|
Controversial Topics
for Persuasive Papers or Speeches |
|
|
Abortion |
Drugs |
|
Legalization of the abortion pill |
Medical
marijuana (legalization of marijuana) |
|
Right
to life |
Performance
enhancing drugs |
|
Adoption |
Economics |
|
Interracial adoption |
Government
bailouts of private business/industry |
|
Open
adoption records |
Credit
cards and young people |
|
Airlines |
Education |
|
Airline strikes |
see
also: Schools |
|
Airline
safety |
Bilingual education |
|
Airline
regulation |
College
entrance exams |
|
Arming
airline pilots |
On-line
education |
|
Alcohol |
Emphasis
on college admissions tests |
|
Lowering the Legal Drinking Age |
Retention
of students due to failing grades |
|
Drunk
Driving |
Year-round
schooling |
|
Animals |
Value
of homework |
|
Animal experimentation |
School
vouchers |
|
Should
certain breeds of dogs, |
Testing
to hold schools accountable for |
|
like pit bulls be banned? |
student
achievement |
|
Spaying
and neutering of pets |
Mainstreaming
disabled children |
|
Exotic
animals as pets |
Inflation
of grades in high school & college |
|
Animal
euthanasia |
Necessity
of teacher certification |
|
Bioethics |
Inclusion
of pre-schools in public education |
|
Genetic engineering |
College
for everyone |
|
Cloning |
Early
decision programs for college admission |
|
Stem
cell research |
Bilingual
education |
|
Birth
Control |
Too
much emphasis on computers in schools |
|
Celebrity
Privacy |
Concentration
on academics rather than sports |
|
Censorship |
Electoral
Reform |
|
Wartime censorship |
Eminent
Domain |
|
Charitable
Contributions |
Energy |
|
Celebrities raising money |
Development of alternate forms of energy |
|
Accountability
of charities |
Fuel
efficiency in automobiles |
|
Creation
vs. Evolution |
Environmental
Protection |
|
Crime |
Wetlands regulation |
|
see
also: Law and
Crime |
Ethics |
|
“Three strikes” crime laws |
Presidential ethics |
|
Hate
crimes (hate crime laws) |
Medical
ethics |
|
Death |
Extraterrestrial
Life |
|
Death penalty (capitol punishment) |
Family |
|
Televised
executions |
Unmarried mothers keeping their babies |
|
Right
to Die (Euthanasia, assisted suicide) |
Unmarried
couples living together |
|
Detention
Facilities |
Visitation
rights for grandparents |
|
Tactics used at |
Same-sex
marriages |
|
Discrimination
|
Postponing
parenthood |
|
Age discrimination |
Spanking
children |
|
Race
discrimination |
Kids
too busy to be kids |
|
Divorce |
Taking
children out of abusive homes |
|
DNA |
Parent
staying home with the children |
|
Database controversy |
Requiring
a license before you can have children |
|
Driving |
Men
sharing birth control burden |
|
Driving age for teens |
Living together replacing marriage |
|
Drug
Testing |
Food
Industry |
|
In the workplace |
Meat industry’s use of antibiotics |
|
Mandatory
drug testing for athletes |
Safety
of genetically engineered foods |
|
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Freedom |
Media |
|
Freedom of speech (1st amendment) |
Sex on TV |
|
Gambling
|
Video
game violence causing violence in children |
|
Dangers of Gambling |
Violence
on television causing increase in violence |
|
Global
Warming |
among
children/teens |
|
Guns |
Medical |
|
Right to own guns (Gun control) |
Managed Heath Care |
|
Zero
Tolerance policies in schools |
Medical
treatment refusal rights |
|
Harassment
|
Medical
malpractice |
|
Sexual Harassment |
Public
access to personal health records |
|
Health |
On-line
purchase of prescription drugs |
|
see: Medical |
Smokers
with lung cancer collecting damages |
|
Homelessness |
Pregnancy
in post-menopausal women |
|
Homosexuality
|
Donating
blood |
|
Immigration |
Human
cloning |
|
Illegal immigrants |
Liposuction
health risks |
|
Restricting
immigration into the |
Military
|
|
Insanity
Plea |
Conscientious objectors |
|
Internet |
Women
in military combat assignments |
|
Downloading music from the Internet |
Women
in military schools |
|
Internet
regulation |
Homosexuals
in the military |
|
Children’s
Internet Protection Act |
Use
