Code of Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Code of Ethics - Essay Example My core values are respect, integrity, responsibility, and fairness. Respect is important to me because I honor all individuals as human beings with dignity. Respect is essential in having a good life because, if I see every one as equal, I will not mistreat or abuse anyone. Furthermore, respect means being open to and tolerant of differences. If I respect people, I do not need to force my beliefs and values on them. I will not also unfairly judge them, which avoids prejudice and discrimination. Integrity is my second core value because it means being honest in what I say and do. Integrity is important to living a good life because I can earn and protect the trust of people. I will also feel better about myself because my values do not conflict with my actions. Responsibility is the third core value that I find important because I want to be accountable for my decisions and actions. Responsibility is significant to a good life because I am proactive in setting goals and handling prob lems. Fairness is also an important core value because I want to be impartial by listening to others and having an open mind. It is valuable to a good life because it results to just processes and outcomes. My core values will help me live a good life because they will enable me to become conscious of my ethical needs as a human being and to respect other people as beings with equal moral worth. I believe that I have good moral character because I live with integrity. Integrity is all about interconnecting my values, beliefs, attitudes, and actions. To be a person of integrity is to act according to my cherished values and virtues. The virtues that I aspire to cultivate and practice are connected to my code of ethics. I want to embody the virtues of hope, justice, and temperance. By having hope, I see positive things in people and the future. I also contribute to a hopeful future through my actions,

Discuss how evidence-based practice is applied in your practice Assignment

Discuss how evidence-based practice is applied in your practice setting and describe the desired patient outcome achieved through this approach - Assignment Example To start with, evidence based practice has led to the adoption of the best methods of releasing results to patients and their relatives. The inter-professional staff members in the Oncology department have different levels of education and preparation leading to some differences in managing some problems. For instance, at first any oncology staff in the department could release results to patients (Love & Rodrigue, 2013). But with time, the department realized that bad news released to patients by most doctors who had fewer interactions with the patients made them suffer psychologically and in most cases succumbed to malignancies too soon. On realizing this, most of the staff have attended some sessions in order to improve their techniques of handling patients. Consequently, better methods of releasing results have been introduced. Currently, dispatching results is often done by nurses who have much positive interaction with patients and also those who have time to explain to them on best treatment practices to be undertaken. Love and Rodrigue (2013), suggests that this has minimized the occurrence of early deaths in the unit by a large margin. EBR has also been employed in radiation treatments (Love & Rodrigue, 2013). Initially, the oncology department did not emphasis much on testing sensitivity of a patient to chemotherapy, but largely relied on the standard operating procedures for different stages of cancer. Later, the head of the department suggested on using tumor markers to determine individualized based sensitivity or resistance to chemotherapy to help manage cancer patients better. Upon adopting the above strategies, treatment methods such as selecting drugs were largely based on individual sensitivity and the analysis of tumor markers. This led to better response of patients to chemotherapy in the hospital and the practice was widely borrowed by neighboring hospitals. With time, it was discovered that some patients, especially those in

Level of Awareness Regarding Preconception Care

