Lab-Grown Meat: Animal Welfare and Animal Rights Perspectives

On Monday the world’s first lab-grown, in vitro burger was cooked and eaten in London. Professor Mark Post from Maastricht University, along with his colleagues, took adult stem cells from a cow and then turned them into strips of muscle, which they combined to make a beef patty. Some have dubbed the patty, the ‘Frankenburger’.…

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Should Prostitution Be Legalised?

The amendments made to the Policing and Crime Act (2009) mean that all forms of public solicitation (‘kerb-crawling’ or being in public, looking to sell or pay for sex) are illegal. According to the present law, one prostitute may work from indoor premises, but no more; otherwise the place is considered a brothel. The law…

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A Critical Look at Sweatshops

Sweatshops entail long hours with no breaks, terrible working conditions, a disgracefully low pay, abuse from employers and sometimes, worst of all, an abuse of child labour laws. Sweatshops are responsible for violating these workers’ human rights and for breaching laws relating to overtime and minimum wage. Some of the human rights that sweatshops breach,…

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The First ‘Three-Parent Baby’ Could Be Born in Britain

The UK is leading the way in designing babies. There is currently government plans to create babies with the DNA of three separate ‘parents’. There is also talk that this procedure, achieved through in vitro fertilisation (IVF), could actually be offered by the NHS by next year. Parents who are at a risk of having children…

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Cryonics and the Definition of ‘Death’

Cryonics, which is usually confused with cryogenics, is the preservation of humans and animals using low temperatures. It is used on humans and animals which cannot be kept alive using modern medicine and the aim is that resuscitation would be possible at some future time. Preserving people and animals with cryonics – also called cryopreservation…

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