...they are going to be in extreme pain or stress from an illness that comes with impending doom/death. The opposing argument is that human dignity has to be respected and that life is the greatest thing ever and that death is the ultimate evil. In this case of Mr. Collums and his brother (J.K.) with Alzheimer’s, the act of euthanasia is involuntary euthanasia. It is involuntary because J.K. was unable to care for any of his bodily needs, and could not speak or communicate with anyone. He was being fed applesauce through a tube basically. Since J.K. was in a state of vegetation, he was not capable of giving his brother the “A-Ok” to shoot him five times as fast as he could. Being a student of John Hardwig, James Rachel, and Peter Singer, I would argue in Mr. Collums’s side because the philosophers are in favor of dying quickly and painlessly rather than long and suffering. Although the philosophers have somewhat similar arguments, they each bring a unique way of looking at their position and defending it. John Hardwig is the head of the department of philosophy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Hardwig’s argument is that there is so called “Duty to Die”. The duty to die goes beyond refusing treatment, also known as passive euthanasia. It also stretches so far that someone may have to end their life, even in the absence of chronic disease and if they would prefer to live. The duty to die becomes more apparent when the burdens of providing care outweigh the obligation to...
Words: 1556 - Pages: 7
...describes how the strained relationship between the two sisters Rachel and Flora and their mother’s lack of ability to deal with emotions outside her working hours combined with a conflict concerning the loan of a dress become the factors that lead to the end of their life together as a family. The plot unfolds on the mother’s fortieth birthday and spans less than a day, as we enter the story in medias res, when Rachel is standing in the hallway screaming for her sister after having realized that she has taken her dress. From here the story progresses chronologically until the point when Flora admits having borrowed and ruined the dress, an episode the author has chosen to describe using flashbacks. The story is told in an omniscient third person narrator, however the point of view switches between the three characters –for example is focus in the beginning of the text on Rachel and her anger when she finds out about her missing dress, then switches to Flora and how she feels wearing the dress, and then in the restaurant focus is on the mother and her discomfort being caught in the middle of the conflict between her daughters. This way the reader gets a more nuanced view of why what might seem to be a rather common conflict between sisters escalates and ends the way it does. A part of the explanation to this question can probably be found in that the two sisters represent two very different kinds of people: Rachel is described as a very tidy person, who likes things to be in...
Words: 1226 - Pages: 5
...As an overview, the case study is about one of the project Managers, Rachel, in a large information systems project. The case study is mainly highlighted how the project manager allocates her time to spend a day in her life. 1. The effectiveness of Rachel Spent her day Project is a complex, non-routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, resources, and performance specifications designed to meet customer needs. Considering the case study, Rachel allocates her time significantly on activities not done repetitively before that in my point of view can be applied as project activities. Activities such as going over project reports and preparing for the weekly status meeting, going over a problem with her boss, participating in a conference call and responding to the issues arise in the project could be determined as project activities. In contrast, the characteristic of non project tasks are regular daily works which required repetitive and routine activities. It is seen that often limited time she spend her day on these types of activities. Those can be illustrated in gossiping about internal politics with Eddie, a worker in finance office. Technically evaluating, by dividing her done tasks into project, routine and non-project activities and calculating the spent time based on these categories, it can be perceived that Rachel is an efficient project manager to some extent: * Time spent on project activities is approximately 370 minutes including going over project...
Words: 861 - Pages: 4
...they share the same genes. The story tells about the relationship between a single mother, and her two daughters, Flora and Rachel. The mother of the two sisters, Flora and Rachel, has no name and is throughout the story only referred to as ‘mother’. She is divorced to the father of her daughters, therefore she is a single mother. She is forty years old and works as a successful bereavement counselor, who helps other people out every day. With all of that said it still seems like she is going through a rough time in her life. She seems to be hitting midlife crisis. She is unable to solve her daughter’s conflicts, you would expect a bereavement counselor to at least try to solve the problems of her own daughters but she keeps avoiding confrontations, which is quite ironic due to her profession. ““Flora!” whispered the mother, who wanted life to be calm, a flat sea with no sudden breezes. She liked emotions to be explored in safe rooms, with a clock.” (p. 3, l. 103-104) this refers to her job where the clock tells her when to end the emotional conversations with her clients. The mother spends all day hearing and taking care of people whose lives are falling apart. The thought of dealing with her own personal problems, makes her uncomfortable, and she’d rather not. She imagines coming home to a calm and relaxing life. But that’s not how it works in her life, her daughters doesn’t make it easy for her. Celebration a birthday, you should expect joy, but no they are just sitting at...
