Equity and Trusts Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Equity and Trusts Law - Essay Example A fixed trust will be automatically void unless each beneficiary could be identified. Whereas with a discretionary trust a House of Lords decision held that the test was different: can it be said with any certainty that a particular person is or is not a member of the class of beneficiary It is therefore of concern that the financial advisors at Rigby, Jolly and Pinnar (RJP) are mixing fixed and discretionary trusts into a single instrument. Beneficiaries in fixed trusts are allocated a specified share or interest in the instrument. This leads to a situation whereby a fixed trust cannot be administered unless the precise number and identity of the beneficiaries is known, since each beneficiary 'owns' a specified share of the trust. It is important that there should be neither conceptual nor evidential uncertainty. There have been indications that the courts will relax this requirement to some extent provided it is possible on a balance of probabilities to compile a list of the beneficiaries in order to determine the maximum amount of shares- even if the exact identity and whereabouts of a beneficiary is unknown. Hence in Gold v Hill [1999]4 an oral direction to a beneficiary to 'look after Carol and the kids' was deemed sufficiently certain to uphold the trust, despite the fact that the exhortation is open to interpretation. Discretionary trusts however, are treated quite differently by the courts since they invariably allow the trustees discretion in selecting the beneficiaries. Provided the trustees can distribute the proceeds there is no particular need to identify each and every possible beneficiary: McPhail v Doulton [1971]5. The court will look at all the circumstances to determine a suitable distribution of the proceeds - be that appointing new trustees or a representative from the class of beneficiaries or even the original trustees. The decision in Re Baden's Deed Trusts (No 2) [1973]6 required a distinction to be made between conceptual (or semantic) uncertainty and evidential difficulty. The court applied the McPhail test to the wording "dependants" and "relatives": "Can it be said with certainty that any given individual is or is not a member of the class" For example the phrase "my children" may create evidential difficulty - which will not defeat the court, but "all those who owe me favours" is conceptually uncertain because the description in the latter is not conceptually clear. How do we define 'favours' in that phrase The class of "dependants" and "relatives" is conceptually certain. Once that had been established then it is a straightforward matter to determine whether as a matter of fact a particular individual is a relative or a dependant. Let's run the Head of Legal Services clauses past the McPhail test: My friends Assiduous lawyers working I the EU all or any of the good looking girls I dated in my youth 1. Is the phrase conceptually certain No - too ambiguous. No objective test for what a 'friend' meant to the benefactor No - the word 'assiduous' is too vague. How would the benefactor define 'assiduous' No - the phrase 'good

Should Druthers Forming Limited Be Given The Loan?

Should Druthers Forming Limited Be Given The Loan? DRUTHERS FORMING LIMITED Should Druthers Forming Limited be given the loan? Druthers Forming Limited that was founded in 1987 by Mr. Garrett and Norm Sheppard have requested on July 30, 2007 an amount of $350,000 loan from Mr. Brad Mac Dougall, account manager at the Canadian Commercial Bank (CCB). To know whether or not this amount needs to be passed depends on several factors thus for this purpose there are several questions that are needed to be answered before this decision can be made, thus in this report we will find out the answers to Mr. Brads questions. To make any decision we first need to assess the past financial performance using the statement of cash flow and ratio analysis. If we take a look at the cash flow statement 2007 for the first thing that we can notice is the Net Income which for this year was $-12,100. This means that Druthers Forming Limited for that year have made a loss which is not good for any kind of bank that is giving a loan worth $350,000, even so if we take a look at the Net Cash Flow from Operations we can see that even with a loss the company can easily cover it with cash. In terms of Financial Activities the net cash flow is $-15,212 which again means that the company already has long term loan and is already affecting the cash flow in a negative way. If we go further to Investing Activities we can clearly see again that the net cash flow for this as well is $-68,204 which again is impacting the cash flow in a negative way but the cause for this is that they have a lot of money invested in land and construction, which in due course could come in a form of return and thus will boast the cash flow. The net cash flow after calculation is only $45,974 and with an addition of beginning cash the ending cash is only $118,550 but as mentioned before there is a possibility that some of the negative net cash flow could turn to positive cash flow. The cash flow has given us an idea of the situation of the cash in the company but now we need to go even deeper with finding out what affect the company has on its ratios. The first and the most important ratios for any company is the Liquidity Ratios which include Current Ratio, Acid Test/Quick Ratio and Cash Ratio. To begin with lets look at the Current Ratio which for 2007 is 3.14:1 and for any bank this is good as this assures that the company will easily is able to pay the loan but in term of the company itself it may not be a good sign as this means that they have more than 3 times the current asset to their current liability which will for sure affect the companies interests and thus will affect the Income Statement at a future stage. If we look at the Acid Test Ratio which for 2007 is 3.01:1 we can come to the same conclusion as before with the Current Ration that it is really good for a bank to offer loan to this company. As for Cash Ratio for 2007 it is 1.38:1 which