Level of Awareness Regarding Preconception Care Betty Neumans theory was used as Conceptual Framework for the study. Quantitative survey research approach was used. The study was conducted at Saradha College of education, Salem and Govt. Arts College for Women, Salem. 100 samples were recruited by Non Probability convenient Sampling Technique who meets the inclusion criteria. The content validity of tools and Booklet regarding preconception care after marriage was done by 5 experts. 80% agreement was there in tools and booklet modification was made according to their suggestion. The reliability of the tool was also checked using spilt-half method and was found as r=0.89. The pilot study was conducted in Govt.Arts College, Salem with 10 samples. No modifications were made after the pilot study. Data was collected in the month of September, 2010 (14.9.2010- 30.09.2010). Initially the researcher got formal permission from Saradha College of education and in Govt. Arts College for women, Salem. Informed written consent was obtained from each sample after explaining the purpose of the study and was given assurance for keeping the information confidentially. The data was collected by using convenient sampling technique. The baseline assessment of the present health status of the samples was assessed. In this menstrual history, Family history of consanguineous marriage, Family history of high risk pregnancy, Family health history was collected. The hemoglobin was checked with the help of Sahelis Hemoglobinometer. Body Mass Index was also calculated with their respective height and weight. The knowledge regarding awareness on preconception care was assessed by structured knowledge questionnaire. Informational booklet regarding preconception care after marriage was given to the sam ples after the knowledge assessment to improve the knowledge. Data analysis was done by using descriptive and inferential statistics. MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE STUDY I. Findings related to Demographic Variables: Out of 100 samples Majority of the Students:67% were in the age group 20-22years Majority of the Students: 53% were postgraduates Majority of the students: 80% belong to nuclear family Family monthly income of the students: 51% were between ` 2001-6000. Majority of the students were living in rural area: 52% Majority of the students were Hindu: 96% II. Findings related to baseline assessment of the present health status of the samples: Majority of the samples 35% attained menarche in the age of 14 years Regarding menstruation 73% was having regular menstruation. With regard to the discomfort before menstruation 43%were having discomfort before menstruation Regarding pain during menstruation 25%was having pain during menstruation. Majority of the students 33% parents had consanguineous marriage Regarding Family history of high risk pregnancy 34% majority of the students mother/sister had the history of vomiting during pregnancy. Majority of the samples 25%had the family health history of hypertension Regarding body Mass Index 8% were having normal body Mass Index (18.5-24.9kg/m2), 37% were underweight ( With regard to the hemoglobin level measurement 25%were having normal Hemoglobin level (11-12mg/dl), 71% were moderate anemic (9-10mg/dl) and 4% were severe anemic ( III. Findings related to Level of awareness regarding preconception care: Out of 100 samples 37% were having inadequate knowledge regarding preconception care, 61% having moderate knowledge and 2%were having adequate knowledge. The mean score percentage is 49.3 which was revealed that the samples had inadequate knowledge regarding preconception care. IV. Findings related to association with Demographic Variables: There was no significant association with the level of knowledge regarding preconception and their age [à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡2 value=5.0358, Table value = 9.48 and df = 4 at 0.05 level]. There was no significant association with the level of knowledge regarding preconception and their education [à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡2 value=1.817, Table value = 5.99 and df = 2 at 0.05 level] There was no significant association with the level of knowledge regarding preconception and their type of family [à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡2 value=0.525, Table value = 5.99 and df = 2 at 0.05 level]. There was no significant association with the level of knowledge regarding preconception and their family monthly income[à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡2 value=6.8159, Table value = 9.49 and df = 4 at 0.05 level] There was no significant association with the level of knowledge regarding preconception and their religion [à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡2 value=0.424, Table value = 5.99 and df = 2 at 0.05 level] There was significant association with the level of knowledge regarding preconception and their area of residence [à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡2 value=10.2016, Table value =.9.49 and df = 4 at 0.05 level] V. Findings related to responses of the samples after reading the booklet: The responses of the samples after reading the Informational Booklet was assessed, which showed that out of 100 samples, all the samples have read the Informational Booklet. 