DEFINITION ESSAY

ABORTION is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion of

a fetus or embryo from the uterus, resulting in or caused by its death.[1] An
abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can
be induced in humans and other species. In the context of human pregnancies,
an abortion induced to preserve the health of the gravida (pregnant female) is
termed a therapeutic abortion, while an abortion induced for any other reason is
termed an elective abortion. The term abortion most commonly refers to the
induced abortion of a human pregnancy, while spontaneous abortions are usually
termed miscarriages.
Abortion has a low risk of maternal mortality except for abortions performed
unsafely, which result in 70,000 deaths and 5 million disabilities per year globally.
[2]
Abortions are unsafe when performed by persons without the proper skills or
outside of a medically safe environment. An estimated 42 million abortions are
performed annually with 20 million of those abortions done unsafely around the
world.[2] Forty percent of the world's women are able to access therapeutic and
elective abortions within gestational limits.[3]
Abortion has a long history and has been induced by various methods including
herbal abortifacients, the use of sharpened tools, physical trauma, and
other traditional methods. Contemporary medicine utilizes medications and
surgical procedures to induce abortion. The legality, prevalence, cultural, and
religious views on abortion vary substantially around the world. In many parts of
the world there is prominent and divisive public controversy over the ethical and
legal issues of abortion. Abortion and abortion-related issues feature prominently
in the national politics in many nations, often involving the opposing pro-
life and pro-choice worldwide social movements (both self-named). Incidence of
abortion has declined worldwide as access to family planning education and
contraceptive services has increased.[4]
GLOBAL WARMING is the increase in the average temperature of Earth's near-
surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation.
According to the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global surface temperature increased
0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) during the 20th century.[2][A] Most of the observed
temperature increase since the middle of the 20th century has been causedby
increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, which result from human
activity such as the burning of fossil fuel and deforestation.[3] [4] Global dimming, a
result of increasing concentrations of atmospheric aerosols that block sunlight
from reaching the surface, has partially countered the effects of warming induced
by greenhouse gases.
Climate model projections summarized in the latest IPCC report indicate that the
global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 1.1 to 6.4 °C(2.0 to
11.5 °F) during the 21st century.[2] The uncertainty in this estimate arises from the
use of models with differing sensitivity to greenhouse gas concentrations and the
use of differing estimates of future greenhouse gas emissions. An increase in
global temperature will cause sea levels to rise and will change the amount and
pattern of precipitation, probably including expansion of subtropical deserts.
[5]
Warming is expected to be strongest in the Arctic and would be associated
with continuing retreat of glaciers, permafrost and sea ice. Other likely effects
include more frequent and intense extreme weatherevents, species extinctions,
and changes in agricultural yields. Warming and related changes will vary from
region to region around the globe, though the nature of these regional variations
is uncertain.[6] As a result of contemporary increases in atmospheric carbon
dioxide, the oceans have become more acidic, a result that is predicted to
continue.[7][8]
While the scientific consensus is that human activity contributes significantly to
global warming[9][10][11][B], there is an ongoing political and public debate over
whether the costs of mitigation outweigh the risks of inaction. The Kyoto
Protocol is aimed at stabilizing greenhouse gas concentration to prevent a
"dangerous anthropogenic interference".[12] As of November 2009, 187 states had
signed and ratified the protocol.[13]
Proposed responses to climate change include mitigation to reduce
emissions, adaptation to the effects of global warming, and geoengineering to
remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere or block incoming sunlight.
DRUG ABUSE
Drug dependence means that a person needs a drug to function normally.
Abruptly stopping the drug leads to withdrawal symptoms. Drug addiction is the
compulsive use of a substance, despite its negative or dangerous effects.
A person may have a physical dependence on a substance without having an
addiction. For example, certain blood pressure medications do not cause
addiction but they can cause physical dependence. Other drugs, such as
cocaine, cause addiction without leading to physical dependence.

MANY people may still think that drug abuse is a matter only for people related to
gangsters from organized criminal groups. It used to be difficult for the public to
get such drugs such as amphetamine. The method of illicit trafficking has also
become skillful.

For example, there are some cases that somebody friendly approaches you and
talks to you around a station, or uses cellular phones to avoid seeing each
other's faces. This fashionable style of illicit trafficking attracts people and has
increased the prevalence of drug abuse. The names such as "S", "Speed",
"Choco" and "Acid" hide feelings of danger and decrease resistance from using
drugs and tempt anybody to use them.