is really good for any company to have a ratio above 1 is very good and this means that they are managing their cash well and will for sure help them to get their loans easily as this assures banks that they will have enough funds to pay the loan in the future. Another ratio that will help us to understand the situation is the Total Debt Ratio which is total asset minus total equity upon total asset. For the year 2007 the total asset was $423,504 and total equity is $302,115 which is equal to 28.6%. This is not bad for any company but considering the Banks point of view it would be a lot better if it was higher that 30%. The second question requests us to project two years financial statements which are the Statement of Income and Balance Sheet for the year 2008 and 2009. This has been shown in the tables below: The next question that was presented is to consider the working capital requirements, including performing a sensitivity analysis on the days of accounts receivable, inventory and/or accounts payable. As given in the working capital for the year 2007 is $183,129 which compared to previous years has fallen drastically. This means that the financial health of the company is deteriorating and this will keep on happening until the company improves it working capital. In terms of Accounts Receivable, Inventory and/or Accounts Payable the age period is 157 days, 12 days and 57 days respectively. The best way to calculate this is to use ratios and for this purpose we will first look into the Days Sales in Inventory which is 365 / Inventory Turnover which is given as 12 days. This means that the company will receive their inventory 30.4 times in 365 days which is very good for the companys cash flow and will thus benefit the bank as well. As for Accounts Receivable we need to take a look at the ratio called Days Sales in Receivables which is 365 / Receivables Turnover. This is also given to us as 157 days which means that it will take 2.32 times for the company to cover its accounts receivable and in comparison if we look at Accounts Payable the number of days mentioned is only 57 days to 150 days because 85% of the yearly purchase were made from May to September which means that the accounts are payable 2.63 times. We can clearly see in the earlier mentioned figures that the company receives the payment much slower that the number of times it pays which is not the best choice for any company as every company should try and keep its accounts receivable and payable as equal as they can. For example if Druthers Forming Limited changed their receiving period from 157 days to 120 days this will increase the receivable time period to 3.04 times which is a lot better and on the other hand if they try to increase the payable period to 70 days this will mean that the company will need to pay only 2.1 times which is much closer than to their actual state. To be a lot serious the better option for the company is to try to reduce the receivable period to 60 days and increase their payable period to 90 days this will mean that it will take 6.08 times and 4.05 times for the company to receive and pay respectively. This would be the best situation for the company as this means that they will receive cash a lot sooner that paying it. In terms of Inventory that was discussed previously we could consider that 12 days in 365 days is not bad but what if the inventory turnover is changed to 20 days. In this case the company will be selling its inventory 18.3 times a year which will impact the cash flow and the balance sheet thus we can come to a conclusion that it would be better to try and keep the inventory turnover to 12 days and if possible to try to reduce it a little if possible. Thus we could say that due to the difference in receivables to the payables the working capital will keep on decreasing until some changes are done. The next question that is put in front of us is to determine the loan amount needed, and decide on the type and terms of the loan. For this purpose we will consider that the loan has been given and we take it as $350,000 as the amount that will be given as loan. There are mainly two types of loan these are secured and non-secured loans. Secured loans is when a bank gives a loan based on an asset as a guarantee and non secured asset is when there is no asset taken as a guarantee but instead it is given based on the bank balance. In this case the type of loan that we will consider is secure loan and thus the terms of the loan will be based on that the building purchased will be considered as a guarantee for it. The other terms will be that the repayment period for the loan will not exceed 10 years and the interest on the loan every year shall be 5.8%. In case of failure to pay the bank will be eligible to claim the property. The loan will be distributed equally through the 10 year span and the interest every year would be $20300. The question that we then need to consider next is the analysis the risk associated with the loan using the four Cs of credit. To begin with this we first need to know what are the four Cs of credit which are character, capacity, capital and collateral. Character refers to the financial history of the borrower (Murray(a)); this means that we need to access the financial data of the company. Druthers Forming Limited gets between 30% and 70% of their sales from Sheppard Homes which is basically one of their family businesses. Due to this reason most of the other builders in the market are very reluctant to give the company any business. Most of Druthers suppliers offered them 30 to 60 day credit term and they did the same as well but the problem with this as mentioned before in the earlier section is that they still ended up paying their creditors before the received any cash from the debtors. This also means that the company has always paid their creditors and even if we take a look at the long term debt of the company they have been paying their debts at a consistent pace. Capacity refers to the ability of the business to generate revenues in order to pay back the loan (Murray(b)). As mentioned before the company did make a loss in the year 2007 and the sales of the