89 samples really felt that the booklet was highly useful and remaining 11 felt even though it was used further teaching could have more benefitted them. Most useful section felt by the samples were consumption of balanced diet 45%, maintaining normal body weight 61%, folic acid supplementation 78% and stress reduction 27%. IMPLICATIONS The findings of the study have implication in various areas of Nursing practice, Nursing Education, Nursing Administration Nursing research. Nursing Practice: Nurses are involved in all phases of preconception care like prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment of anemia and other health related issues before pregnancy. Preconception care is a systematic medical supervision of women before pregnancy. It is a preventive branch of Obstetrics and aims at preserving the physiologic aspect before pregnancy. The preconception care avoids as well as detects any complication before pregnancy at the earliest. Nurses can teach the public to engage in health promotion and health check up to prevent further complication. The study implicates the existing knowledge gap and felt needs for information regarding preconception care, management of anemia and other health related issues among women before pregnancy. It offers an excellent opportunity to the public health nurse, auxillary nurse, the midwives, all health workers in urban and rural areas to give information and education in order to promote positive attitude among women about preconception care. Nursing Education: Maternal and Child Health care is the primary goal for both in Obstetric and Gynecological Nursing and Community Health Nursing. In nursing schools, Colleges and other Nursing Educational Institutions the students should be adequately prepared to provide mass health education programme to improve level of knowledge regarding preconception care. This will help to reduce the health related problem in concern with the pregnancy. The curriculum should add various practical programmes to make the student more aware about the importance of screening and prevention of anemia and other health related issues in the early period itself. The findings of the study will help the Nurses, those who are working in teaching area to prepare the students to acquire more knowledge regarding preconception care. The nurse educators must prepare students in both diploma degree levels for educating regarding preconception care. It will help the students to understand the importance of preconception care. Teaching about preconception care provides an opportunity to start an open discussion on doubts regarding it. Nursing students should be equipped with upto date knowledge regarding preconception care. This will help in reducing the number of pregnancy related issues in future. Nursing Administration: Nursing administration take care initiation in creating policies plans in providing education regarding preconception care and its practices to the women before pregnancy. Health professionals are playing vital role in providing education to the students. Nursing personnel should be prepared to take leadership role in educating the Nurses, Community health workers other health personnel to provide health education regarding preconception care to the women. The nurse administrator should take adequate steps in formulating policies and standing protocols in providing patient education regarding preconception care Nurse administer have to make care plan according to needs of people. The study findings will help the nurse administrators to conduct regular health education programme to prepare the staff nurses. The nurse administrator should organize continuing education programme or in service education for staff nurse regarding preconception care. Nursing Research: The study revealed that the mean score percentage was 49.3 which revealed that the samples were having inadequate knowledge regarding preconception care. It emphasizes a great need for research in creating awareness regarding preconception care among the unmarried students after marriage. There is a need to conduct longitudinal studies to find out the level of awareness regarding preconception care. In India the studies regarding preconception care was very less. Such study should be done to improve the knowledge of the women and to have the better future. So the findings of the study can be utilized or motivated for conducting further research in future to improve the level of knowledge regarding preconception care. LIMITATION Generalisation of the study was limited in the samples only. RECOMMENDATIONS A similar study can be conducted with large number of samples. A similar study can be conducted with control group and experimental group A interventional study can also be conducted to know the effectiveness of measures used to improve the knowledge regarding preconception care

Dual Language Programs Essays -- Bilingual Education, foreign language

