"Your Gamete, Myself" Response

            My response is in correspondence to the article, “Your Gamete, Myself,” by Peggy Orenstein. In today’s society, several methods have been developed and have been implemented by individuals to conceive children. There are several common ways to conceive children, which include, donor conceived, I.V.F, or naturally. There is controversy over whether children should be conceived by I.V.F. or egg/sperm donors. Although there are arguments to both sides of this issue, I feel that individuals who wish to have children, yet aren’t able to naturally, should be able to use any available means of conceiving. The decision of whether egg/sperm donors or I.V.F. are ethical and moral is ultimately up to the individual who wishes to conceive a child. If these options are available, then individuals have the right to implement these options if so desired. The lifestyle of the child that is conceived by a sperm/egg donor or I.V.F is placed in the hands of the woman and man that have chosen to conceive in one of these methods.  The fact that the child may not be theirs through “blood” is not relevant, nor the issue at hand. The child still belongs to them, is still nurtured by them, is raised and sheltered by them; therefore, they deserve the title of “parents” to that child. It is not the job of society to judge those that conceive children through these methods. I feel that men and women, whom wish to have a child to love, raise, and nurture, must be free to welcome any options that may provide them with such an amazing opportunity, and society should not pass judgment on them by any means.

"YouTube's Legal Issues Grow" Response

            In response to the article, “YouTube’s Legal Issues Grow,” I feel that it is ultimately the individual’s responsibility to recognize what should or should not be posted on a freely accessible world wide website.  There are infinite ways to present illegal, racial, unethical, and discriminatory actions on YouTube; however, the consequences of the individual posting such actions must be taken into account. Although the First Amendment allows us the freedom of speech, that freedom can only be taken so far when racial or illegal incidents are taken into account.  It is the responsibility of the individual to be able to recognize that negative repercussions can result from posting illegal or racial acts for the world to see. Along with the individual responsibility, I also feel that YouTube should develop some sort of censors to help prevent these negative video postings from occurring. If YouTube censors and the individual work together against the postings of discriminatory and illegal videos, I feel that there would be a higher rate of success to prevent such videos from reaching YouTube.  As far as individual responsibility is concerned, whomever is posting videos on YouTube must be aware of how their particular post may offend a person from another culture, and also how it may result in legal issues.  If someone chooses to post him or herself doing something illegal, they are putting themselves in the position to receive consequences for that particular action.  I do believe that YouTube should develop censors on certain illegal and racial videos; but I feel that the responsibility to prevent such videos from even occurring should be placed more heavily on the individual.