company has fallen drastically in a span of three years. This is not the only problem they are having as the cash flow is also not doing very well and unless some changes are done they will keep on having bad cash flow. Capital refers to the capital assets of the business such as machinery and equipment, etc. (Murray(c)) If we look at the balance sheet for the year 2007, we can see that the fixed asset consists of only land and construction in progress which is not much compared to what normally the companys fixed assets tend to be. Collateral is the cash and assets a business owner pledges owner pledges to secure a loan (Murray(d)). As mentioned before the company has not much fixed assets and this means that they do not have any asset to give as security for the loan but as we already know that the company needs the money to purchase a building we can consider it as a guarantee for the loan. Now we need to evaluate several options (deny the loan, grant the request or defer the request) available to the lender to determine which option is the best for this decision. As mentioned in the question we need to consider three options the first option is to deny the loan which considering the companies past would be a better choice as the company has made a loss in 2007, in addition they do not have a good cash flow and last but not the least they have no assets to offer as security which is imposible for a bank to give a loan without a security. The second option to grant the request as mentioned would not be wise but there is some hope in terms of this as we could consider the building that will be purchased as security so that in case of any failure to pay, we could consider the building as payment for the loan but by the looks of things the company has never really failed to pay their long term loans and this is a good sign for any bank. The last option to defer the loan and this may actually be the best option as the company does not have enough funds to pay the bank plus they have no security to properly cover the loan. The best thing would be ei ther to wait for another six months to a year to see the status of the companys finance and then the company could put in another request. The last question that was asked to us was as Mac Dougall, to decide whether to lend funds and to provide supporting rationale for this decision. After giving a lot of thinking to this it seems that it would be better that instead of actually giving the whole amount we can come to an agreement that the bank will give a loan of $200,000 for the first year with an interest of 5.8% per year which is $11,600 per year for a span of 10 years and in case the situation of the company is better after six months or a year, we could offer another $150,000 with the same conditions as above but the company will need to give 60% of the ownership of the building to the bank as security for this loan incase of failure to pay. This may not be the best option for Druthers Forming Limited but considering their week cash flow and balance sheet it would be difficult for any bank to offer the total amount of loan without being fully sure that the company can pay the loan and interest. Bibliography Murray, J. (n.d.). The 4 Cs of Credit for Business Loan. Retrieved August 8, 2010, from About.com: http://biztaxlaw.about.com/od/financingyourstartup/a/4csofcredit.htm Murray, J. (n.d.). The 4 Cs of Credit for Business Loan. Retrieved August 8, 2010, from About.com: http://biztaxlaw.about.com/od/financingyourstartup/a/4csofcredit.htm Murray, J. (n.d.). The 4 Cs of Credit for Business Loans. Retrieved August 8, 2010, from About.com: http://biztaxlaw.about.com/od/financingyourstartup/a/4csofcredit.htm Murray, J. (n.d.). The 4 Cs of Credit for Business Loans . Retrieved August 8, 2010, from About.com: http://biztaxlaw.about.com/od/financingyourstartup/a/4csofcredit.htm

Gender Equity :: Economics

Gender Equity Gender equity is a very important subject matter that teachers must deal with in the classroom. As I taught at RAA middle school some differences begin to stand out between the genders. One thing that popped out at me the most was the maturity level of the two. In saying that I mean the sexual desires of the students at their age. That is important for teachers to see for when we begin to group students together for activity. One instance is that of boxing out in basketball. The skill calls for the one boxing out to push out with their butts against the other player. This at the middle school level is not appropriate for the girls and boys to interact in. Their hormones just a little too much. Another difference I noticed was the desire of guys to be with guys and girls to be with girls. This had nothing to do with attraction but dealt with the misunderstanding of skill level. The men perceive the women to be inferior in sports skills so in their group they want guys. The men seem to rather have the least skilled guy over the best skilled girl. I feel they do this because it would be embarrassing for them to be shown up by a girl. So it is our job, as teachers, to do away with this stereotype, and make both genders understand they can benefit skill wise from mix gender activities. In the elementary level the major difference was the age-old argument that girls nasty and guys nasty. The girls definitely do not want to be paired with guys and vice versa. In elementary it had nothing to do with skill level but everything to do with just the gender. I remember putting a boy with a girl at Buck Lake and it was like I had made a kid eat peas for the first time. So the difference in elementary and middle school is just the reason why the boys don't want to be paired with girls. So in noticing that I feel that yes I was biased at the elementary level and I figure I did that because I really wanted to keep the interest up. I noticed that the one time I paired different genders the productivity of the boy went down. I guess that scared me so I shied away from it, but now looking back maybe I should have paired them up. The students will have to learn one day that the two genders can work together to accomplish a goal and what better time than in elementary.