Beyond English Development: Bilingual Approaches to Teaching Immigrant Students and English Language Learners What a feeling! Learning a new language gives individuals a new way of thinking and feeling. Learning a new kind of language involves having total commitment and total involvement from students and teachers. In the article, Beyond English Development: Bilingual Approaches to Teaching Immigrant Students and English Language Learners indicates there are various standard definitions that describe language (Billings, Martin-Beltran, and Hernandez, 2010). Language is used to communicate with others and is essentially human, but not limited to only human beings. As individuals learn English as their Second Language, they learn that language is acquired by all kinds of people in the same way. Mostly children can adapt and/or learn a foreign language better than adults due to children developing language and skills spontaneously (Honigsfield, 2009). Second language learners have variables such as memory, perception, acquisition, conscious and subconscious learning styles, and recall. Even though, second language learners have those instilled variables, it is imperative for the teachers to guide learning and set the conditions of learning. Bilingual Children with Primary Language Impairment: Issues, Evidence, and Implications for Clinical Actions In the article, Bilingual Children with Primary Language Impairment: Issues, Evidence, and Implications for Clinical Actions, Kohner (2010) indicate numerous school districts that have implemented bilingual programs to help the English Language Learners. Dual language programs enhance student outcomes and close the achievement gap of Second Language Learners (Coyoca and Lee, 2009... ... learners enjoy each others’ culture and life experiences as they relate to subject-areas (Nemeth, 2009). Conclusion The population of the United States increased with school age children speaking English as their second language. Strong community leaders and school districts are needed to ensure English language learners attend effective programs that teach them English and push them to graduate successfully (Buysse, Castro, and Peisner-Feinberg, 2010). School districts across America use their own approach to accommodate the learning of English language learners by having a single or combination of programs (Li and Edwards, 2010). Dual language programs allow children to collaborate in developmental levels such as cognitive with tasks in English and Spanish (Pascopella, 2011). English language learners and English proficient students learn from each other. Dual Language Programs Essays -- Bilingual Education, foreign language Beyond English Development: Bilingual Approaches to Teaching Immigrant Students and English Language Learners What a feeling! Learning a new language gives individuals a new way of thinking and feeling. Learning a new kind of language involves having total commitment and total involvement from students and teachers. In the article, Beyond English Development: Bilingual Approaches to Teaching Immigrant Students and English Language Learners indicates there are various standard definitions that describe language (Billings, Martin-Beltran, and Hernandez, 2010). Language is used to communicate with others and is essentially human, but not limited to only human beings. As individuals learn English as their Second Language, they learn that language is acquired by all kinds of people in the same way. Mostly children can adapt and/or learn a foreign language better than adults due to children developing language and skills spontaneously (Honigsfield, 2009). Second language learners have variables such as memory, perception, acquisition, conscious and subconscious learning styles, and recall. Even though, second language learners have those instilled variables, it is imperative for the teachers to guide learning and set the conditions of learning. Bilingual Children with Primary Language Impairment: Issues, Evidence, and Implications for Clinical Actions In the article, Bilingual Children with Primary Language Impairment: Issues, Evidence, and Implications for Clinical Actions, Kohner (2010) indicate numerous school districts that have implemented bilingual programs to help the English Language Learners. Dual language programs enhance student outcomes and close the achievement gap of Second Language Learners (Coyoca and Lee, 2009... ... learners enjoy each others’ culture and life experiences as they relate to subject-areas (Nemeth, 2009). Conclusion The population of the United States increased with school age children speaking English as their second language. Strong community leaders and school districts are needed to ensure English language learners attend effective programs that teach them English and push them to graduate successfully (Buysse, Castro, and Peisner-Feinberg, 2010). School districts across America use their own approach to accommodate the learning of English language learners by having a single or combination of programs (Li and Edwards, 2010). Dual language programs allow children to collaborate in developmental levels such as cognitive with tasks in English and Spanish (Pascopella, 2011). English language learners and English proficient students learn from each other.