The damage caused by drug abuse is permanent. If a person abuses a drug

even just once, it may be enough to cause symptoms of mental disorders, such
as hallucinations or a persecution complex. Even if a person appears to have
returned to normal at least superficially after receiving treatment, these
symptoms may still remain beneath the surface and may easily reoccur. Even if a
person stops using drugs and leads a normal life , symptoms such as
hallucinations and delusions may suddenly occur, triggered by trivial events,
such as sleeplessness or mental stress. These are called "flashbacks."

Drugs that can be abused affect brains and minds of people. By stimulating and
suppressing the central nervous system, they fool the brain into feeling happy,
refreshed, drunk, and anxiety-free., Sometimes people see and hear things that
do not exist.

A characteristic which is common to abused drugs is that it causes dependency

that cause you to use drugs again and again. Repeated drug abusers become
forced to use drugs not only to feel pleasure, but also to get rid of irritation,
anxiety, and to escape from physical pain, which appears as drug withdrawal
symptoms. Thus, they fall into a vicious circle of drug dependency in which they
can no longer control themselves from abusing drugs. Drugs also have a
characteristic of tolerance that the same quantity no longer becomes effective
with repeated use. When a person abuses a drug even just once, he loses the
ability to control himself from abusing drugs due to increased dosage and
frequency of use, which are caused by drug dependency and tolerance.
CHILD ABUSE is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of
children.[1] In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of
commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm,
potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child.[2] Most child abuse occurs in a
child's home, with a smaller amount occurring in the organizations, schools or
communities the child interacts with.[citation needed] There are four major categories of
child abuse: neglect, physical abuse, psychological/emotional abuse, and child
sexual abuse.
Different jurisdictions have developed their own definitions of what constitutes
child abuse for the purposes of removing a child from his/her family and/or
prosecuting a criminal charge. According to the Journal of Child Abuse and
Neglect, child abuse is "any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or
caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual
abuse or exploitation, an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of
serious harm".[3]
EVOLUTION (also known as biological or organic evolution) is the change
over time in one or more inherited traits found in populations of organisms.
[1]
Inherited traits are particular distinguishing characteristics,
including anatomical, biochemical or behavioural characteristics, that result
from gene–environment interactions. Evolution may occur when there
is variation of inherited traits within a population. The major sources of such
variation are mutation, genetic recombination and gene flow.[2][3][4][5]This process
has produced all the diversity of living organisms. Charles Darwin characterized
the result as endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful.[6]
Two processes are generally distinguished as common causes of evolution. One
is natural selection, a process in which there is differential survival and/or
reproduction of organisms that differ in one or more inherited traits.[1] Another
cause is genetic drift, a process in which there are random changes to the
proportions of two or more inherited traits within a population.[7][8]
In speciation, a single ancestral species splits into two or more different species.
Speciation is visible in anatomical, genetic and other similarities between groups
of organisms, geographical distribution of related species, the fossil record and
the recorded genetic changes in living organisms over many generations.
Speciation stretches back over 3.5 billion years during which life has existed on
earth.[9][10][11][12] It is thought to occur in multiple ways such as slowly, steadily
and gradually over time or rapidly from one long static state to another.
The scientific study of evolution began in the mid-nineteenth century, when
research into the fossil record and the diversity of living organisms convinced
most scientists that species evolve.[13] The mechanism driving these changes
remained unclear until the theory of natural selection was independently
proposed by Charles Darwin andAlfred Wallace in 1858. In the early 20th
century, Darwinian theories of evolution were combined
with genetics, palaeontology, and systematics, which culminated into a union of
ideas known as the modern evolutionary synthesis.[14] The synthesis became a
major principle of biology as it provided a coherent and unifying explanation for
the history and diversity of life on Earth.[15][16][17]
Evolution is currently applied and studied in various areas within biology such
as conservation biology, developmental
biology, ecology, physiology, paleontology andmedicine. Moreover, it has also
made an impact on traditionally non-biological disciplines such
as agriculture, anthropology, philosophy and psychology.
COMMUNISM is a sociopolitical movement that aims for
a classless and stateless society structured upon common ownership of
the means of production, free access to articles of consumption, and the end
of wage labour and private property in the means of production and real estate.[1]
