axemansean

Jess' school thread made me dig out this essay I wrote a few years back. Feel free to discuss it...

Euthanasia – understanding the emotional aspect

Euthanasia: Greek word meaning easy death. It is derived from the word euthanatos, which means an easy inducement of a painless death. (Webster Dictionary, http://www.webster.com)

The first time I heard the word euthanasia in any context was nine years back when I was talking to my father about his declining health. One of our conversations drifted towards what would happen to him in the future and that’s when he explained to me that should the situation arise where he becomes a burden to his family we are to allow him to end his life with the lethal injection. I objected and I told my dad that he was committing suicide, he said “No son it is not suicide it’s euthanasia.” Euthanasia, as he explained, was mercy killing where a person could take his life under medical supervision if he felt he was unable to live without medical support.

Euthanasia became an even more important subject in my life the same year when my father told me that the nevus on my right arm was cancerous. When I was hospitalized in 1997, due to an acute asthma attack, and had to have IV needles in my arm I almost felt like my career was over. When I came out I couldn’t lift anything with my arm because my hands were swollen to twice their size. For a moment I thought I could never play my guitar again. At the time music meant everything to me as I didn’t share a very close relationship with my family and losing the only thing I loved would have eventually killed me. That was the day that I realized how the laws of euthanasia did little to help those that had ceased to live emotionally.

Euthanasia as defined by the Webster Dictionary is “the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy.” (Webster Dictionary, http://www.webster.com) Whenever one talks about euthanasia the word terminal illness comes up. Terminal illness is defined as a sickness that will eventually lead to death. Death to this date is defined as the moment that the heart physically stops pumping blood. I agree that once the heart stops pumping blood the cells in the human body die. It is said that a person whose heart has stopped pumping can be clinically dead within two minutes. It is still a physical definition; nowhere does the law state that death can also occur due to a tragic emotional loss.

In November 1998 Dr Jack Kevorkian was charged with murder for helping Thomas Youk end his life. Mr. Youk had Lou Gehrig’s disease, an irreversible crippling illness. (BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk) How could a doctor be charged with murder when he was only helping another human being ease his pain? The following year Ms. Georgette Smith was allowed to get off her ventilator; she was paralyzed from the neck down after being shot by a bullet. (CNN News, http://www.cnn.com) The two cases were very similar yet the law took two different stances. Both were cases of potential physical death; yet it the former case the doctor that provided the lethal injection was charged with murder. It almost seems like the law about physical death is nothing but a fallacy.

In May 2001 James Lawson was charged with murder for allowing his 22 year old daughter, Sarah, to commit suicide because she felt she couldn’t live her life anymore. (BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk) Sarah’s brain had reached a point where she couldn’t control the thoughts of suicide and her family felt that the only way to help her was to allow her to end her life. The human brain is very intriguing; we know so little about it and yet it is what controls what we do everyday. If my brain didn’t ask me to type this next line this paper wouldn’t progress. The brain is the central control unit for the whole human body, if the brain decided to stop pumping blood to our heart we would die. Human emotions come from the brain, there are sections within it that control what are known as the basic feelings: hate, love, anger, passion, etc. These feelings are converted into different impulses and sent to different parts of the body. For instance, when we feel very angry our face turns red. Why does that happen? It is very simple; the brain sends the message that it has sensed anger and the pigments in the skin respond by turning red. When we suffer a devastating loss, like losing someone we love the body reacts in many extreme ways. Some people quit talking because their brain cannot send the impulse to their mouth. Others quit eating because the impulse never reaches the hand.

When a person loves something dearly their feelings generate from the brain. They must consciously realize the feeling of love otherwise their body cannot project it into the outer world. Everybody in this world has a thing they love; for some it may be their partner, for others it could be music, or art, etc. Tragedy often strikes and we lose this object of desire; it is desire because when we think about what we want at the end of the day it is this person/object that we think about. When my father told me the nevus in my arm could be cancerous and I might have to undergo surgery I was devastated. At the time my guitar meant the world to me. It was a feeling of love and the highlight of my day was coming home to play my guitar. When such an incident takes place the part of the brain that controls the feelings we have for this object simply dies. It is almost as if someone physically removed the sensory organs that controlled the feelings we had. At that point in time the person usually ceases to function like a normal human being. One of the words that keep popping into their head is suicide. Why? It is because life has devalued to them and they have no reason to be alive. Suicide is a very strong word; we incorporate it with people with unstable mental health. But, what if this person had another option; what if this person could still end his life without all the melodrama that surrounds those that attempted suicide. This is where euthanasia comes in; euthanasia usually involves the patient being given a lethal dose of some form of anaesthetic that stops the heart from beating. Does this person not deserve the right to die? In my mind he does, but unfortunately society feels that since this person is still physically alive he must live on to tomorrow. It doesn’t matter if he is no longer emotionally capable of being a human being.