Roland Barthes the Death of the Author

The Death of the Author In his story Sarrasine, Balzac, speaking of a castrato disguised as a woman, writes this sentence: â€Å"It was Woman, with her sudden fears, her irrational whims, her instinctive fears, her unprovoked bravado, her daring and her delicious delicacy of feeling† Who is speaking in this way? Is it the story's hero, concerned to ignore the castrato concealed beneath the woman? Is it the man Balzac, endowed by his personal experience with a philosophy of Woman?Is it the author Balzac, professing certain â€Å"literary† ideas of femininity? Is it universal wisdom? or romantic psychology? It will always be impossible to know, for the good reason that all writing is itself this special voice, consisting of several indiscernible voices, and that literature is precisely the invention of this voice, to which we cannot assign a specific origin: literature is that neuter, that composite, that oblique into which every subject escapes, the trap where all identi ty is lost, beginning with the very identity of the body that writes.Probably this has always been the case: once an action is recounted, for intransitive ends, and no longer in order to act directly upon reality – that is, finally external to any function but the very exercise of the symbol – this disjunction occurs, the voice loses its origin, the author enters his own death, writing begins.Nevertheless, the feeling about this phenomenon has been variable; in primitive societies, narrative is never undertaken by a person, but by a mediator, shaman or speaker, whose â€Å"performance† may be admired (that is, his mastery of the narrative code), but not his â€Å"genius† The author is a modern figure, produced no doubt by our society insofar as, at the end of the middle ages, with English empiricism, French rationalism and the personal faith of the Reformation, it discovered the prestige of the individual, or, to put it more nobly, of the â€Å"human per son† Hence it is logical that with regard to literature it should be positivism, resume and the result of capitalist ideology, which has accorded the greatest importance to the author's â€Å"person†The author still rules in manuals of literary history, in biographies of writers, in magazine interviews, and even in the awareness of literary men, anxious to unite, by their private journals, their person and their work; the image of literature to be found in contemporary culture is tyrannically centered on the author, his person, his history, his tastes, his passions; criticism still consists, ost of the time, in saying that Baudelaire's work is the failure of the man Baudelaire, Van Gogh's work his madness, Tchaikovsky's his vice: the explanation of the work is always sought in the man who has produced it, as if, through the more or less transparent allegory of fiction, it was always finally the voice of one and the same person, the author, which delivered his â€Å"con fidence. â€Å"Though the Author's empire is still very powerful (recent criticism has often merely consolidated it), it is evident that for a long time now certain writers have attempted to topple it. In France, Mallarme was doubtless the first to see and foresee in its full extent the necessity of substituting language itself for the man who hitherto was supposed to own it; for Mallarme, as for us, it is language which speaks, not the author: to write is to reach, through a preexisting impersonality never to be confused with the castrating objectivity of the realistic ovelist – that point where language alone acts, â€Å"performs,† and not â€Å"oneself†: Mallarme's entire poetics consists in suppressing the author for the sake of the writing (which is, as we shall see, to restore the status of the reader. ) Valery, encumbered with a psychology of the Self, greatly edulcorated Mallarme's theory, but, turning in a preference for classicism to the lessons of rh etoric, he unceasingly questioned and mocked the Author, emphasized the linguistic and almost â€Å"chance† nature of his activity, and throughout his prose works championed the essentially verbal condition of literature, in the face of which any recourse to the writer's inferiority seemed to him pure superstition.It is clear that Proust himself, despite the apparent psychological character of what is called his analyses, undertook the responsibility of inexorably blurring, by an extreme subtilization, the relation of the writer and his characters: by making the narrator not the person who has seen or felt, nor even the person who writes, but the person who will write (the young man of the novel – but, in fact, how old is he, and who is he? – wants to write but cannot, and the novel ends when at last the writing becomes possible), Proust has given modern writing its epic: by a radical reversal, instead of putting his life into his novel, as we say so often, he m akes his very life into a work for which his own book was in a sense the model, so that it is quite obvious to us that it is not Charlus who imitates Montesquiou, but that Montesquiou in his anecdotal, historical reality is merely a secondary fragment, derived from Charlus.Surrealism lastly – to remain on the level of this prehistory of modernity – surrealism doubtless could not accord language a sovereign place, since language is a system and