Amibor Heart essays

Amibor Heart essays ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY: THE ABIOCOR HEART On September 13, 2002, mankind reached another technological milestone. Tom Christerson, a patient in Kentucky completed his first year of life sustained by a self-contained artificial heart. The heart, considered the bodys engine, keeps all the other organs working by supplying them with blood and nutrients. All of the bodys organs require blood to function. This means that a product of advanced technology, the plastic and titanium Abiocor heart, is now performing one of the most vital functions of a living human being. The Abiocor heart is the result of decades of research. 1The first artificial heart dates back to the mid-fifties when a team of scientists led by Willem Kolff, a Dutch-born physician, tested their model in animals. In 1969, a team led by Denton Cooley of the Texas Heart Institute successfully kept the first human patient alive for more than sixty hours with their model. Then, in 1982, a team led by William DeVries of the University of Utah, implanted the Jarvik-7 artificial heart into a patient named Barney Clark, who lived for 112 days. 2The Jarvik-7 was an air-driven pump that required Clark be bound to a compressor the size of a washing machine. Tubes from the compressor passed through his chest wall restricting him to his bed and causing constant infections. His blood kept clotting as it passed through the pump and he suffered numerous strokes before he died. After Clarks death, hopes for an artificial heart faded. Scientists focused on heart transplants and today, 386 percent of patients who receive a heart transplant survive for at least one year. More than 70 percent live for at least four years. However, there are only 4,000 hearts available for transplanting each year and at least 700,000 people suffer from heart failure. Faced with this shortage, scientists knew they had to design a smaller, ...

Legalization of Active Euthanasia essays

Legalization of Active Euthanasia essays The term Euthanasia has become well known throughout the United States. Euthanasia is derived from the Greek words eu and thantos, these words come together to form the phrase easy death. Today, euthanasia is referred to by many names such as mercy killing, and assisted suicide. There is much controversy over whether or not the practice is right. Euthanasia raises many religious, legal, medical and ethical issues. The question of euthanasia being right or wrong is one that most would prefer to leave alone. However the unique cases of euthanasia bring up the consideration of legalization. Those for euthanasia feel that government should consider legalizing active euthanasia because, suffering before death is unbearable not only for terminal patients but Euthanasia can be either passive or active. Active euthanasia is when a physician or other medical personnel hastens as suffering patients death. To carry out this process an overdose of drugs is introduced to the patients system as a form of insulin, barbiturates, or morphine. Passive euthanasia allows the patient to die due to lack of treatment. This includes stopping the food supply and taking the patient off life support systems. This is also known as pulling the plug (Comptons Interactive Encyclopedia). All cultures have strong prohibitions against killing. However cultures and religions approve of killing in time of war or in defense against a life-threatening attack. There are sixty-two verses in the Bible calling for killing as punishment for approximately thirty various forms of disobeying the commandments (Neils, Section 1-Chapter 7). The Fifth Commandment states simply Thou shalt not kill. Aid-in-dying is not killing. Killing is doing something to someone against their will to end their living. Physician aid-in-...

Globalization and Changing Market Trends Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Globalization and Changing Market Trends - Essay Example This may be assessed at present as already happening, in which the converging global market has created a conduit of goods and services available at almost the same prices for different countries. Stressing that the world is flat, as Levitt used it- figuratively, at least - opts to become competitive in a global market where regional, historical, and geographical divisions are increasingly becoming irrelevant. Globalization is suggested to have created a playing field in which the world is flattened, thereby allowing all participants to level off with one another and participate equally in the global market. Competitive playing fields are leveled between industrial and emerging markets, which is a product of a convergence of workflow software and of personal computer with fiber-optic micro cable, not known to human race twenty-five years ago. The surge of technology is likened to a jet plane that zooms upward, changing economic activities of domestic and global markets. Levitt indicates in his literature that the world is increasingly and inevitably becoming one, putting the multinational corporations into obsolete position, which were abounding at the time the literature was written. Levitt had a keen and clear foresight with his assumption that companies that do not adapt to the new global realities will become victims of those that do (p. 11). This has become a reality at present, in which products that do not cope with the demands of globalization and technological advancement will certainly find themselves in financial collapse. This is the reason why Kodak and Mitsubishi have to align their photo developing techniques with that of a digitalized method, since using the old film developing technique will surely assail the companies with lower income due to inability to keep track with new technology. Strategic management of firms should hence be congruent to the changing global markets. Currently, the world's needs and desires have been irrevocably homogenized as an outcome of globalization, a trend not existing in 1983, of which Levitt had been keen to make a foresight. In his views, he stated that this homogeneity makes the multinational corporation obsolete and the global corporation absolute (p. 3). This may have been true had the multinational corporations not kept up with the growing demands of a globalized market. However, due to their ability to keep up through market research, multinational corporations are still able to hold their positions strongly, updating their product lines and technology alongside current trends. Similarly, more and more European counties trail the path to offshore some or all of their operations with the advent of globalization. In this regard, foreign direct investment increases, which involve transfer of operating capacity for functions like production and transportation (Gampenrieder, 2006). Offshore strategies provide companies the capabilities to aim for distinctive, sustainable, and competitive advantages that require relocation of operating