In the last nine years I have tried to find an instance where a person was allowed to end his life because the emotional scars were too deep to bear. I found a single case, it was the Sarah Lawson case, but her father was eventually charged with murder. This is when I realized the law needed to be changed. If only we could add the clause that terminal illness is both physical and emotional then euthanasia would make more sense. Does euthanasia not state that it permits death to the hopelessly sick? That is reasoning enough for us to rewrite the medical ethics book. Suicide is very common in cases where a person has suffered a severe emotional loss. The most common forms of suicide are either shooting oneself or overdosing on pills. The former results in the bullet imploding in the brain and leaving the person unrecognizable. Imagine the horror of having to identify a person who has no face. The latter relaxes the spinchter muscles in the body and the body is covered in excreta. Again imagine the horror of being the one to discover the body. Euthanasia on the other hand employs more humane methods and the body is allowed to die peacefully.

With this small change we will bring about a larger change in society today. The rate of suicide is at its highest among teenagers because they are unable to cope with sudden emotional loss. Should these teens indeed have no reason to live they can seek a more painless way to die. That leaves their family clean from the ugly scars of suicide, as society still looks down upon the families of those that even attempt suicide.

I finally regained the relationship I once had with my family and friends. The reason I decided to love others is because I don’t want to die. I am too young to die and I have a whole life ahead of me. If tomorrow I had to have my arm amputated because the nevus had become malignant I would be hurt; but I could carry on with my life because I now have family and friends that I care about. But, some people don’t have such good fortune. They seek a single goal and when they reach it they devote their whole life to it. I think of these people and the kind of burden that they have to bear when the love of their life is gone.

Iced Earth wrote a song called “I died for you” and part of the lyrics went like this: “Oh how I love you/The pain won't go away/Oh when I need you/You're always so far away/I cry for you/Leaving myself to blame/I died for you/I gave up everything.” (Iced Earth, http://www.icedearth.com) Now I realize what Matt Barlowe was singing about. Unless you walk in the shoes of someone who has lost the one thing they loved the most; you will never know how excruciating the pain is.

Mandi

why, can i ask, WHY did u dig that up???

axemansean

Its going on my website, I just happen to have a very strong opinion on euthanasia. You don't need to read that if it offends you, goes back to the whole opinions are just opinions thing.

Jessica

can we make this a "post random work" thread?

and very good, especially for such a beaten topic

axemansean

Sure why not... I'd like to read stuff by the rest of the HANers.

civic2k2grl

this is han basement.opinions not allowed

RB26DETT

random work??
here's my summer reading essay
i forgot if this was one of my rough drafts or not