since what the movement sought was, romantically, a direct subversion of all codes – an illusory subversion, moreover, for a code cannot be destroyed, it can only be â€Å"played with†; but by abruptly violating expected meanings (this was the famous surrealist â€Å"jolt†), by entrusting to the hand the responsibility of writing as fast as possible what the head itself ignores (this was automatic writing), by accepting the principle and the experience of a collective writing, surrealism helped secularize the image of the Author.Finally, outside of literature itself (actually, these distinctions are being superseded), linguistics has just furnished the destruction of the Author with a precious analytic instrument by showing that utterance in its entirety is a void process, which functions perfectly without requiring to be filled by the person of the interlocutors: linguistically, the author is never anything more than the man who writes, just as I is no more than the man who says I: language knows a â€Å"subject,† not a â€Å"person,† end this subject, void outside of the very utterance which defines it, suffices to make language â€Å"work,† that is, to exhaust it. The absence of the Author (with Brecht, we might speak here of a real â€Å"alienation:' the Author diminishing like a tiny figure at the far end of the literary stage) is not only a historical fact or an act of writing: it utterly transforms the modern text (or – what is the same thing – the text is henceforth written and read so that in it, on every level, the Author absents himself). Time, first of all, is no longer the same.The Author, when we believe in him, is always conceived as the past of his own book: the book and the author take their places of their own accord on the same line, cast as a before and an after: the Author is supposed to feed the book – that is, he pre-exists it, thinks, suffers, lives for it; he maintains with his work the same relation of antecedence a father maintains with his child. Quite the contrary, the modern writer (scriptor) is born simultaneously with his text; he is in no way supplied with a being which precedes or transcends his writing, he is in no way the subject of which his book is the predicate; there is no other time than that of the utterance, and every text is eternally written here and now.This is because (or: it follows that) to write can no longer designate an operation of recording, of observing, of representi ng, of â€Å"painting† (as the Classic writers put it), but rather what the linguisticians, following the vocabulary of the Oxford school, call a performative, a rare verbal form (exclusively given to the first person and to the present), in which utterance has no other content than the act by which it is uttered: something like the / Command of kings or the I Sing of the early bards; the modern writer, having buried the Author, can therefore no longer believe, according to the â€Å"pathos† of his predecessors, that his hand is too slow for his thought or his passion, and that in consequence, making a law out of necessity, he must accentuate this gap and endlessly â€Å"elaborate† his form; for him, on the contrary, his hand, detached from any voice, borne by a pure gesture of inscription (and not of expression), traces a field without origin – or which, at least, has no other origin than language itself, that is, the very thing which ceaselessly questio ns any origin. We know that a text does not consist of a line of words, releasing a single â€Å"theological† meaning (the â€Å"message† of the Author-God), but is a space of many dimensions, in which are wedded and contested various kinds of writing, no one of which is original: the text is a tissue of citations, resulting from the thousand sources of culture.Like Bouvard and Pecuchet, those eternal copyists, both sublime and comical and whose profound absurdity precisely designates the truth of writing, the writer can only imitate a gesture forever anterior, never original; his only power is to combine the different kinds of writing, to oppose some by others, so as never to sustain himself by just one of them; if he wants to express himself, at least he should know that the internal â€Å"thing† he claims to â€Å"translate† is itself only a readymade dictionary whose words can be explained (defined) only by other words, and so on ad infinitum: an expe rience which occurred in an exemplary fashion to the young De Quincey, so gifted in Greek that in order to translate into that dead language certain absolutely modern ideas and images, Baudelaire tells us, â€Å"he created for it a standing dictionary much more complex and extensive than the one which results from the vulgar patience of purely literary themes† (Paradis Artificiels). succeeding the Author, the writer no longer contains within himself passions, humors, sentiments, impressions, but that enormous dictionary, from which he derives a writing which can know no end or halt: life can only imitate the book, and the book itself is only a tissue of signs, a lost, infinitely remote imitation.Once the Author is gone, the claim to â€Å"decipher† a text becomes quite useless. To give an Author to a text is to impose upon that text a stop clause, to furnish it with a final signification, to close the writing. This conception perfectly suits criticism, which can then t