...all lives are bound to die. Time is inevitable and each second that passes by is one step closer to death. Just the same, every moment we live is the reality and every moment that passes by becomes part of the forgettable past. We do not own time but on the contrary, time owns us. Schopenhauer would argue that life is pointless, a meaningless journey with one final end which is to cease to exist. What would then be the ultimate purpose of life if we will all die in the end? Everything that we invested will be gone and everything we have built will be worthless? I would like to argue that it is not necessarily the end that matters the most but the journey. Dying in the end should not mean that we have to live our lives miserably. I believe that death and factitious freedom are deeply intertwined with the thesis question "Why did Jesus die on the cross?" In this paper, we carefully examine not just the father-son relationship between Jesus and God but Jesus as both God-Man through the hypostatic union (As given in the thesis question) , its relationship to people and the very purpose of His and generally an individual's death vis-a-vis human freedom. It is very difficult to try to elaborate this issue that has been going on for years without being theological. There is a gap between theology and philosophy in such a way that theology's main ingredients are faith and belief and philosophy is sheer rationality. Theology becomes rational only if the people have faith or belief in God...
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...even years, or it can take one massive decision on taking yourself away from the pain with assisted suicide. Assisted suicide is when a patient that is terminally ill, and qualifies for the procedure, asks for medication to take their own life to stop the pain. In the United Sates, forty six states do not give the option for assisted suicide, which means there are millions of people suffering from incurable illnesses, waiting to die. Many people try killing themselves on their own, because they are not a citizen of a state that allows assisted suicide. I believe that killing yourself unassisted is worse than killing yourself with provided medication. Assisted suicide should be legal, because it allows suffering people to decide when they want to overcome the pain. Assisted suicide is not like any ordinary suicide. It is a suicide to relieve pain from a patient who only has so long to live. To receive assisted suicide, the patient has to qualify to all of the requirements. Out of the four states that have legalized assisted suicide, three of them involve the same requirements. Oregon was the first state to legalize assisted suicide on November 8, 1994. “An adult who is capable of making choices, is a resident of Oregon, and has been determined by the attending physician and consulting physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, and who had voluntarily expressed his or her life in the humane and dignified matter” (qtd. in “State”). Approximately fourteen years later...
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...A Request to Die PHI200: Mind and Machine (GSI1116I) April 25, 2011 A Request to Die Susan M. Wolf (2008) wrote a very touching article (p.23-26) regarding the pain and suffering her father endured during his final days of battling with several sicknesses. Not only did she have to see her father in pain and getting weaker and weaker, she now had to deal with him verbally expressing the desire to let him die. The love she felt for her father was so strong that she wanted to grant him this final wish, but also wanted to ensure he would not suffer from this and be as comfortable as possible. Due to his health rapidly deteriorating and he was in more pain every day, she began to seek assistance from the many hospitals he sought care in to help end her father’s suffering. This will be a brief discussion of the issue of ethics regarding physician-assisted suicide, her final consensus to this matter being interpreted as a deontological view verses my own view being the utilitarian view. I would also like to state that I do agree with Susan Wolf’s attempts to locate hospital officials to try and let her father die as he wished, but I do not agree with her final decision that she is still against legalizing physician-assisted suicides. Susan M. Wolf did extensive research on the subject of physician-assisted suicides and her stance of being against the legalizing of it is very clear. While going through her own personal tragedy with her dying father, she was forced to rethink...
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...Euthanasia – dying peacefully and with dignity KEVORKIAN (to Wantz): ''Have you gotten any better?'' WANTZ: ''It's gotten much worse. I wish I could have done it a year ago or two years ago. ... I tried loading a gun, but I didn't know how to load one. If you do it yourself, you don't know what you're doing.'' KEVORKIAN: ''Were you tired or apprehensive when you tried it yourself?'' WANTZ: ''No. People say, 'Hang in there. ... ' (But) when you're in my shoes, then you tell me what to do. Until you are, don't tell me what to do.'' (Castaneda) The foregoing conversation took place and was recorded on October 22, 1991, between Doctor Jack Kevorkian, 63, (later nicknamed as “Dr. Death” due to his notorious physician-assisted suicide practice) and Marjorie Wantz, 58, who had sought his help in ending her life and continuous pain from the incurable disease she had. Wantz fulfilled her wish on the next day when she died while being linked to one of Kevorkian’s ''suicide machines''. This incident once again raised a heated debate whether euthanasia should be legalized, and whether doctors assisting in patient’s voluntary death should be freed of charges. In 1995 Special Senate Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide defined euthanasia as “the deliberate act undertaken by one person with the intention of ending the life of another person in order to relieve that person’s suffering” (Law and Government Division). Despite the undeniable advantages of modern medicine in terms...