of military tribunals |
|
Plagiarism
and the Internet |
Morals |
|
On-line
purchasing hurts brick-and-mortar |
Decline of morality in |
|
businesses |
Mysteries/Unexplained
phenomena |
|
Internet
filters |
Paranormal phenomena |
|
Gambling
on the Internet |
|
|
Ivory
Trade |
Big
foot…fact or fiction |
|
Labor |
Loch
|
|
Child Labor |
Myths
and Misconceptions/Paranormal Phenomena |
|
Labor
Unions |
Paranormal phenomena |
|
Language |
|
|
Making English the “official” language of the |
Big
foot, fact or fiction? |
|
Law and
Crime |
Loch
|
|
Execution of the mentally retarded |
Existence
of ghosts |
|
Death
penalty for teens |
UFO’s |
|
Prison
boot camps for young offenders |
Real-life
vampires |
|
Battered
woman syndrome as a defense |
National
Deficit |
|
Sex-offender
registries |
Nuclear
Arms Control |
|
Criminals
getting off too easily |
Nuclear
Test Ban |
|
Voting
rights for prisoners |
Organ
and Body Donation |
|
DNA
testing of criminals |
Parenting
|
|
Children
prosecuted as adults |
Surrogate parenting |
|
Media
publicity for serial killers increases/ |
Homosexual
parenting |
|
decreases
threat to society |
Police
Corruption |
|
Voting
rights for ex-prisoners |
Politics |
|
Abusing
the right to sue |
Campaign finance reform |
|
Motorcycle
helmet laws |
Presidential
ethics |
|
Seat-belt
laws |
Pornography |
|
Legal
driving age |
Harm to society |
|
Toleration
of “hate speech” |
On
the Internet |
|
Lotteries |
Stronger
child pornography laws |
|
Eliminating the lottery |
Pregnancy
|
|
Marriage |
Fetal Abuse |
|
Same-sex marriages |
Prisons |
|
|
Prisoner’s
Rights |
|
|
Rehabilitation
as a job of the prisons |
|
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Privacy |
Surveillance
Operations |
|
Right to privacy |
Legal concerns |
|
Racial
Profiling |
Will
public surveillance technology make your |
|
Racism |
city safer or just invade your privacy? |
|
Rainforest
Destruction |
Sweatshops |
|
Recording
Industry |
Tattoo/Body
Piercing |
|
Ethics of the recording industry |
Dangers of tattooing |
|
Recycling |
Teen
curfews |
|
Personal responsibility |
Tobacco |
|
Reproduction |
Tobacco regulation |
|
Reproductive Rights |
Smoking bans |
|
Reproductive
Technologies (Ethics) |
Transplants |
|
Schools |
Organ transplants |
|
see also:
Education |
Vaccinations |
|
Drug testing in schools |
Violence |
|
Corporal
punishment in schools |
Teen gangs/Youth violence |
|
Harassment
in schools |
Violence on TV |
|
School
uniforms |
Flag desecration |
|
Dress
codes for students |
Domestic violence |
|
Home
schooling |
War |
|
School
prayer |
|
|
Religion
in the school curriculum |
Gulf War Syndrome |
|
Violence
in schools |
War on terrorism |
|
Hazing |
|
|
Later
start to school day |
Powers of the government during war |
|
Four-day
school week |
Weapons
of mass destruction |
|
Out-of-school
suspension |
Welfare
reform |
|
Video
camera surveillance in schools |
|
|
Nutritional
content of school lunches |
|
|
Longer
school day/year |
|
|
Home-schooled
students taking part in public |
|
|
school
activities |
|
|
Corporate
presence in public school (like Pepsi |
|
|
having
rights to all drink machines in return |
|
|
for
giving the school some of the profit) |
|
|
Single-sex
schools |
|
|
Value
of pre-schools |
|
|
Fund
raising in schools |
|
|
Banning
book bags in school |
|
|
Being
a “school snitch” (reporting
classmates |
|
|
and
being rewarded for doing so) |
|
|
Problem
of plagiarism in American schools |
|
|
Sex-offender
notification |
|
|
Social
Security |
|
|
Changes in laws to start benefits later due to |
|
|
increased
life span |
|
|
Sports |
|
|
Professional sports salaries |
|
|
Competitive
sports being unhealthy for children |
|
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Gender
inequities in school sports |
|
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Team
sports create leaders |
|
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Subsidies |
|
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Farm subsidies |
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