ake as its major task the discovery of the Author (or his hypostases: society, history, the psyche, freedom) beneath the work: once the Author is discovered, the text is â€Å"explained:' the critic has conquered; hence it is scarcely surprising not only that, historically, the reign of the Author should also have been that of the Critic, but that criticism (even â€Å"new criticism†) should be overthrown along with the Author. In a ultiple writing, indeed, everything is to be distinguished, but nothing deciphered; structure can be followed, â€Å"threaded† (like a stocking that has run) in all its recurrences and all its stages, but there is no underlying ground; the space of the writing is to be traversed, not penetrated: writing ceaselessly posits meaning but always in order to evaporate it: it proceeds to a systematic exemption of meaning. Thus literature (it would be better, henceforth, to say writing), by refusing to assign to the text (and to the world as text) a â€Å"secret:' that is, an ultimate meaning, liberates an activity which we might call counter-theological, properly revolutionary, for to refuse to arrest meaning is finally to refuse God and his hypostases, reason, science, the law.Let us return to Balzac's sentence: no one (that is, no â€Å"person†) utters it: its source, its voice is not to be located; and yet it is perfectly read; this is because the true locus of writing is reading. Another very specific example can make this understood: recent investigations (J. P. Vernant) have shed light upon the constitutively ambiguous nature of Greek tragedy, the text of which is woven with words that have double meanings, each character understanding them unilaterally (this perpetual misunderstanding is precisely what is meant by â€Å"the tragic†); yet there is someone who understands each word in its duplicity, and understands further, one might say, the very deafness of the characters speaking in front of him: this someone is precisely the reader (or here the spectator).In this way is revealed the whole being of writing: a text consists of multiple writings, issuing from several cultures and entering into dialogue with each other, into parody, into contestation; but there is one place where this multiplicity is collected, united, and this place is not the author, as we have hitherto said it was, but the reader: the reader is the very space in which are inscribed, without any being lost, all the citations a writing consists of; the unity of a text is not in its origin, it is in its destination; but this destination can no longer be personal: the reader is a man without history, without biography, without psychology; he is only that someone who holds gathered into a single field all the paths of which the text is constituted.This is why it is absurd to hear the new writing condemned in the name of a humanism which hypocritically appoints itself the champion of the reader's rights. The reader ha s never been the concern of classical criticism; for it, there is no other man in literature but the one who writes. We are now beginning to be the dupes no longer of such antiphrases, by which our society proudly champions precisely what it dismisses, ignores, smothers or destroys; we know that to restore to writing its future, we must reverse its myth: the birth of the reader must be ransomed by the death of the Author.

Differing Scholarly Views on the Euthanasia Situation

Differing Scholarly Views on the Euthanasia Situation People in Canada are diagnosed with terminal illness’ every day. They know when they are going to die and often suffer until then. Why can’t patients diagnosed with a terminal illness be given the option to be euthanized? It would allow such patients to die painlessly and peacefully instead of having to suffer. While currently illegal in all but five areas of the world, assisted suicide and euthanasia are quickly becoming a more prevalent topic globally with more and more countries looking at making the move to legalize the acts.It has been legalized nationally in countries such as the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium while also being legalized in the states of Oregon and Washington in the United States of America. The article from the New England Journal of Medicine, Redefining Physicians` Role in Assisted Dying by Lisa Lehmann, uses the state of Oregon as a basis for much of her research and probing into both si des of the argument behind euthanasia.Margaret Somerville, a world renown ethicist and academic known for some of her controversial views, also gives her own insight into the topic in the article Legalized Euthanasia Only a Breath Away, published by the Globe and Mail. Somerville bases much of her argument around personal opinions and strong beliefs. I will examine the merits and proposals brought forth by each author and compare them to each other. The contrast between these two papers is quite evident in ways of structure and delivery of information.In Somerville`s article, she establishes early on that, morally speaking, assisted death is a blatant disregard for the sanctity and respect for human life. She even goes as far as to call it â€Å"unconstitutional†. When describing the people who stand on either side of this argument of legalizing euthanasia, she says, â€Å"†¦it comes down to a direct conflict