Examples Of Speeches

(Informative Speech example)

Stem cell research and genetic cloning

Anonymous The supporters of therapeutic cloning and stem cell research call for the end of genetically linked diseases such as diabetes and cystic fibrosis. Human DNA has been atomized into clonable portions. The possibility of designer babies is cherished by affluent parents. All these are the realities of our time, the results of stem cell research whose impact may be unpredictable. On the one hand, human cloning may open new horizons for stem cell research; on the other hand, all this fuss about genetic cloning may be of no value. Stem cell research and genetic cloning remain a controversial issue that has both advocates and opponents, More than a decade ago the Roslin Institute scientists pioneered reproductive human cloning, creating the cloning of Dolly the sheep. At the turn of the 21st century the idea of cloned embryos for reproduction was rejected. Several years later, the use of spare embryos for stem cell research put the idea of cloned embryos on the agenda again. I will base on "A submission to the House of Lords Select Committee on Stem Cell Research" by David Jones (2000) to inform you about cloning for birth and transplantation, as well as human rights of human embryos among other issues related to stem cell research and genetic cloning. I will begin with genetic cloning. The clone organism is an early human life. In cloning, the nucleus of an unfertilized ovum is replaced by the nucleus of a body cell from an existing human being in order to create a human embryo. The created embryo is the clone of the human being from whom the nucleus was taken. But genetic errors in the clone can cause unpredictable consequences. It is believed that cells from a cloned embryo are difficult to control. Now, I will dwell on the humane aspects of stem cell research and genetic cloning. David Jones claimed that the human embryo has its own rights, so it cannot be deliberately killed or harmed. Jones expressed the view that it is inhuman to let the human embryo die in the process of harvesting its cells. He added that to conceive embryos for research is disrespectful. In Jones's view, cloning dehumanizes the process of production, as the clone has no genetic parents. Jones

objected to both cloning for birth and research. He argued against any experimentation with human material. He stated that genetic cloning dehumanizes the sanctity of the unique value of each human life. Different views are expressed in regard to stem cell research and genetic cloning. No positive answer has been found. This controversial issue has support of those who believe that stem cell research or cloning could help cure certain diseases. But it has no support of those who respect human life in any of its forms.

(Persuasive speech example)

Equal Rights for Women

by Shirley Chisholm (Address To The United States House Of Representatives, Washington, DC: May 21, 1969) Mr. Speaker, when a young woman graduates from college and starts looking for a job, she is likely to have a frustrating and even demeaning experience ahead of her. If she walks into an office for an interview, the first question she will be asked is, "Do you type?'' There is a calculated system of prejudice that lies unspoken behind that question. Why is it acceptable for women to be secretaries, librarians, and teachers, but totally unacceptable for them to be managers, administrators, doctors, lawyers, and Members of Congress? The unspoken assumption is that women are different. They do not have executive ability orderly minds, stability, leadership skills, and they are too emotional. It has been observed before, that society for a long time, discriminated against another minority, the blacks, on the same basis - that they were different and inferior. The happy little homemaker and the contented "old darkey" on the plantation were both produced by prejudice. As a black person, I am no stranger to race prejudice. But the truth is that in the political world I have been far oftener discriminated against because I am a woman than because I am black. Prejudice against blacks is becoming unacceptable although it will take years to eliminate it. But it is doomed because, slowly, white America is beginning to admit that it exists. Prejudice against women is still acceptable. There is very little understanding yet of the immorality involved in double pay scales and the classification of most of the better jobs as "for men only." More than half of the population of the United States is female. But women occupy only 2 percent of the managerial positions. They have not even reached the level of tokenism yet No women sit on the AFL-CIO council or Supreme Court There have been only two women who

have held Cabinet rank, and at present there are none. Only two women now hold ambassadorial rank in the diplomatic corps. In Congress, we are down to one Senator and 10 Representatives. Considering that there are about 3 1/2 million more women in the United States than men, this situation is outrageous. It is true that part of the problem has been that women have not been aggressive in demanding their rights. This was also true of the black population for many years. They submitted to oppression and even cooperated with it. Women have done the same thing. But now there is an awareness of this situation particularly among the younger segment of the population. As in the field of equal rights for blacks, Spanish-Americans, the Indians, and other groups, laws will not change such deep-seated problems overnight But they can be used to provide protection for those who are most abused, and to begin the process of evolutionary change by compelling the insensitive majority to re-examine its unconscious attitudes. It is for this reason that I wish to introduce today a proposal that has been before every Congress for the last 40 years and that sooner or later must become part of the basic law of the land -- the equal rights amendment. Let me note and try to refute two of the commonest arguments that are offered against this amendment. One is that women are already protected under the law and do not need legislation. Existing laws are not adequate to secure equal rights for women. Sufficient proof of this is the concentration of women in lower paying, menial, unrewarding jobs and their incredible scarcity in the upper level jobs. If women are already equal, why is it such an event whenever one happens to be elected to Congress? It is obvious that discrimination exists. Women do not have the opportunities that men do. And women that do not conform to the system, who try to break with the accepted patterns, are stigmatized as ''odd'' and "unfeminine." The fact is that a woman who aspires to be chairman of the board, or a Member of the House, does so for exactly the same reasons as any man. Basically, these are that she thinks she can do the job and she wants to try.

A second argument often heard against the equal rights amendment is that is would eliminate legislation that many States and the Federal Government have enacted giving special protection to women and that it would throw the marriage and divorce laws into chaos. As for the marriage laws, they are due for a sweeping reform, and an excellent beginning would be to wipe the existing ones off the books. Regarding special protection for working women, I cannot understand why it should be needed. Women need no protection that men do not need. What we need are laws to protect working people, to guarantee them fair pay, safe working conditions, protection against sickness and layoffs, and provision for dignified, comfortable retirement. Men and women need these things equally. That one sex needs protection more than the other is a male supremacist myth as ridiculous and unworthy of respect as the white supremacist myths that society is trying to cure itself of at this time.