Family Law Contemporary Issues

Family law has been broadened in a wide range of areas that the law governs, as over the years the concept of family has been widely diversified due to changes in modern society and community standards. Family law governs areas such as marriage, family relationships, legal rights and obligations of parents and children, adoption and the protection and care of children within a family. However, over the recent years the changes in each area of family law has shown some changes have been effective and others demonstrate the need for law reform. This is due to the rapid change of the law and changing social standards, therefore the law is attempting to balance the rights and interest of the society and individual family members. The legal recognition of same sex relationships in Australia has dramatically evolved over the years. Same sex relationships have tackled huge issues in regards to marriage, discrimination and property rights. As same sex relationships have been excluded from a number of rights and obligations for example; the legal recognition of same sex marriage. The Marriage Act 1965 (Cth) defines marriage as ‘the legal union of a man and women with the exclusion of others’. Therefore same sex marriage is void in Australia even those who have married in another country it will be seen as an invalid marriage. Having the lack of legal recognition can have direct consequences to same sex relationships and their families as they are excluded from the protections and rights that normal heterosexual couples and families have. This is demonstrated in the Young V Australia (1999) case, where a Sydney man was refused for a veteran’s dependent pension as he was in a same sex relationship. In this incident the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) determined the Australian government had breached the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), as ‘all persons are equal before the law. ’ Not only has it breached the ICCPR but it has breach the Sex Discrimination Act 1984. Therefore, this demonstrates how the legal system is ineffective as there is a lack of enforceability with regards to the role that the international law plays in Australia. In order to create equality in the legal system for same-sex relationships the Australian Human Rights Commission report in 2008 had introduced reforms with the aim to provide same sex couples with the same entitlements as heterosexuals. The most significant reform was the introduction of the Property (Relationships) Legislation Amendment Act 1999 (NSW). This has allowed de facto elationships to have the right to divide property as seen in the Hope and Brown v NIB Health Fund Ltd (1995). In this case the Equal Opportunity Tribunal had played an effective role as it has shown to be successfully in achieving justice and equality for same sex relationships. It has also protected the 2 year old son in which Hope and Brown were now permitted to give their child a family policy for his future. Therefore, the reforms th at have occurred in the past decade have been successful as it has given some rights and obligations towards same sex relationships. In NSW 241 300, reports were made about concerns of child’s or young person’s safety according to the Special Commission of Inquiry into child protection services NSW. The concern of the protection and care of both children and individual members under both the Family Law Act 1975 (Cwth) and the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) is the increasing rate of family neglect, abuse and domestic violence. This issue is rapidly increasing each year as the crime rate of children has increased to 70% of young children committing crime due to being neglected or abused in reference to Australian Bureau Statistics (ABS). The government has made numerous amendments and reforms to the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) e. g. Crimes (Domestic Violence) Amendment Act 1987 (NSW), due to increased domestic violence cases within the domestic household. Over the years there have been a number of cases where family members have suffered domestic violence which has resulted in some of them murdering their husbands or partners, e. g. R v Heather Osland 1996 (VIC). Therefore, the legal system has shown how further amendments and reforms can protect individual family members effectively. But the government needs to step up and focus on providing more resources and funds to smaller organisations e. g. Docs. The government has created the Department of Community Services (DOCs) under the Children Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998. This organization helps protect children who are suffering abuse or neglect. Majority of the time Docs have overseen incidents’ and have failed to report any sort of child abuse, neglect or domestic violence. As shown recently in 2012 August 03 in the Sydney Morning Herald (SHM) ‘Abuse Children were ignored by a welfare worker’. The Department of Community Services have failed to protect and prevent children from harm due to being under resourced and not having the adequate resources to protect children. The Australian government should provide