between the value of respect for human life, on the one hand, and individual rights to autonomy and self-determination – the value of `choice`- on the other. She establishes the two positions one has to choose from in the argument over this topic and leaves little room for change on either side. This entire argument being based solely on her opinion and giving no facts to back either of the positions makes it very biased in favour of keeping euthanasia illegal. In Somerville’s article, she shows the availability of the process in Oregon and how it is very helpful to those who seek it out. Somerville believes that no one should have control over whether another human lives or dies.That is why she believes euthanasia should be an available option to terminal patients. One of the driving points that Somerville delivers is that, â€Å"research shows that the most likely reasons people want assisted suicide/euthanasia are fear of being abandoned – dying alone and unloved. † Without any source cited for the research, it brings the validity of the argument into question. It seems more of a popular opinion twisted into a fact for the purpose of supporting an argument, especially after comparing Lehmann’s article is read.She quotes from the thirteenth annual report from Oregon`s Death with Dignity Act that, â€Å"Most (patients) say that they are motivated by a loss of autonomy and an inability to engage in activities that give their meaning† as the primary reason for considering euthanasia in Oregon. It also cites lack of ability to control pain being one of the least common reasons for euthanizing as well, due in regards to the leaps and bounds modern medicine has made in palliative care in contrast to the 60’s. Having an element of control over the time one dies and how it happens is something that is understandable for many terminal patients to desire.Knowing when they are supposed to die makes it very hard for terminal patients to fully enjoy any life experiences because they constantly remind themselves of how little time they have until their death. This statement brings doubt to the â€Å"research† that Somerville uses to fortify her stance against assisted death, especially with a lack of a credible source into said research. Within Lehman’s article, she states some main objections to euthanasia commonly used by critics. One is that having an option to end one’s life will reduce the quality of palliative care.But that is not the case in Oregon. Lehman’s research has shown that overall spending and patient ratings on palliative care have consistently risen in the thirteen year period that euthanasia has been legal. Another popular objection is that practitioners of euthanasia are working on a â€Å"slippery slope† and that the process for selecting euthanasia candidates will someday be expanded to accept patients with nonterminal illnesses or even non-voluntary euthanasia. But within Oregon, Lehman describes how a p atient must go a long process before actually being euthanized.A panel of medical professionals considers many different factors of the patient such as diagnosis, pain tolerance, depression, state of mind, and many others. This process takes at least 2-4 weeks. After taking all the factors into consideration, the patient will be given the panel’s decision on whether they are a candidate for euthanasia. Strict tangencies such as the review panel that are in place within Oregon will prevent any change to euthanasia laws. The guidelines are very â€Å"black and white† so there are no misinterpretations and the laws are set in stone.Lehman’s opinions are well thought out and well supported by the research into the process in Oregon, one of the few places on Earth with a legal euthanasia practice. Research into the selection process directly contradicts many popular objection made by critics against legalization of euthanasia. Opinions are very powerful tools that ca n greatly influence the outcome and views of others in open and controversial topics. Opinions should be based around factual information and solid research, not personal beliefs and motives. This is the clear case between Somerville’s and Lehmann’s articles.Both being very qualified and knowledgeable in different areas of study, Lehman simply uses her research and time resources fully and reaps the rewards of having a very strong opinion based around factual information based on the foundations of research. Lehman’s opinion will carry much more weight that Somerville’s which is based off unproven claims and research with no citations. When it comes to controversial topics such as euthanasia, it is important to collect as much information as possible before making an informed decision on whether to have it as an option to terminal patients or not.The decision made will impact people’s lives one way or another. It’s just a matter of which dec ision will have a greater benefit for the human population. Author. â€Å"Title of Article. † Name of Magazine. Name of Publisher, Day Mon. Year: Pages. Medium. Date you accessed it. Somerville, M. â€Å"Legalized Euthanasia Only A Breath Away. † Globe and Mail, 16 June. 2012. Retrieved October 14, 2012 Lehmann, L. â€Å"Redefining Physician’s Role in Assisted Dying. † New England Journal of Medicine, 12 July. 2012: 97-99. 367. Retrieved October 14, 2012 Word Count: 1195