In Marxist theory, communism is a specific stage of historical development that
inevitably emerges from the development of the productive forces that leads to a
superabundance of material wealth, allowing for distribution based on need and
social relations based on freely-associated individuals.[2][3]
The exact definition of communism varies, and it is often mistakenly used
interchangeably with socialism; however, Marxist theory contends that socialism
is just a transitional stage on the way to communism. Leninists revised this
theory by introducing the notion of a vanguard party to lead the proletarian
revolution and to hold all political power after the revolution in a transitional stage
between capitalism and socialism. Some communists, such as council
communists and non-Marxistlibertarian communists and anarcho-communists,
oppose the idea of a vanguard party and transition stage and advocate for the
construction of full communism to begin immediately upon the abolition of
capitalism.
In the modern lexicon of what many sociologists and political commentators refer
to as the "political mainstream", communism is often used to refer to the policies
of states run by Communist parties, regardless of the practical content of the
actual economic system they may preside over. Examples of this include the
policies of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam where the economic system
incorporates "doi moi", the People's Republic of China where the economic
system incorporates "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics", and the economic
system of the Soviet Union which was described as "State capitalist" by Vladimir
Lenin.[4]
CHRISTIANITY (from the Ancient Greek word Χριστός, Khristos, "Christ", literally
"anointed one") is a monotheistic religion[1] based on the life and teachings
ofJesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings.
[2]
Adherents of the Christian faith are known as Christians.[3]
Christianity teaches that Jesus is the Son of God, God having become
human and the savior of humanity. Because of this, Christians commonly refer
toJesus as Christ or Messiah.[4] The three largest groups in the world of
Christianity are the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches, and
the various churches of Protestantism. The Roman Catholic and Eastern
Orthodox patriarchates split from one another in the East-West Schism of
1054 AD, and Protestantism came into existence during the Protestant
Reformation of the 16th century, splitting from the Roman Catholic Church.[5]
The word Christianity is the label that has been widely accepted by the secular
and church-world to describe the practice of faith by the followers or disciples of
Jesus Christ.
Christianity began as a Jewish sect in the mid-1st century.[6][7] Originating in the
eastern Mediterranean coast of the Middle East (modern Israel andPalestine), it
quickly spread to Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor and Egypt, it grew in size and
influence over a few decades, and by the 4th century had become the dominant
religion within the Roman Empire.[8] During the Middle Ages, most of the
remainder of Europe was Christianized, with Christians also being a sometimes
large religious minority in the Middle East, North Africa, Ethiopia[9] and parts
of India.[10] Following the Age of Discovery, throughmissionary work and
colonization, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub
Saharan Africa and the rest of the world.
Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible,
referred to as the "Old Testament" in Christianity. The foundation of
Christiantheology is expressed in the early Christian ecumenical creeds, which
contain claims predominantly accepted by followers of the Christian faith.
[11]
Theseprofessions state that Jesus suffered, died, was buried, and
was resurrected from the dead to open heaven to those who believe in him and
trust him for theremission of their sins (salvation).[12] They further maintain that
Jesus bodily ascended into heaven where he rules and reigns with God the
Father. Mostdenominations teach that Jesus will return to judge all humans,
living and dead, and grant eternal life to his followers. He is considered
the model of a virtuouslife, and both the revealer and physical incarnation of God.
[13]
Christians call the message of Jesus Christ the Gospel ("good news") and
hence refer to the earliest written accounts of his ministry as gospels.
As of the early 21st century, Christianity has around 2.2 billion adherents.[14][15]
[16]
Christianity represents about a quarter to a third of the world's population and
is the world's largest religion.[17] Christianity is the state religion of several
countries.[18]
ETHICS, also known as moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that
addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil,
right and wrong,virtue and vice, justice, etc.
Major branches of ethics include:

 Meta-ethics, about the theoretical meaning and reference of moral

propositions and how their truth-values (if any) may be determined;
 Normative ethics, about the practical means of determining a moral course
of action;
 Applied ethics, about how moral outcomes can be achieved in specific
situations;
 Moral psychology, about how moral capacity or moral agency develops
and what its nature is;
 Descriptive ethics, about what moral values people actually abide by.

Within each of these branches are many different schools of thought and still
further sub-fields of study.