Ethics Behind Physician-Assisted Suicide - Free Essay Example

Assisted suicide is the act of intentionally killing yourself with the assistance of someone else. In the United States, physician-assisted suicide is when a physician provides a patient, who meets the criteria of having a terminal illness, with medication in order to terminate their life to relieve pain and/or suffering. Physician-assisted suicide is often confused with euthanasia. Other terms for death by a doctor or physician, such as aid in dying or physician-assisted death, are preferred because the word suicide provides a negative connotation. The term suicide is associated with the early termination of oners own life, as a result of mental illness and/or deep emotional stress. When choosing physician-assisted suicide, the patient must administer the medication themselves. Euthanasia is illegal in the US. It requires a doctor, or another individual, to administer the medication to the patient. Witnessing a fatal disease consume a loved one or patient causes ethical unrest and moral uncertainty; as such physician-assisted suicide should never be an option. Ethics and morals can be seen as the way that humans should live and interact with each other. Although ethics and morals have similar definitions, they are not the same thing. Ethics are a set of principles or rules that may be used by a society to determine how to make and judge a decision; while, morals are a set of values that may be used by an individual to determine how to make and judge a decision. For example, in our society it is ethically wrong to kill other humans; therefore, if someone commits murder, they are considered to be unethical and wrong. Unlike ethics, which apply to everyone, morals may vary from person to person. This allows for a conflict of interest between ethics and morals. For example, it may be morally right to get revenge, but if that revenge harms another person physically, mentally, or emotionally it can be seen as ethically wrong. It is often argued that humans do not need ethics because there is law and government. While it may be ethically correct to follow the law, the law is not based off of ethics. According to the Ethics Centre, The law tries to create a basic, enforceable standard of behaviour necessary in order for a community to succeed and in which all people are treated equally (1). The law is necessary to keep society functioning in an orderly fashion, but not to ensure everyday human interaction benefits everyone. The example that the Ethics Centre used surround the topic of consumer and producer relationship. There is a law to protect basic consumer rights, but sometimes the solution to an argument or dispute may go beyond the legal obligations of the producer. In a situation like this, following the law may require an individual to retreat from ethical and moral standards. This may, also be the case with physician-assisted suicide. The job description of any doctor is to use their knowledge to treat patients with illness, disease, or injury and help maintain mental and physical health. Physicians are trained and specialize in medicine. When giving patients the notice that they Allowing patients to take the lethal prescription themselves can States, such as Oregon, that allow physician-assisted suicide in the US require patients to meet certain criteria. Patients must have a terminal illness, meaning that their doctor believes that their illness is incurable and likely to lead to death sometime in the near future. As stated above, the patient must be capable of administering the medication themselves. They must also be mentally healthy and conscious of their actions and the consequences that follow. It is required that there are two verbal requests 15 days apart from each other, and one written request. When determining whether or not a patient qualifies for this procedure, there must be two doctors, the primary care physician and a consulting physician, and two witnesses present. This ensures that there is no foul play involved, the process must be completely voluntary.

The Battle Of The War - 2555 Words

â€Å"Tis only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated ... that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation,† said Union General William Tecumseh Sherman at the end of our nation’s deadliest war, the Civil War. Determined to end the war after four long years, the Union called on Sherman to execute a controversial war strategy to defeat the Confederacy. His tactic, deemed total war by historians, aimed to bring the horrors of war to civilians in the heart of the South. Sherman’s focus on destroying the manufacturing, logistical, and farming bases that supported the Confederate soldiers and civilians, is viewed by many as heinous and unnecessarily brutal. The strategy†¦show more content†¦Yet, Sherman’s aim with total war tactics was not to physically harm Confederate civilians, but to hasten the end of the war. The military tactics he employed were sanctioned by the highes t Union general, General Grant. Sherman brought the war to the people of the South as a form of psychological warfare to demoralize them and break their determination. The Southern campaign successfully limited the number of combatant deaths, on both sides, and caused few civilian deaths. The destructive foraging by Union soldiers was instituted to make Northern soldiers safer by causing the ruin of the South’s military manufacturing bases and acquiring needed supplies from Southern farms. General William Tecumseh Sherman’s total war tactics employed during his Southern campaign were not an act of senseless brutality of a villain, but were the actions of a brilliant military strategist. Sherman’s critics claim that his tactics in the Southern Campaign were not part of a thought filled military strategy, but were instead brutalities rained upon the civilians for the purpose of inflicting maximum pain. However, this is a misperception. Sherman did destroy civilian property, but it was not a random act and the Union was not solely responsible for the destruction. The worst damage to civilian property occurred in South Carolina, where Sherman aimed to take over Columbia

Witch Hunts of the Early Modern Period as the Result of...

