Author: Stacey Barnes
Company: KLC

Possible Research Topics

Social Issues
•	Individuals should have the option to use physician assisted suicide to end a terminal illness.
•	Because of the harmful nature of their products, the tobacco industry should subsidize public health care.
•	Tobacco companies should be prevented from using advertising tactics that target teenagers.
•	Smoking in public places endangers the lives of non-smokers and should be prohibited.
•	Random drug testing of student athletes reduces drug use among teenagers.
•	Amateur sports organizations (schools, Olympics) should prohibit all performance enhancing drugs.
•	Legalizing marijuana would substantially reduce the costs of administering the criminal justice system.
•	The U.S. government should acknowledge its failure in the "War on Drugs" and offer alternative approaches to preventing harm to citizens caused by illegal drug use.
•	Other countries should cooperate with the US in order to reduce drug trafficking.
•	Removing the motto "In God We Trust" from US currency will further strengthen the wall of separation between Church and State.
•	Sure, schools should teach about the Christian creation of the world. They should just do it in a comparative religion class. 
•	Organized prayer is beneficial for students and should be allowed in schools.
•	People who join cults are just looking for answers and spiritual guidance. Leave them alone.
•	The federal government should amend the United States Constitution to include the Equal Rights Amendment.
•	Gays and lesbians should be legally protected from hate crimes. 
•	Gays and lesbians should not be able to get married.
•	Individuals should have the right to remove books from public and schools libraries if they feel the books should not be read.
•	Public and school libraries that offer internet access should be required to use web blocking software, to filter out offensive sites.
•	Rock and rap music and videos are too violent and explicit, and should be censored.
•	Schools should be able to impose dress codes or uniforms on students.
•	Schools should eliminate bilingual education, in favor of an English only approach.
•	Both girls and boys would benefit from single-sex education. 
•	More should be done to combat plagiarism in high schools and colleges. 
•	Setting daytime curfews for teenagers is a reasonable way to keep students in school. 
•	Night and passenger restrictions on Oregon's teenage drivers are unnecessary.
•	The Oregon driver’s license restrictions for teenage drivers will help to prevent unnecessary injury and death caused by traffic accidents.
•	Unhealthy body image in teenagers is caused by over-representation of underweight fashion models and other entertainment figures in the media.
•	Granting amnesty to Illegal aliens will not solve the problem of mass illegal immigration.
•	Juvenile criminals should be tried as adults.
•	The use of mandatory minimum sentences for specific crimes does not effectively deter crime.
•	Prisons in the United States exist primarily to educate and rehabilitate criminals. 
•	Capital Punishment is an effective deterrent for capital crimes.
•	Parents in the US should be held financially and legally responsible for the crimes of their minor children.
•	Affirmative action is a reasonable method of ensuring fair treatment of minorities in schools and work.
•	Racial profiling unfairly discriminates against people of color in America, and should be stopped.
•	Exposure to violence in the media (TV, movies, videogames) desensitizes children to real life violence.
•	Incidents of police brutality and corruption will decrease if citizen complaints are investigated by external agencies.
•	Corporations should be required to clean up any industrial waste or pollution they make.
•	Individuals should give up their reasonable expectations of privacy so the government can ferret out potential terrorists. 
•	Requiring national identification cards is an unreasonable response to the terrorism of September 11.
•	Local governments should be able to use video surveillance as a tool to help deter crime.
•	Wiretapping US citizens should be one of many ways the US government keeps us safe from terrorists.
•	The longer the United States stays in Iraq, the more likely the Iraqi people will form a democracy.
•	America would be a safer place if private citizens were not allowed to own firearms.
•	The United States should not engage in biological or chemical warfare under any circumstances.
•	Unless the issues of AIDS in Africa are addressed, the number of orphans will increase.
•	Women's privacy rights should include the right to abortion.
•	Teenage girls who have babies are less likely to complete high school and more likely to live in poverty.
•	The use of condoms is a reasonable method to prevent pregnancy as well as sexually transmitted diseases.
•	Teen age boys should have an equal responsibility for teenage pregnancies.
•	Pregnant women who use illicit drugs should be held criminally responsible. 
•	Emergency contraception is a valid method of preventing unintended pregnancy.
•	The U.S. should immediately cease testing consumer products on animals.
•	With humane treatment, it is not unethical to use animals for experiments which could lead to treatments or cures for human diseases.
•	Raising chickens and other animals in factory farms is cruel and should be abolished.

Human Biology
•	The effects of hormone disrupting chemicals (endocrine disrupters) in humans are exaggerated.
•	Embryonic stem cell research should be funded by the government.
•	Umbilical cord blood banking is a reasonable way for ordinary citizens to cure disease.
•	Human cloning will be of great medical benefit to society.
•	Overuse, and improper use of antibiotic drugs has caused a crisis in treating bacterial diseases.
•	The use of antiviral drugs is a reasonable response to a potential avian flu pandemic.
Patients in Oregon should have the option to use marijuana for medical purposes.

Environment
•	The key to understanding most environmental issues is overpopulation. 
•	Human activity on earth has substantially contributed to global climate change.
•	The federal government should make more laws designed to conserve endangered species.
•	Hunting is a basic American right and we should be able to hunt for sport or subsistence.
•	Dams should be breached to benefit the life cycle of salmon and prevent extinction.
•	Monocultural farming is responsible for the loss of agricultural biodiversity.
•	In order to reverse the spread of invasive species, plant only native species in yards and gardens.
•	The economic benefits of clear-cutting are outweighed by the potential environmental harm to the land.
•	Reversing desertification in the world's arid lands should be an environmental priority.
•	The best way to prevent and manage wildfires is to selectively log out old growth timber.
•	One way to solve the problem of world hunger is through the use of GMOs (genetically modified organisms).
•	Foods incorporating GMOs should be labeled.
•	The fluid of concern in the 21st century will be water, not oil.
•	In order to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil, the government should compel companies to develop alternative sources of fuel.
•	The government should subsidize companies that research and develop alternative energy sources.
•	Radioactive and nuclear wastes: if not Yucca Mountain, where?