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dehumanization in children of men Essay

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Kayleah Trecoske
Professor Tartaglia
ENG 101
20 November, 2014
Dehumanization’s Role in Humans Devolving
Dehumanization is a process where basic human qualities are replaced with the qualities that resemble an animal’s behavior; violent and having the desire to survive. Inmates that are beginning a new life in prison are stripped of everything that free human beings possess. Prisoners become only a number that is trying to survive in the community of the prison system. Soldiers joining the military are also stripped of everything, with a goal in battle to be the last man standing. Killing comes easily, because soldiers are forced to forget about the rules of murder to survive. The rules that say murder is wrong are no longer …show more content…

The fear that individuals have toward higher power makes it easier for the higher power to manipulate the individual’s basic human rights. Examples of the loss of human rights can be seen in the prison system of the 1980’s where inmates were used to test isotopes, or how disabled patients in psychiatric wards were being tested or used as experiments. The administrators of the experiment are subjecting the patients to cruel and unusual punishment. By doing this the basic human rights of the patient are taken away. Dehumanization happens when individuals feel that another individual is not capable of having say in decisions that immediately affect that individual physically or mentally. Said dehumanization goes a step further when analyzing the actions taking place in these prisons and mental wards. There is a direct comparison to the prisons and wards to a lab that tests on animals. Animals cannot give consent to scientists about being tested in ways that will cause writhing pain, permanent physical and mental problems or any other unimaginable outcome. Scientists test monkeys, rabbits and mice because animals do not have the same rights that humans do. The animal is already dehumanized, viewed strictly as a test subject, given an experiment number and looked at as one part of a whole, just as inmates and patients are. Through the process of taking away one’s freedoms and rights by testing without consent, it can be said

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