The first Oxford debate in my life

On the 4th day of our Erasmus+ project Do you agree we took part in an 'official styled debate'. Six volunteers were divided into two teams and were given specific roles - the one who had to introduce a thesis, the one who had to come up with arguments and the one who had to sum everything up.

The thesis for this debate was pretty difficult - "We can raise human embryos in pigs." Team for the proposition had to find as many arguments for the answer "Yes, we can.", the other one for the opposition had to prove the thesis is wrong and that we can't raise humans in pigs.

Round 1:

Each speaker had a certain amount of time for their speach. During this phase, the audience can ask questions which can or cannot be accepted by the person who is speaking. We heard about biological things such as what fertilization is or why there is a danger because of chemicals, and also about the ethical ones.

Round 2:

Now it is a turn of the audience. Whoever wants to add something to support either the proposition or the opposition can come and share their ideas. The only rule is that if we had a speaker to support the proposition team, the next one have to be someone to support the opposition, and vice versa. If there is no support at all or only for one team, this round ends.

Round 3:

The audience can now ask questions, directly to a specific person or to the whole team. One of the most interesting questions in this case were "Wouldn't it be a kind of cannibalism to use pigs for raising babies and to eat them at the same time?" and "If we used this method, the population would grow faster. Is that really what we need nowadays?"

After these three rounds, the audience decides (with secret votes) which team wins and who the best speaker is. For this debate we surprisignly had a draw - 14:14, both teams won.

As I was the person who had to come up with arguments that we can use pigs for this purpose, it was an amazing experience and even though I was stressed during my speech, I'm glad I volunteered to take part in this debate. It was the first Oxford debate in my life and I enjoyed every second of it. I would like to thank the organizers for the opportunity I had.

And what do you think? Can we use pigs for raising human embryos?