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...laying in the nursing home in pain. This woman is 80 years old and has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and her heart cannot withstand treatment via radiation or chemotherapy. She has less than six months to live. Day in and day out you pass her room and hear her crying out from the immense pain. The pain medications are no longer working. She’s tired of fighting, tired of hurting, and tired of waiting to die. After consideration and discussions with her family she has decided to ask the doctor to help and end her life. The doctor feels remorse for the elderly lady and wants to help but cannot decide if it is the ethical thing to do because he knows that what he’s being asked to do is considered physician-assisted suicide. How is physician-assisted suicide any different than regular suicide? Does the fact that a person is terminally ill make it right? Who gets to decide if it is right? These are questions people may ask themselves when deciding whether or not they think physician-assisted suicide is ethical. Whether it is requested or not, many would say it is unethical for a physician to deliberately cause death to a person. Physicians take an oath to first do no harm. Others may say that a person has the right to make his or her own decisions about his or her life. In this paper, I will explore each side of physician-assisted suicide and how it relates to virtue ethics, along with how I feel relativist would see the issue. Does physician-assisted suicide differ...
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...Question 1. Do you think what the EDS pilot did to Marilyn was what he ought to have done? Can you justify your position? What principles might you use to do so? What does Jan Narveson think about cases like Marilyn’s? Why does he think as he does? How many changes, and to what extent, would be the very minimum that would have to be made in Godwin’s story “Cold Equations” before you would think that Marilyn ought to be spared by the EDS pilot? Stephanie Mann 4778759 Phil 1F90 Maya Snrdic In the short story The Cold Equations, it depicts life’s real challenges, and how we must face them when in a decision of where we are obligated to figure out for ourselves what is right and wrong. Although this is a science-fictional story, it shows us how real life decisions are made, in which this case, the decision is threatening to one’s life. The choices made in this story are done through morality, utilitarianism, and assumption, clearly shown throughout the obstacles that are thrown at the main character and subject. In this short story, Marilyn made a choice, and clearly the last choice she could have made as a young 18 year old, to sneak onto a ship that was clearly marked “unauthorized personnel, keep out!” Little did she know was that her decision to sneak onto this ship would not be to pay a small fine, but would be to pay the price of her life. The EDS pilot now has to face decisions that he would rather not, since he is the one who has to choose who dies or not. He...
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...19, 2011 The disease that I chose was COPD, these diseases is very close to me because my mom die from this not even a year ago, What is diseases is called Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, what is does to you, is take the oxygen out your blood, COPD will cause coughing that produces large amounts of mucus, wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, hard to breath just walking to other side of the room. There are two different kinds of COPD; the two kinds of COPD are emphysema and chronic bronchitis, Emphysema is that the walls between the air sacs are damaged, causing them to lose their shape and become soft. The damage also can destroy the walls of the air sacs, leading to fewer and larger air sacs instead of many tiny ones. When this happens, the amount of gas exchange in the lungs is reduced; also the gas will built up into your body which can hurt the rest of the body at the same time. Chronic bronchitis is the lining of the airways is constantly irritated and inflamed. This causes the lining to thicken. When a lot of thick mucus forms in the airways, it makes it hard to breathe. COPD is the most leading cause of death in the USA. Over 12 million people are diagnosed with COPD; many more people may have the disease and not even know it until it is too late. There is no cure for COPD, there are treatments that can help with it, but to find the right that works is hard to find, you can live with this for year but you will die from this. Most the info...
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...be cured. Because euthanasia involves death, it is a very sensitive topic. The different viewpoints contribute to the opinions that people have about euthanasia. People with a heavy religious culture are more likely to be against it, whereas people suffering from a life threatening or terminal disease are not. Euthanasia is currently only allowed in the state of Oregon through the Death with Dignity Act that was placed in 1997 and in four other states as well as three countries. Since that act, only 752 of the 1173 patients actually carried on to kill themselves. An article written by Ryan Wallace on October 7, 2014 titled “One Woman's Quest to Die with Dignity—and What It Means for Us All” is about a 29 year old woman named Brittany Maynard who has been diagnosed with stage four glioblastoma multiform, which is a fast-growing brain cancer that kills its victims. She is one of many that are in favor of assisted-suicide due to her illness. Maynard moved to Portland, Oregon where she would be able to end her life legally thru the Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act (DWDA). Those who are advocates don’t believe it is considered suicide because “aid in dying involves mentally competent people who are terminally ill but would love to live, if possible.” Maynard said herself that “there is not a cell in my body that is suicidal or that wants to die” but she wishes there was a cure. Terminally ill people are given a dignified way to exit life thru assisted-death. In “Joni Eareckson Tada...
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...right to die? Everyone gets the chance to live their life to the fullest, but at a certain point in life one realizes that their life is not worth living anymore and with the right to die, people are given the ability to do something about their realization on life. Brittany Maynard was diagnosed in 2014 with terminal brain cancer. It was a hassle for her to get treatment because of travel and changing her whole life just so she could possibly get better. Brittany was set on physician-assisted death and she was persistent for everyone, including herself to get to choose how he or she would choose to end his or her lives. “Brittany believed death is everyone’s own private destination for which they need to plan…There...
