My first idea for my passion blog is to talk about modern bioethical issues. I have always been very interested in biology, and these days almost every biological question or problem deals with bioethics. Some of the concepts that I’m most interested in are the use of stem cells, the approval process for new drugs (especially drugs designed for very rare diseases), and genetic engineering. Although bioethics is a very broad topic, I believe that by narrowing it down to specific issues every week and possibly revisiting certain topics for more than one week, I will be able to sufficiently narrow the subject down to only a narrow range of topics that I feel passionate enough to express my opinion about. This idea would probably combine my opinions with both research into current events and historical information to analyze how public opinion about the issue has shifted over time.
The second idea that I have for my passion blog is to talk about the video game industry. When I was younger, I was very passionate about video games and I would like to be able to keep up with that interest by looking at the actual industry itself rather than just playing the games. There have been many serious questions raised about the industry recently, such as whether or not video games can be considered real “sports”, if they should be included in competitions as elite as the Olympics, and how professional players should be compensated. Posts for this topic would likely be a combination of current events in the video game world, such as major tournaments or controversial game releases, and my opinions on some of the questions surrounding the industry such as the ones outlined above.
I would be equally happy blogging about either of these topics, but I feel as though I will have more content and more opinions about bioethical issues, so I am currently leaning more towards that as my focus for this semester.