi Tofi Luk. (Ah, we were talking about prophylactic or condom and not Tofi Luk.)

That conversation was really crazy. I thought my friend was missing the taste of a condom. Haha. But it turned out that he misheard me and thought that what I said was Tofi Luk (it’s a chocolate bar, by the way for those who don’t know it) instead of Prophylactic.

*****

I’m back at home, in our kitchen, surfing the internet. Roar. I really hate this. If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you might have noticed my complaints about my loss of privacy.

Recently, our phone line was busted. It looks like those people who fixed our gate had cut our phone line accidentally. My father reported it, and it took PLDT’s linemen two or three days before they got here. They said that they can’t do nothing with our phone line (Eek! Excuse me? You can’t? Why? You are incompetent, right?) so they created a new line.

And now, since we can’t use the old line, I have to go downstairs in our kitchen, where they put the new line just surf the internet. I hate it because I don’t have any privacy. My siblings could see what sites do I visit. And my parents are complaining why I am using my notebook, Snidget, for hours in just a single day and my father is asking my what sites do I visit. On the other hand, my mother has been asking me if I still study because I use my laptop excessively.

I badly want our old line fixed. What’s more is that I can feel my back aching because I don’t have a backrest here in our kitchen. It’s really uncomfortable!

  1. I’ve known about this back in summer when I was watching Daniel Radcliffe’s performance in Extras where he played as a boy scout. In a particular scene, he was holding a prophylactic. It was really funny. []

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Stem Cells: Solution to Diseases?

Last week, I and my blockmates attended a symposium about stem cells. I don’t know if you have heard of it. As for my case, it was my first time, and I got so interested with it that’s why I am going to talk about them. Pardon me if there are some flaws with this entry as I am new to this topic.

Let me start this entry by defining what stem cells are. Stem cells are cells that are common to us and other multi-cellular organisms. These cells have the ability to multiply and replenish themselves and grow into a wide range of specialized cell types.

As we all know, as we grow older, most of our cells renew and multiply themselves by a process called cell division. But some don’t. Cells in our hearts and brains lose their capability to multiply as time flies by. If no, our heads would be bigger than their normal size and our hearts would be bigger than our fists. And sometimes, these vital body organs get damaged. Thus, these body organs have the tendency to malfunction.

So here is where the stem cells come in. Basically, they can replace almost every part of your body. These could treat neurological diseases like ALS and Parkinson’s disease. These could also treat leukemia and cancer. Thus, making humans’ life span even longer. (But I am not saying that stem cells are now being used to treat all of these diseases nowadays.)

There are two categories of mammalian stem cells which are embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells.

The problem is that the first category, the embryonic stem cells which is way better than the latter is banned. Basically, it is banned because it needs to destroy an embryo. There are these cells in the inner cell mass of a early stage embryo known as a blastocyst which are scraped off, making the embryo unable to make all the cells in our body. These scraped cells are then cultivated where we can derive more than 220 cell types of the adult body. This what makes embryonic stem cells way better than the adult stem cells.

And here comes a big problem. We all know that before a man can be a fully human, we have to be an embryo first. And that means, if this would be done, a breach to the humans’ and God’s law have to be done. It is clearly stated that we cannot kill and as we all know, it is highly unethical to kill somebody just so we can gain something else. In other countries, the use of human embryos where these have to be either created or destroyed are strictly prohibited.

To date, no disease was cured with this first category.

With the latter one, the adult stem cells, there are some cases where patients were cured because of it. Adult stem cells are found throughout the body. Not like with the former one, this have limited capacity for cellular differentiation . We cannot make all the cells in the human body with this. As what the speaker had said, this is not as controversial as the first because this does not require the destruction of an embryo. It was also discussed that there were successful treatments especially with leukemia that cured the patient because of this.

Now, let me ask you a question, do you think this stem cell research is ethical or not?

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