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...bucket list The Bucket List; what can I say? The Bucket List is a movie starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson about the exploits in life they never got to accomplish and set out to do so after discovering they were going to die. It is an interesting take on death and how to deal with death. It shows many different viewpoints on the subject of death not just from the view of Edward (Nicholson) or Carter (Freeman.) This movie really makes you think about how you live your life. The Bucket List was considered one of the most uplifting movies of the year. These men both view death in different ways. Carter in the beginning accepted death; if he did not accept death yet the movie would have been over fairly quick. You can tell he accepted death because he started writing his bucket list as a metaphorical contract that states he has given his life and is ready to die. However towards the end of the movie it seems Carter has no longer accepted death because he refuses to go back home to his family after starting the list. I think he feels this way because he thinks when he gives up on the list that will signify the end. Edward in the beginning does not accept death he refuses to deal with funeral arrangements and the passing down of his possessions. Towards the end Edward realizes that his life has been fulfilled not from completing the list but truly finding a lifelong friend in Carter. It makes you wonder how different these men’s lives would be if they were not to meet each...
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...rights? Is it suicide? These are just a few of the arguments that are of great controversy. I believe that euthanasia should not be permissible and the only times it should be are in cases of non-voluntary euthanasia, when patients are in a Persistent Vegetative State (“PVS”), and in times of war, during combat. What is the difference in killing someone and allowing them to die? With euthanasia, we might as well kill because we’re taking part in that patient’s death. We are totally devaluing human life. In the laws of nature, all things must die. In the film Dax Case, the first thing the man who was involved in the explosion told the farmer, who was the first on the scene, was to get him a gun so he could put himself out of his misery. The entire time he was hospitalized, he wanted to end his life. Everyone he came in contact with, he asked that question. The physician would not give up on him, and in the end, he pulled through and made something of himself. Though he was impaired, he was still able to maintain a life he wouldn’t have had if they would have listened to his request. If they wouldn’t have shown compassion for his situation he would have been deceased a long time ago. It goes to show that everyone should be entitled to fight for life and not give up on themselves when times are futile. I don’t feel we should put physicians in a position where they have to take a life. Like Daniel Callahan eluded, euthanasia could cause physicians to feel responsible...
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...Introduction We have all had conversations with friends and family concerning what would happen if we were in a coma or on life support. Some people would want to stay on life support forever while others claim to pull the plug in a week. The wonders of modern medicine have come at a price. Not only are healthy people living longer lives, but the terminally ill patients are living longer (Coombs, 2017). For example, 30-year-old, Brittany Maynard, developed a brain cancer. She swore in the beginning to fight the disease and went through surgery’s and treatments to beat it. Unfortunately, the cancer returned, causing debilitating pain and headaches. She decided she wanted to have an assisted suicide, but the state of California had laws that...
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...“The weird thing about telling someone they're dying is it tends to focus on their priorities. You can find out what matters to them. What they’re willing to die for. What they're willing to die for.”(House M.D, Shore) Several are so scared to die they are willing to do anything in their power to live even if it means throwing others under the bus. On the other hand, when one is deeply passionate to be honest, they are able to take a stand on something that can leave them for dead as long as they did the right thing and their sacrifice can make a difference. Is it better to live a lie, or die and tell the truth? Without a doubt, die and tell the truth. It is common sense for several individuals, that we should always stand to our truth and...
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...and the red scarf she bought danced in the warm wind. “Wh-What!?” I asked, not sure I heard her right, or expecting her to smirk and tell me that she wanted to see my reaction. I would give her a thorough beating if that was the case. Death was not something to joke about. She finally looked at me, really looked at me, she was serious. “Rowyn, I’m dying.” Those words stabbed me, they pierced through all my defences that no enemy had been able to bypass before. “You-you can’t just joke like that Aeryn,” I gave a weak laugh, that caught in my throat. “You seem perfectly fine to me.” I was so panicky I smiled. She...
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...let die. Specific purpose : To persuade my audience that euthanasia should be legalized in Malaysia. Central idea : Euthanasia is about giving people the right to choose how they want to live and die, saves money in medical bills, and it also stops the person from having a bad quality of life. INTRODUCTION Attention getter : Imagine yourself being unable to walk, unable to see, and can barely breathe let alone speak. Your life was well lived all those years before. You are now in such unbearable pain that you can’t even cry. You can no longer complete simple tasks on your own and there is no way that you could function without assistance. You think and feel as if your life has no meaning. Although your family is there to support you, you wonder could ending your life be the answer? Well in all reality this isn’t something anyone needs to imagine. This is a real situation for many, many people. These people should be able to make their own choices and have control of their own lives. Thesis What’s life without the quality of life? Now let's take a look and examine 3 reasons why Physician Assistant suicide should be legalized. PAS is about giving people the right to choose how they want to live and die, saves money in medical bills, and it also stops the person from having a bad quality of life. Transition to body of speech : BODY A. Main-point 1: Everyone has the right to choose how they want to live and die. i. Supporting...
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