(Entertaining Speech example)

(UNTITLED) by Mark Twain

My heart goes out in sympathy to anyone who is making his first appearance before an audience of human beings. By a direct process of memory I go back forty years, less one monthfor I'm older than I look. I recall the occasion of my first appearance. San Francisco knew me then only as a reporter, and I was to make my bow to San Francisco as a lecturer. I knew that nothing short of compulsion would get me to the theater. So I bound myself by a hard-and-fast contract so that I could not escape. I got to the theater forty-five minutes before the hour set for the lecture. My knees were shaking so that I didn't know whether I could stand up. If there is an awful, horrible malady in the world, it is stage frightand seasickness. They are a pair. I had stage fright then for the first and last time. I was only seasick once, too. I was on a little ship on which there were two hundred other passengers. Iwassick. I was so sick that there wasn't any left for those other two hundred passengers. It was dark and lonely behind the scenes in that theater, and I peeked through the little peek holes they have in theater curtains and looked into the big auditorium. That was dark and empty, too. By and by it lighted up, and the audience began to arrive. I had a number of friends of mine, stalwart men, to sprinkle themselves throughout the audience armed with clubs. Every time I said anything they could possibly guess I intended to be funny, they were to pound those clubs on the floor. Then there was a kind lady in a box up there, also a good friend of mine, the wife of the governor. She was to watch me intently, and whenever I glanced toward her she was going to deliver a gubernatorial laugh that would lead the whole audience into applause. At last I began. I had the manuscript tucked under a United States flag in front of me where I could get at it in case of need. But I managed to get started without it. I walked up and downI was young in those days and needed the exercise and talked and talked.

Right in the middle of the speech I had placed a gem. I had put in a moving, pathetic part which was to get at the hearts and souls of my hearers. When I delivered it, they did just what I hoped and expected. They sat silent and awed. I had touched them. Then I happened to glance up at the box where the governor's wife wasyou know what happened. Well, after the first agonizing five minutes, my stage fright left me, never to return. I know if I was going to be hanged I could get up and make a good showing, and I intend to. But I shall never forget my feelings just before the agony left me, and I got up here to thank you for helping my daughter, by your kindness, to live through her first appearance. And I want to thank you for your appreciation of her singing, which is, by the way, hereditary.

(Actuating Speech Example)

UN Earth Summit
By Severn Cullis-Suzuki (Rio, Brazil in 1992)

Hello, Im Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O. The Environmental Childrens Organization. We are a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds from Canada trying to make a difference: Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me. We raised all the money ourselves to come six thousand miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. Coming here today, I have no hidden agenda. I am fighting for my future. Losing my future is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market. I am here to speak for all generations to come. I am here to speak on behalf of the starving children around the world whose cries go unheard. I am here to speak for the countless animals dying across this planet because they have nowhere left to go. We cannot afford to be not heard. I am afraid to go out in the sun now because of the holes in the ozone. I am afraid to breathe the air because I dont know what chemicals are in it. I used to go fishing in Vancouver with my dad until just a few years ago we found the fish full of cancers. And now we hear about animals and plants going extinct every day vanishing forever. In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterflies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see. Did you have to worry about these little things when you were my age?

All this is happening before our eyes and yet we act as if we have all the time we want and all the solutions. Im only a child and I dont have all the solutions, but I want you to realize, neither do you!

 You dont know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer. You dont know how to bring salmon back up a dead stream. You dont know how to bring back an animal now extinct. And you cant bring back forests that once grew where there is now desert. If you dont know how to fix it, please stop breaking it!

Here, you may be delegates of your governments, business people, organizers, reporters or politicians but really you are mothers and fathers, brothers and sister, aunts and uncles and all of you are somebodys child. Im only a child yet I know we are all part of a family, five billion stron g, in fact, 30 million species strong and we all share the same air, water and soil borders and governments will never change that. Im only a child yet I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world towards one single goal. In my anger, I am not blind, and in my fear, I am not afraid to tell the world how I feel. In my country, we make so much waste, we buy and throw away, buy and throw away, and yet northern countries will not share with the needy. Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to lose some of our wealth, afraid to share. In Canada, we live the privileged life, with plenty of food, water and shelter we have watches, bicycles, computers and television sets. Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent some time with some children living on the streets. And this is what one child told us: I wish I was rich and if I were, I would give all the street children food, clothes, medicine, shelter and love and affection. If a child on the street who has nothing, is willing to share, why are we who have everything still so greedy? I cant stop thinking that these children are my age, that it makes a tremendous difference where you are born, that I could be one of those children living in the Favellas of Rio; I could be a child starving in Somalia; a victim of war in the Middle East or a beggar in India. Im only a child yet I know if all the money spent on war was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this earth would be!

At school, even in kindergarten, you teach us to behave in the world. You teach us: not to fight with others, to work things out, to respect others, to clean up our mess, not to hurt other creatures to share not be greedy.

Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do? Do not forget why youre attending these conferences, who youre doing this for we are your own children. You are deciding what kind of world we will grow up in. Parents should be able to comfort their children by saying everythings going to be alright , were doing the best we can and its not the end of the world. But I dont think you can say that to us anymore. Are we even on your list of priorities? My father always says You are what you do, not what you say. Well, what you do makes me cry at night. You grown-ups say you love us. I challenge you; please make your actions reflect your words. Thank you for listening