Witch Hunts of the Early Modern Period as the Result of Religious and Social Upheaval The Early Modern Period was a time of great change in and around Europe. The people of the age were faced with upheaval of all forms; religious, social, political and even economical. Religious upheaval stemmed from changes in religious views and practises. The Reformation was a hugely significant event that took place in the years spanning 1520-1650. It was a religious, and political, movement in Europe that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church, but ended in the establishment of Protestantism and Protestant churches. The aim of the reformers was to restore the Church to its early Christian†¦show more content†¦Without doubt, everyone’s religious ideas were being influenced and changed by what was going on around them. Concerning these changes, the Reformation caused a distinct change in the beliefs of the devil amongst the Protestant formers. Roman Catholics believed in the devil but had always believed they could defeat him, and had certain ways of protecting themselves from Satan’s wickedness. In the Catholic faith, it was common to deploy ‘supernatural weapons’ aga inst the devil, such as candles and holy water. The ‘weapons’ were thought to offer protection against evil spirits, and as Darren Oldridge comments in his book; ‘The Devil and the Reformation’, even the ringing of church bells was accepted as protection against flying demons. Catholics believed that their traditional rituals such as these protected them from the evils of the devil and therefore they weren’t as scared of him as they could have been, these ‘magical’ rituals that helped them face him. Consequently, with the Reformation, the reformers’ decision to reject the practises of the Roman Catholic faith resulted in them losing these ‘magical’ rituals that had ‘protected’ people from, and ‘defeated’, the devil for so many years. Protestants believed that a person could not do anything to earn the love of God and therefore lived in devote prayer, and worked extremely hard to tryShow MoreR elatedThe Rise and Rule of Single-Party States7795 Words   |  32 Pagesforce, legal * form of government, ideology (left and right wing) * totalitarianism, treatment of opposition * Rule of Single Party states * political, economic, and social policies * role of education, the arts, the media, and propaganda * status of women, treatment of minorities, and religious groups * Regional and Global impact * foreign policy as a means of maintaining the regime * impact of regime outside the state * as a factor in the Cold War *