Words: 956 - Pages: 4
...James Rachels argues against the traditional doctrine in medicine that prohibits the physician from taking any action which would contribute to the death of a patient. Rachels takes the position that in some cases, abiding by this doctrine leads to more suffering. In the situation where continued medical support would prolong suffering, doctors have the option of discontinuing support. If, according to Rachel, they choose that option on the basis of reducing suffering then they can do better with active euthanasia. He points out the inconsistency in discontinuing medical support but not going further with active euthanasia, because he sees no moral distinction between active and passive euthanasia–they are both intentional acts to terminate a life (which is in fact murder, but more on that later). Simply letting someone die is morally the same as killing someone. When a doctor lets a patient die, the doctor is not doing nothing. In other words, contrary to how it may seem, doctors are acting by not acting. One is acting in the choice to not do anything. Rachels uses the example of a situation in which a doctor does not treat a patient of a life-threatening illness that is known to be treatable. By withholding treatment, the doctor is actually committing murder. It seems to me that Rachels puts doctors in a situation where they must strictly either be torturers or murderers. In choosing to prolong the patient’s life, the doctor is criticized for prolonging suffering. If it is...
Words: 451 - Pages: 2
...James Rachel argues against the traditional doctrine in medicine that prohibits the physician from taking any action which would contribute to the death of a patient. Rachel takes the position that in some cases, abiding by this doctrine leads to more suffering. In the situation where continued medical support would prolong suffering, doctors have the option of discontinuing support. If, according to Rachel, they choose that option on the basis of reducing suffering then they can do better with active euthanasia. He points out the inconsistency in discontinuing medical support but not going further with active euthanasia, because he sees no moral distinction between active and passive euthanasia, they are both intentional acts to terminate a life. Simply letting someone die is morally the same as killing someone so why is one more acceptable than the other? When a doctor lets a patient die, the doctor is not doing anything. In other words, contrary to how it may seem, doctors are acting by not acting. One is acting in the choice to not do anything. Rachel uses the example of a situation in which a doctor does not treat a patient of a life-threatening illness that is known to be treatable. By withholding treatment, the doctor is actually committing murder, However in a scenario where the illness is terminal withholding treatment is an acceptable practice based on the patient’s wishes. In these scenarios, active euthanasia would seem to be more humane but is not legal or acceptable...
Words: 395 - Pages: 2
...Collins (1824-1889) was born in London, the son of a successful landscape painter and member of the Royal Academy, who was also very strict with both his religion and his money. While his son inherited much of his father’s parsimony, he rebelled against the strict morality of his upbringing, and against Victorian morality in general. After the death of his father, he scandalized his family and friends by setting up housekeeping with Caroline Graves, a young woman who already had a daughter, and presumably a husband. Even when the opportunity presented itself later in life, he refused to marry her, encouraged her to marry another man, and then moved in with her again when that marriage failed. In the meantime, he kept a mistress on the side, Martha Rudd, by whom he had three children. At his death, he divided his estate equally between his two mistresses and two families. Through much of his life, he was plagued by bad health. He was small and somewhat deformed, and rheumatism contracted in his thirties caused him to take increasingly-large doses of laudanum. He himself admitted that he was a bit of a hypochondriac, and eventually became a recluse much like Frederick Fairlie in The Woman in White. To please his parents, he tried the tea business for five years and later studied law, but had no love for either pursuit. He was drawn to the arts, as was his brother Charles, who for a time worked among the Pre-Raphaelites (and later married Charles Dickens’ daughter)...