efficient resources e. g. having more people involved with better wages in protecting minors. This would therefore be more effective in protecting children and their rights. Without this new reform in the legal system it will increase the number of children who are in great harm, as recently seen in the media ‘Ebony report’- â€Å"reveals history of Docs neglect†. For individual members to feel safe and protected the law has added extra provisions on the Crimes (Domestic Violence) Amendment Act 1982 which amended the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), has included victims who suffer from domestic violence have the right to seek AVO’s. Many people do not fulfill their responsibility towards their children and sometimes having a divorce within the family can cause major conflicts and struggles on the couple, and most importantly the child. As the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOSCAR) shows that inadequate parenting is associated with child neglect, to some extent these are the strongest predictors of juvenile crime as 36% of young people are cautioned. One of the most serious of these cases are children having the thought of committing suicide. As seen in one of the most recent cases Merrett and BASS 2013. This demonstrates how the strenuous tension between a couple can have on child. As a parent they have the responsibility to ensure that their child receives an education and to discipline their child. In the re Marion (1991) it demonstrates how the child had no right or say in her medical procedures. Therefore, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children (CROC) has not been effective as it has not been ratified, which therefore it hasn’t protected the child’s best interest. One of the most recent reforms to the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1988 (NSW) is that if a child has broken the law e. g. underage drinking or damages on property, the parents are penalized for their child’s actions. Another reform that has shown to ineffective is the introduction of the Family Law Amendment (Shared Parental Responsibility) Act 2006 (Cth), this reform involves the equal custody of the child. However, this isn’t always the case as the child may end up back with their abusive parent as seen in the Whitehead v Storn. The court system has shown to have responded to many issues of different areas of family law however, some of the attempts of reforms have demonstrated to be ineffective.

Human cloning and Immanuel Kant Essay

Over the last decade, the advent of cloning and advancements in human genetic research have presented society with a complicated moral quandary. Debate rages as to what constitutes legitimate paths of inquiry and where to draw the line as to research that strikes many people as morally wrong. The basic question is: â€Å"how does society determine what’s right? † While, of course, questions regarding human genetic research are new, this basic question is as hold as civilization and has been addressed over and over again by history’s great philosophers. One of the most notable philosophers of the modern era is Immanuel Kant, who was born in Prussia in 1724. Kant paid a great deal of attention to formulating a complex system of morality. The following examines Kantian morals and how they might be applied to questions of human genetic research. Kant’s moral theory is predicated on the idea of the â€Å"categorical imperative,† which Kant described in the following manner, â€Å"Act only on that maxim which you can at the same time will to be a universal law†(Honderich, 1995, p. 436). By the term â€Å"maxim,† Kant meant general rules or principles upon which rational individuals act, and that these principles reflect the end that an individual has in mind in choosing actions of a certain type in given circumstances (Honderich, 1995). Therefore, maxims are principles in the following form: â€Å"When in an S-type situation, act in an A-type manner in order to attain end- E† (Honderich, 1995, p. 436). For example, a person might resolve to pay a bill as soon as it is received in order to not incur any debt. Kant tested a maxim by performing a thought experiment in which the individual asks oneself whether or not one would will a certain maxim to become universal law. As this suggests, moral law, in the philosophy of Kant, is inherent in reason itself. It is a priori, before experience (Frost, 1962). In every circumstance, Kant believed that â€Å"categorical imperative† provides a sure criterion for how to evaluate right and wrong (Frost, 1962). Kant maintained that an action that the individual can easily will that everyone should follow and perform would necessarily have to be a good act (Frost, 1962). Morality for Kant not only involved law (categorical imperative) but also the ultimate end to which action is directed. As the formulation of the concept of categorical imperative suggests, the basic problem for Kant was to discern the meaning of â€Å"right and wrong, good and bad† (Frost, 1962, p. 94). Fundamental to Kant’s thinking was the principle formulated by Rousseau that the only fundamentally good thing in the universe is the â€Å"human will governed by respect for the moral