Definition and Examples of Confirmation Bias

In argumentation, confirmation bias is the tendency to accept evidence that confirms our beliefs and to reject evidence that contradicts them. Also known as  confirmatory bias. When conducting research, people can make an effort to overcome confirmation bias by deliberately seeking evidence that contradicts their own viewpoints. The concepts of perceptual defense bias and the backfire effect are related to confirmation bias. The term confirmation bias  was coined by English cognitive psychologist Peter Cathcart Wason (1924-2003) in the context of an experiment he reported on in 1960. Examples and Observations The confirmation bias is a consequence of the way perception works. Beliefs shape expectations, which in turn shape perceptions, which then shape conclusions. Thus we see what we expect to see and conclude what we expect to conclude. As Henry David Thoreau put it, We hear and apprehend only what we already half know. The truism, Ill believe it when I see it might be better stated Ill see it when I believe it.The potent effect of expectations on perception was demonstrated in the following experiment. When subjects were given a drink that they thought contained alcohol, but in fact did not they experienced reduced social anxiety. However, other subjects who were told they were being given nonalcoholic beverages when they were, in fact, alcoholic did not experience reduced anxiety in social situations. (David R. Aronson, Evidence-Based Technical Analysis. Wiley, 2007) The Limits of Reason Women are bad drivers, Saddam plotted 9/11, Obama was not born in America, and Iraq had weapons of mass destruction: to believe any of these requires suspending some of our critical-thinking faculties and succumbing instead to the kind of irrationality that drives the logically minded crazy. It helps, for instance, to use confirmation bias (seeing and recalling only evidence that supports your beliefs, so you can recount examples of women driving 40 mph in the fast lane). It also helps not to test your beliefs against empirical data (where, exactly, are the WMD, after seven years of U.S. forces crawling all over Iraq?); not to subject beliefs to the plausibility test (faking Obama’s birth certificate would require how widespread a conspiracy?); and to be guided by emotion (the loss of thousands of American lives in Iraq feels more justified if we are avenging 9/11). (Sharon Begley, The Limits of Reason. Newsweek, August 16, 2010) Information Overload In principle, the availability of a great deal of information could protect us from the confirmation bias; we could use information sources to find alternative positions and objections raised against our own. If we did that and thought hard about the results, we would expose ourselves to a valuable dialectical process of objections and replies. The problem is, though, there is too much information to pay attention to all of it. We must select, and we have a strong tendency to select according to what we believe and like to believe. But if we attend only to confirming data, we deprive ourselves of the opportunity to have well-reasoned, fair, and accurate beliefs. (Trudy Govier, A Practical Study of Argument, 7th ed. Wadsworth, 2010) The  Backfire Effect and Affective Tipping Points The strongest bias in American politics is not a liberal bias or a conservative bias; it is a confirmation bias, or the urge to believe only things that confirm what you already believe to be true. Not only do we tend to seek out and remember information that reaffirms what we already believe, but there is also a backfire effect, which sees people doubling down on their beliefs after being presented with evidence that contradicts them.So, where do we go from here? Theres no simple answer, but the only way people will start rejecting falsehoods being fed to them is by confronting uncomfortable truths.  Fact-checking is like exposure therapy for partisans, and there is some reason to believe in what researchers call an effective tipping point, where motivated reasoners start to accept hard truths after seeing enough claims debunked over and over. (Emma Roller, Your Facts or Mine? The New York Times, October 25, 2016) Perceptual Defense Bias Like other biases, the confirmation bias also has an opposite which traditionally has been termed perceptual defense bias. This process refers to the automatic discounting of disconfirming stimuli that protect the individual against information, ideas or situations that are threatening to an existing perception or attitude. It is a process that encourages the perception of stimuli in terms of the known and familiar. (John Martin and Martin Fellenz, Organizational Behaviour and Management, 4th ed. South Western Educational Publishing, 2010) Confirmation Bias on Facebook [C]onfirmation bias—the psychological tendency for people to embrace new information as affirming their pre-existing beliefs and to ignore evidence that doesn’t—is seeing itself play out in new ways in the social ecosystem of Facebook. Unlike Twitter—or real life—where interaction with those who disagree with you on political matters is an inevitability, Facebook users can block, mute and unfriend any outlet or person that will not further bolster their current worldview.​Even Facebook itself sees the segmentation of users along political lines on its site—and synchronizes it not only with the posts users see but with the advertisements they’re shown. (Scott Bixby, The End of Trump: How Facebook Deepens Millennials, Confirmation Bias. The Guardian [UK], October 1, 2016) Thoreau on Chains of Observations A man receives only what he is ready to receive, whether physically, or intellectually, or morally, as animals conceive their kinds at certain seasons only. We hear and apprehend only what we already half know. If there is something which does not concern me, which is out of my line, which by experience or by genius my attention is not drawn to, however novel and remarkable it may be, if it is spoken, I hear it not, if it is written, I read it not, or if I read it, it does not detain me. Every man thus tracks himself through life, in all his hearing and reading and observation and traveling. His observations make a chain. The phenomenon or fact that cannot in any wise be linked with the rest which he has observed, he does not observe.(Henry David Thoreau, Journals, January 5, 1860)

The Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin - 1070 Words

Mary Astell, a sixteenth-century English writer, once stated: â€Å"If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?† Undeniably, since the beginning of time women have been enslaved by society’s unwritten mandate for a woman’s life: find an agreeable suitor, marry, produce children and be the perfect housewife, at risk of being deemed abnormal if these actions are not accomplished by a certain age. In the short story â€Å"The Story of an Hour†, author Kate Chopin illustrates a woman’s sundry emotions upon hearing of her husband’s death. To the woman’s own surprise, she experiences feelings of relief and a newfound freedom. Having lived in the 19th century, Chopin challenged society’s perception of women at the time in this honest, liberating drama. Kate Chopin, nà ©e Katherine O’Flaherty, was born to stable and socially prominent parents in February 1850. She was raised in St. Louis, Missouri by her French- Creole mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, after her father was killed in a train accident (Davis 61). The household of widows helped shape Chopin’s feminist views which can be seen throughout her literary pieces. As a child, â€Å"mental and artistic growth† was encouraged (60), leading Chopin to develop a love for music and storytelling, as well as fluency in French. She married businessman Oscar Chopin at the age of twenty-five and managed to produce six children before his sudden death in 1883 (Wolff 208). Consequently, Chopin was left no choice but toShow MoreRelatedThe Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin1241 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"The Story of an Hour† by Kate Chopin is a wonderful short story bursting with many peculiar twists and turns. Written in 1894, the author tells a tale of a woman who learns of her husband’s death, but comes to find pleasure in it. Many of the elements Kate Chopin writes about in this story symbolize something more than just the surface meaning. Through this short story, told in less than one thousand one hundred words, Kate Chopin illustrates a deeper meaning of Mrs. Mallard’s marriage with herRead MoreThe Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin855 Words   |  4 PagesThe Story of an Hour In the â€Å"Story of an Hour† by Kate Chopin, is about pleasure of freedom and the oppression of marriage. Just like in Kate Chopin’s story, inside most marriages, even the ones that seem to be the happiest, one can be oppressed. Even though, one might seem to be happy deep inside they miss the pleasure of freedom and living life to the fullest. Just like, in this story Mrs. Mallard feels trapped and when she hears about her husband’s death she first feels distraught, but ultimatelyRead MoreThe Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin1457 Words   |  6 PagesEmotions and Death Everyone who reads a story will interpret things slightly different than the person who reads it before or after him or her. This idea plays out with most every story, book, song, and movie. These interpretations create conflict and allow people to discuss different ideas and opinions. Without this conflict of thought there is no one devoting time to debate the true meaning of a text. Kate Chopin’s â€Å"The Story of an Hour† tells about a woman who is informed of her husbands deathRead MoreThe Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin987 Words   |  4 PagesIn Kate Chopin’s short story, â€Å"The Story of an Hour† reader’s see a potentially long story put into a few pages filled with rising action, climax and even death. In the beginning of the story, character Louise Mallard, who has a heart condition, is told of the death of her husband by her sister and one of her husband’s friends. Afterwards Mrs. Mallard is filled with emptiness and then joy of freedom. This joy of freedom is actually what consequently leads to her death in the end when she discoversRead MoreThe Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin1061 Words   |  5 PagesThroughout the short story, â€Å"The Story of an Hour†, readers are introduced to characters whose lives change drastically in the course of this writing. Through Kate Chopin’s story we can identify many different themes and examples of symbolism in her writing. Chopin’s choice of themes in this writing are no surprise due to the time frame of which this story was written. Chopin often wrote stories with of women’s rights, and is noted as one of America’s first open feminists. As this story of an ill, helplessRead MoreThe Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin972 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"The Story of an Hour† by Kate Chopin expresses Ms. Mallard’s feelings towards her husband’s death in an appalling train accident. Due to her bad heart, her sister Josep hine had to be the bearer of bad news and approach his death gently to her. According to the quote, â€Å" But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought†, it lets us know thatRead MoreThe Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin998 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"The story of an hour† by Kate Chopin was a story that was ironical yet profoundly deep. As a student I have been asked to read â€Å"a story of an hour† many times, and every time I’m surprised by how I enjoy it. People can read thousands of stories in their life times and only a handful will every stand out to them, stories that can draw out an emotion or spark a thought are the ones that will standout more. For me and â€Å"a story of an hour† the thought of freedom is what draws me the most as a teenageRead MoreThe Story Of An Hour By Kat e Chopin1542 Words   |  7 PagesIn the short story, â€Å"Story of an Hour†, Kate Chopin writes about a woman with heart trouble, Mrs. Mallard, who, in finding out about the death of her husband, Mr. Mallard, experiences some initial feelings of sadness which quickly transition into the exhilarating discovery of the idea of a newfound freedom lying in front of her. When it is later revealed that her husband is not actually dead, she realizes she will not get to taste that freedom. The devastation kills her. What Mrs. Mallard goes throughRead MoreThe Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin596 Words   |  2 PagesIn â€Å"The Story of an Hour,† Kate Chopin focuses on the idea of freedom throughout the story. Mrs. Mallard is a lonely wife who suffers from heart trouble. She is told by her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richards that her husband has passed away in a train accident. She locks herself in a room expecting to be devastated, but instead feels freedom. Later, she exits her room and her husband walks through the door, causing her to die of a heart attack. Chopin uses this story to demonstrateRead MoreThe Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin886 Words   |  4 Pages In Kate Chopin â€Å"The Story of an Hour†, the reader is presented with the theme of prohibited independence. In Kate Chopin â€Å"The Storm†, the scenery in this story builds the perfect atmosphere for an adulterous affair. The importance of these stories is to understand the era they occurred. Kate Chopin wrote stories with exceptional openness about sexual desires. In â€Å"The Storm†, a short story written by Kate Chopin in a time when women were expected to act a certain way and sexual cravings was considered

Fred Wilcoxs Science Fiction Film, Forbidden Plane has a...