Words: 16240 - Pages: 65
...the Netherlands. The two concerns typically used to justify this are that life is thought to be precious and we are obligated to prolong it, not take it, as well as the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors to “do no harm”. Though it currently remains illegal, there is an increase of support for euthanasia to be practiced in the US. Before assessing whether or not euthanasia is morally justifiable, there are two conceptual distinctions to be made. One is the concept of voluntary vs. involuntary euthanasia, and the other is active vs. passive euthanasia. Voluntary euthanasia is chosen by the patient himself or herself, while involuntary is chosen by someone other than the patient. Performing an action that will actively end the patient’s life is defined as active euthanasia, while passive euthanasia is performed by withholding treatment and allowing the person to die naturally. This difference is the basis of James Rachels’ argument in “Active and Passive Euthanasia.” Rachels believes that there is no moral difference between “killing” (active) and “letting-die” (passive). He believes that passive euthanasia defeats the entire purpose of the practice because it takes longer for the patient to die while active euthanasia alleviates suffering as quickly as possible. Therefore, Rachels believes that if euthanasia were morally and/or legally acceptable at all then it should be active. The key claim of Rachels’ argument is that killing is no different than letting-die. The example he...
Words: 784 - Pages: 4
...correlates with Rachel from Genesis. In Genesis 30:1-3, Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid plays a similar role to Offred, both of them are both...
Words: 925 - Pages: 4
...two sisters, Rachel and Flora. It is a tense relationship, which finally breaks on their mother's fortieth birthday when Flora has stolen and ruined Rachel's dress. Rachel, unable to handle her sister anymore, goes to live with their father instead. Some time after the mother kicks Flora out of the house. The mother in the story is a forty-year-old bereavement counsellor. She lives alone with her two daughters. We know that she is divorced, because the girls' father does not live with them but is not dead either. When Rachel and Flora start fighting, the mother is unable to solve their conflict, despite the fact that her job consists of helping people. ""Flora!" whispered the mother, who wanted life to be calm, a flat sea with no sudden breezes. She liked emotions to be explored in safe rooms, with a clock." (Page 3, line 103-104) The mother spends all day taking care of people whose lives are falling apart and wants to go home to a calm and relaxing life. She wants to stop focusing on others' problems and instead have people focus on her and make her feel loved. She does not want to have to deal with more troubles, not even from her daughters, whom she feels should at least pretend to get along on her birthday. When attempting to solve their problems, she would refer to deal with it the same way she deals with her clients, but she cannot, and she ultimately ends up neglecting them and partly causing the “loss” of her daughters. The relationship between Rachel and Flora is...
Words: 938 - Pages: 4
...Julia Darling ’’The Dress’’ is a short story about a single mother who lives with her two teenage daughters, Rachel and Flora. In the story we hear about their daily life with fights between Rachel and Flora, how the mother feel and how she reacts to these fights. It seems like the family lives in a rich and wealthy place, because of the expensive restaurant and the Café Malata where Flora is drinking some cocktails with Alberto. The mother in the story is divorced from her daughters’ father, and it didn’t seem that she since divorce has had strength to find a new man. She is forty and works as a bereavement counselor, where she is helping people with their troubles. Her relationship to her teenage daughters is not very well. The daughters have often fights and as their mother she always has to interfere to get her daughters apart. At her work she always meet people with sadness, who she has to help, and then when she come home she want to have a break and relax, but it is not the case, because of her daughters fight: ‘’I’m forty, the mother said. She felt sorry for herself. All day she had sat with tearful needy people. It was her birthday, and she wanted to relax. She wanted to feel loved’’, (page. 10 line. 18-19). At the restaurant she is talking about to leave her job and instead make something with jewellery, because she does not want to live the rest of her life with sadness. Maybe she feels alone, she has only her two teenage daughters, and they are only thinking about...