law or the consciousness of duty† (Frost, 1962, p. 94). He considered a moral act to be one that is performed out of respect for moral law, rather than for selfish gain or sympathy for others (Frost, 1962). Therefore, unlike other moral systems, Kant did not see consequences as the criteria for determining the moral value of a specific action. Rather, Kant looked toward the intentions of the individual. If an individual acts from good intentions, out of respect for moral law, his actions, are by definition, â€Å"good. † Kant argued that individuals instinctively avoid behavior, which, if performed by everyone, would create anarchy. â€Å"We know, not by reasoning, but by vivid and immediate feelings, that we must avoid behavior which, if adopted by all men, would render social life impossible† (Durant, 1961, p. 209). As this brief summary of Kantian ethics suggests, if Kant were presented with the problem of the morality of genetic research, he would, first of all, be concerned about the motivations of the researchers, their intentions in conducting such research (Frost, 1962). In the furor that was quickly generated over the successfully cloning of a sheep, â€Å"Dolly,† the usefulness of cloning technology to current medical practice was pushed aside. Nevertheless, the applications are considerable. A great deal of technical information has been left out in the sensationalism that abounded in the media. For one thing, the media did not make it clear that â€Å"Dolly† was not an identical clone (Wilson,1997). Part of everyone’s genetic material comes from the mitochondria in the cytoplasm of the egg. In the case of Dolly, only the nuclear DNA was transferred (Wilson, 1997). This may have significant information to import to scientists concerning the aging process since aging is related to acquired mutations in mitochondrial DNA (Wilson, 1997, p. 913). Furthermore, as Dolly ages, it has been noted that she is aging prematurely, which provides another source of information for scientists, but also signals that this technology is far from perfected. Research conducted on nuclear transfer into human eggs has the possibility of providing an immense amount of information that may have clinical value, by providing a model for learning more about somatic cell differentiation (Wilson, 1997, p. 913). Eventually, in due course, scientists may learn how to influence cell differentiation and this could give rise to targeted cell types (Wilson, 1997). The ability to generate tissues from different cell types could have enormous implications for transplantation. Wilson (1997) anticipates this technology utilizing skin and blood cells, and possibly even neuronal tissue that could then be used in the treatment of â€Å"injury, transplants for leukemia, and for degenerative disease such as Parkinson’s disease† (p. 913). In another area of research, the successful cloning of human growth hormone (HGH) is important for several reasons. First of all, a child that has pituitary dwarfism requires twice-weekly injections until reaching age of 20. In the past, HGH was could only be obtained by removal of human pituitary tissue at autopsy. To treat one child with pituitary dwarfism using previous methods required obtaining over a thousand pituitaries (Emery and Malcolm, 1995, p. 165). Not only has it been difficult in the past to produce enough HGH to successfully provide treatment to all the children who needed it, but small amounts of contaminating virus caused some of the children treated to develop Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (Emery and Malcolm, 1995, p. 165). Cloning technology, which permits HGH to be produced artificially, has provided a readily available supply of HGH, which-in turn-has allowed the application of HGH in other treatments. For example, it has been discovered that HGH can be used to speed up the healing process for bone fractures (Emery and Malcolm, 1995). This is been particularly beneficial in treating the elderly (Emery and Malcolm, 1995). As this brief summary of scientific research being conducted into cloning and genetic research indicates, there are enormous benefits to be reaped from this new and controversial technology. Kant would undoubtedly approve of research that so obvious benefits humanity and society. What people seem to fear, and what would undoubtedly be wrong by any moral system, are nightmare scenarios propagated by the media and Hollywood. Images of clones being used simply as â€Å"spare parts† to extend the life of the rich, for example, has been dramatized in film. This sort of misuse of technology would constitute a threat to the social system and, therefore, would not pass Kant’s categorical imperative test. In other words, if everyone were cloned, it would significantly lower the way that human life is valued in our society. Also, the idea of human embryos being created and destroyed simply to further genetic research objectives is simply abhorrent on an instinctive level. Therefore, while it! can be seen that this technology needs to be carefully controlled and supervised in regards to moral issues, it should not be totally banned either, as it also has the power to benefit society to a great degree.