Comparison and Contrast In the 1956 science fiction film by Fred Wilcox, Forbidden Planet closely resembles many other pieces of literature. The most obvious resemblance to Forbidden Planet is Shakespeares The Tempest. As expected, the characters and plot of Forbidden Planet closely mirror those characteristics of The Tempest, with the exception that where The Tempest engages magic, Forbidden Planet utilizes technology. What is more important, however, is that how the technology works is irrelevant for the purpose of the movie, which is to entertain and to teach us a lesson about mans control over the elements and over his own technological creations. Forbidden Planet strongly resembles Shakespeare’s The Tempest through the characterization similar in both the play and the film. In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Prospero and Miranda became stranded on a remote island that has no person except for Caliban on it. Prosperon using the magic he has created, he gradually gains control of the island and turns Caliban into his slave. A group of sailors is shipwrecked on the island, one of whom falls in love with Miranda, the lovely daughter of Prospero. Throughout the story, Caliban and other servants plot to overthrow Prospero, but are caught and taken back to the custody of Prospero. In the science fiction film Dr. Morbius and his daughter Altaira are in control of a remote planet when a U.S. spaceship lands on the planet to gather information. Commander Adams of the

Radical Reconstruction Essay Example For Students

Radical Reconstruction Essay The time that followed the Civil War from 1865-1877 was a period of Reconstruction. This term not only refers to the reconstruction of cities and buildings, but also of southern politics as well. There was a kind of reconstruction that brought major reforms to the South. It was called Radical Reconstruction Essay. During the period of Radical Reconstruction the Radical Republicans and President Andrew Johnson were in almost constant disagreement. President Johnson favored a more hands-off approach than the Radicals were willing to accept. When the Civil War ended there remained the question of what to do with the Southern states. In 1864 there were many little groups in the Senate. One of there groups was called the Radical Republicans. In 1865 when President Johnson allied himself with the racists, he said that the South should remain a white mans country. The majority of the Senate then sided with the Radicals because they said that this is not a white mans government, but a mans government. The Radicals won control of the Senate because of this statement. By 1865 the conflict between the politicians on Johnsons side, called Johnsonians, and the Radical Republicans had reached the war point. Both sides were throwing false accusations back and forth across Washington. The Johnsonians accused the majority of Radicals that they did not really care about the Freedman, but were using him for their own political agendas. The Johnsonians went further by accusing the Radicals of outright conscious hypocrisy. Pg. 2 In 1866 the Radicals had become the majority party in the House and Senate and taken over the responsibility of Reconstruction from the President. Their first move was to ratify the Southern governments put in by Johnson and start anew. The Radicals felt that instead of choosing what was best for the states, Johnson had just been putting people back into office. With Johnsons statement before about a white mans government the Radicals felt that by revamping Johnsons state governments was the only way to insure fairness. By 1865 major land reforms were underway in the south. In 1865 General Sherman resettled some 40,000 Freedmen on the South Carolina and Georgias offshore islands. Some were also resettled on to abandon rice fields. Sherman presented his results to the Senate and they were pleased. Then President Johnson stepped in and personally saw to it that most of the land was returned to its original owners. In late 1865 1,800 Freedmen were resettled along the Mississippi river at a place called Davis bend. Davis bend incorporated six former plantations, including one owned by Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy president, and another was owned by his brother. In the one season that the Freedmen lived their they made about $157,000 profit between all of them. This proved that the Freedmen could make it on their own if given the land. But after the one season President Johnson pardoned the land owners and their land was returned. On January 7, 1867 the House of Representatives looked into conduct issues of President Andrew Johnson. On June 3, 1867 by a vote of 5-4 the House subcommittee voted not to recommend impeachment. Then Pg. 3 President Johnson on June 20, 1867 issued orders that made the military commanders in the southern five districts less powerful, and the Johnson appointed local government more powerful. With this decision by Johnson the vote was over turned by a vote of 5-4 in favor of recommendation for impeachment. On December 7,1867 the House rejected the impeachment resolution by a vote of 108-57. Then Johnson attempted to remove the radical Stanton from the position of Secretary of War. Then Johnson appointed General Grant to the post. When the Senate refused to accept Stantons removal, Grant sides behind the Senate. President Johnson publicly denounced General Grant for his apparent treachery. Diabetes Abstract Essay In many of these seven states, most of the governors, representatives and senators were northern men called carpetbaggers who had gone South after the war to make their political fortunes, often teaming up with newly freed Blacks. In Louisiana and South Carolina, Blacks actually gained a majority of the seats. The last three Southern states: Mississippi, Texas and Virginia finally were readmitted to the Union in 1870. In 1870 another Civil Rights Act was passed, and was immediately followed by the 15th Amendment. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State .