Words: 1001 - Pages: 5
...Active and Passive Euthanasia James Rachels was an American philosopher who specialized in ethics and animal rights. Over the course of his career has written six books and over 85 essays. In 1975, Rachels wrote the article “Active and Passive Euthanasia”, in which he argued that the distinction so important in the law between killing and letting die which was based on the principle of double effect. He argued that if we allow passive euthanasia, we should also allow active euthanasia because it is more humane and that there is really no moral difference between the two. In my paper I have chosen two questions to answer concerning the article written by James Rachels. Rachels offers two principal arguments against the distinction between active and passive euthanasia. What are these arguments? Passive euthanasia is when the doctor does not do anything to bring about the patient’s death because the patient ends up dying at whatever illness they may have. While active euthanasia is when the doctor does something to bring about the patient’s death, for example, the doctor gives a patient with cancer a lethal injection which causes the death of the patient. Rachels claims that "killing is not itself any worse than letting die." What support does he offer for this claim? Do you agree? Why or why not? Rachel argues that there really isn’t a moral difference between the two because many believe that killing someone is morally worse than letting someone die...
Words: 579 - Pages: 3
...Kant’s article, “The Morality of Suicide.” Kant first discusses his views on people’s obligations to their own bodies. He talks about the right of freedom that we are all given, and that this freedom is to be used so as to protect life in a way. He argues that using freedom in ways that “abolish life” is “producing lifelessness,” and is therefore “self-contradictory” (385). To sum this part up, Kant believes that human beings should not “have the power to dispose of” their lives (385). After establishing his thoughts in this region, he moved on to that of suicide, which is his almost entirely against. He first comes across the argument saying that suicide is acceptable because “man is a free agent” (385). He counters this argument by explaining that yes man is a free agent, but that we are free to the point of “self-preservation” (385). To me, this means that we do things in life by our own choice, but usually these choices are made with the intent of keeping our own self safe. Kant explains that acting in ways that contradict this theory of protection also contradict that of the first part of his article stating that “men should not have the power to dispose of” their lives (385), where committing the act of suicide would indeed be disposing of one’s own life. The next argument Kant faces follows the thought that suicide...
Words: 2110 - Pages: 9
...Rachel Goddard is the lead character of the Rachel Goddard Series of mystery novels by Sandra Parshall. The first novel of the series was The Heat of the Moon that was first published in 2006 to much popularity among fans. Parshall was born in South Carolina and asserts that her first paying gig was penning the obituary column for The Spartanburg Herald her local newspaper. She became a reporter after she wrote an exceptional feature that she presented to an editor who loved it. Her great work in her hometown paper opened doors for her as she went on to write for the Baltimore Evening Sun and several papers in West Virginia. She was involved in the writing of anything from experiences of Native Americans, school board meetings, poverty in Appalachia, health care in prisons, mining disasters, and even a private interview of Hugh Hefner. Nonetheless, she had always loved stories growing up and remembers reading To Kill a Mocking Bird as a novel that had a particularly significant impact on her as a teenager. It was reading that novel that finally led her towards a career in writing. Despite living in small town and calling the local police chief grandfather she was never into the suspense/mystery genre...
Words: 1163 - Pages: 5
...INTRODUCTION Euthanasia is defined as the intentional killing, by act or omission, of a human being for his or her purported benefit. This definition is quite wide-ranging and a number of types of euthanasia and related activities have been defined. These include physician-assisted suicide and involuntary/non-voluntary euthanasia. While participation in the death of another—desired or otherwise—is usually defined in terms of a criminal act, a number of jurisdictions have established lawful protocols permitting such outcomes. By the same token, other jurisdictions, the Netherlands, have adopted what amount to non-punitive protocols in the face of existing legislation to the contrary when certain medical procedures are undertaken by licensed physicians. All of these acts have created considerable debate, extending to such issues as physician responsibility, duty of care, extent of individual responsibility, and personal integrity, to name just a few. This paper considers aspects of euthanasia and the moral factors that pertain. At the conclusion, this paper will recommend that certain types of euthanasia be permitted under the general supervision of a trained physician. EUTHANASIA AND PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE Physician-assisted suicide (PAS), like euthanasia, has been forbidden since the creation of the Hippocratic Oath. However, as a practical matter, physicians have had a measure of latitude in the specific application. For example, a fatal dose of an opium...
Words: 3483 - Pages: 14