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn undoubtedly would have been hard for America to digest in the pre-Civil War era. Using the personality of the characters and various events, Mark Twain knocks a powerful blow to Southern philosophy that blacks are an inferior race.. One example of how Twain does this is through the incident in the fog when Huck plays a spiteful trick on Jim and convinces Jim that he had dreamt the whole ordeal. Jim’s response after he realizes that he had been tricked reveals much about Huck’s and Jim’s character and advances the action of the story, both of which went against the thinking of the South at the time.
Jim’s response to Huck’s trickery leads the reader deep into Jim’s and Huck’s character. Prior to this event in the fog, Jim demonstrates a very passive nature. Thus, Jim’s response to Huck’s prank is surprising. Jim, a runaway slave in the Deep South, responds audaciously, even while knowing that Huck can turn Jim in at anytime he wished. Jim looks him in the eye, and asserts that they’re friends when he says, “Dat truck dah is trash; en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren’s en makes ‘em ashamed.” (Twain 82). Hence Jim asserts that he and Huck are equals. This shows that Jim sincerely cares about Huck and that Jim is Huck’s friend. Even though Huck is white and, according to pre-Civil War society, superior to Jim, Jim thinks of Huck as a friend (had proven it), so much so that Jim expects Huck to act like a friend to him. Through heavily accented speech and unschooled grammar, Jim’s solemn response articulates a deep understanding of human relationships and demonstrates an ability to show other people his emotions. Thus, Mark Twain defies the social logic of the pre-Civil War era by attributing Jim with human characteristics. After this compelling response from Jim, Huck is forced to reconsider who Jim really is: a person or a runaway slave?
Although Huck feels very sorry for tricking Jim and resolves to treat him better, his way of thinking still reflects the mindset of most Southern white men.
It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a ******– but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn’t do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn’t done that one if I’d a knowed it would make him feel that way. (82)
Although he feels awfully sorry toward Jim, he is not prepared to readily except Jim as an equal or friend. The important fact, however, is that Huck eventually did apologize to Jim. This signifies that Huck acknowledges Jim as a human being with feelings, and considers Jim as a friend. Even though Huck apologized, he still could not readily accept Jim as an equal. To Huck, Jim was still a ****** before he was a person. This development in Huck’s character shows that Huck has morals. He does not just follow narrow-minded mainstream society that retained pre-Civil War philosophy about white supremacy. Instead, Huck chose what was progressive and right. In the eyes of society, befriending a black slave brought one down in social class. Huck befriended Jim. Yet, Huck’s relationship with Jim elevates his character by showing that Huck looks past the social stereotypes. Huck is able to view Jim as a person, rather than a slave.
Not only did the fog incident create a way for the reader to delve more deeply into Jim and Huck’s characters, it also pushes along the plot. This fog incident challenges Huck’s mindset and plants a seed of doubt in Huck’s social perspective. One can tell that this seed of doubt grows when later in the novel Huck was extremely close to turning Jim in, but chooses at the last second to turn his back to the way he and all other white boys were brought up at that time, which was to believe that black people are inferior to white people. Huck remembers the degree of care and friendship Jim has for him, and realizes he would feel worse betraying a friend than doing what is accepted conventionally as the “right thing”. The incident in the fog serves as a big step forward in the relationship between Huck and Jim, making such subsequent actions of loyalty and friendship understandable and fluent according to the flow of the story.
As a final point, it is important to keep in mind what Mark Twain is trying to depict by such revelations and arrangements. Using Huck’s purity and child-like trait supplemented with Jim’s compassionate and caring heart, Mark Twain not only creates two distinct characters that are extremely compatible with each other, but also exposes the absurdity and duplicity of racism. Going even further, by building up Huck and Jim’s relationship to the extreme, Mark Twain implies that Whites and Blacks can become true friends, loving and caring for each other. With style and literal mastery, Mark Twain sends a brazen message to post-Civil War society while illustrating the quintessence of the American character.
Using Jim’s compassionate and caring heart and Huck’s desire to do good, Mark Twain creates a deep relationship between the two characters. Not only is this relationship totally against Southern society’s view on black people, but Huck and Jim’s loyalty for each other also prevents Huck from turning in Jim, which was what is expected from a white person with a runaway slave. Using just one incident out of the whole novel, Mark Twain is able to reveal, completely, who Huck is and who Jim is. Through this, Twain rebukes Southern philosophy.

axemansean

RB26DETT thats a very good book you guys got to read.

RB26DETT

heres what i'm working on right now.. stupid chemistry lab

Andrew Lee
Albert Oh
Section 6

Molar Mass of a Volatile Liquid

Objective
The objective of this lab was to measure the volume and mass of an unknown liquid and figure out its molar mass.

Materials and Equipment
600 mL beaker
125 mL Erlenmeyer flask
One-holed rubber stopper with a plastic tube
250 mL graduated cylinder
Hot plate
Water
Unknown volatile liquid
Ring stand
Utility clamp
Thermometer
Electronic scale

Procedure

The 600mL beaker was filled with 400mL of water and place on the hotplate to boil. Meanwhile, a 125mL Erlenmeyer flask was weighed, filled with 3-4mL of the unknown liquid and plugged with the rubber stopper. The flask was clamed to the utility clamp and was slowly lowered into the beaker of boiling water using the ring stand. After all the liquid in the flask vaporized, the flask was removed from the boiling water and set to cool. The temperature of the boiling water was taken. The flask was cooled, dried, and then weighed again. The flask was emptied and the steps were repeated. Then, the stopper was pulled out. The flask was filled with water, plugged again, and dried. After that, the volume of the water was measured by pouring it in a graduated cylinder.


Data and Observations
Unknown used Liquid A
Mass of flask, stopper, and tube 87.45g
Mass of flask, stopper, tube, and condensed vapor 87.89g 87.94g
Temperature of boiling water 100.3°C
Barometric pressure 751 mmHg
Volume of flask 147mL



Calculations

Mass of condensed vapor: 87.94g – 87.89g = .05g
Barometric Pressure in atm: 751mmHg * (1atm / 760mmHg) = .988atm
Temperature to Kelvin: 100.3°C + 273 = 373.3K
Volume to liters: 147mL * (1L / 1000mL) = .147L
Molar mass of unknown: mm = (gRT) / (PV) = (.05)(.0821)(373.3) / (.988)(.147)
= .23 g/mol


Results
The molar mass of the unknown was

Questions
What effect would each have on the calculated molar mass? Would the calculated molar mass be too high or too low?
1. The flask was not fully dry when it was weighed after cooling. Too high
2. The flask was kept in the boiling water for too long. Too low
3. The flask was removed from the boiling water too soon. Too high
4. Water was inside the flask before the addition of unknown liquid. Too high

Mandi

yea, i understand. and i also happen to have a strong opinion on it too...i just thought there was enough drama and shit on here today and this is just going to add to it.