Self Analysis Post

Yes, unfortunately the time has come where the blogging process must come to an end. However, it is a good thing that I was able to grow from this process and it has not only made me a better writer but a better thinker. I started of my blog posts by trying to define clearly what euthanasia was and express my feelings on it morality. Upon choosing the topic I will admit that I had a very small amount of knowledge about euthanasia, but this knowledge grew as my argument developed on my blog. Through deductive reasoning my blog posts went from being focused on both passive and active euthanasia, to the focus being active euthanasia.

Obviously with my topic being active euthanasia, it typically deals with older terminally ill patients. I felt it was essential to increase my knowledge of the last stages of life. This helped me to broaden my perspective and look at the entire matter. I was then able to give my readers a broader perspective of the topic. Also, since I was opposing active euthanasia I had to provide an alternative to make the lives of terminally ill patients better. I proposed that increased funding for hospice and an increase knowledge/use of palliative care would benefit the lives of those persons contemplating euthanasia.

Being new to the entire blogging experience it was hard to get my information together and relay it as something that my classmates and others would want to read about. I tried to make my posts as clear as possible. When my readers seemed to be confused about something, I strived to clarify in the best way that I could. One example of this is my post entitled “Clarification” which cleared up the difference between a do not resuscitate order and euthanasia. My rhetoric has improved by means of my appeal to my audience, being an unbiased and knowledgeable speaker, and the control of my topic. Even thought my audience (mostly my fellow classmates) may not be able to relate to the feelings of euthanasia, I think that through my blogs they were able to put themselves in the shoes of a terminally ill person and comment as to how they would feel if they were in a similar situation. My blog on the study of family’s reactions to euthanasia was also a step towards helping my reader’s empathize with these families. Another effort that I took to make my reader’s relate to my topic is writing about how legalized euthanasia would have an effect on society . My un-biased tone could be viewed in my post entitled “un-biased” I explored the reasons as to why active euthanasia could be seen as an act of mercy. The goal of this post was to have my readers who were pro-active euthanasia respect my thoughts because I in return respect theirs.

Overall this blogging process has had a positive impact on my academia. I have never had to work at making others read what I have written due to the fact that papers are always graded by my professor. This process has given me an entire new insight into euthanasia, proposing an argument, and backing up this argument.

Annotate Links Post

This link gives a solid definition of euthanasia and its many forms. Anyone confused about the different forms could find clarification by visiting this website. It also gives a mind boggling quote taken from a family doctor named Everett Koop who shares his feeling on the dangers of legalizing euthanasia.

This link focuses on the ongoing debate of euthanasia. It goes over the reasons why euthanasia is such a heated topic. It also proposes the possibility that the question of whether euthanasia is moral or not may never be answered.

This article published in the Humanist goes over the opposing sides that euthanasia creates. It gives ten reasons as to not allow euthanasia and then counter argues these points using evidence. I posted this link to show the other side of the euthanasia and to remain unbiased.

This link goes over a study done to convey doctor’s sentiments towards euthanasia. Who better to look to about health care than a doctor right? Although this study was done at the University of Miami, it is still good representation for the population of doctors in the United States.

This report shows how legalizing euthanasia could possibly affect society. Many laws have the power of changing the mind frame of those in society and this link explores this. It is obviously just an educated guess but still provides insight to think about.

Studies are obviously important when looking at care of terminally ill patients that request euthanasia. This link covers a study that shows the opposing grieving process of families whose sick loved one receives euthanasia; versus the grieving process of the family who’s loved one did not receive euthanasia. The results are very interesting and gave me new insight on euthanasia’s effect on others lives.

This link gives arguments against the act of legalizing euthanasia. This link is opposite of the second one that I have gone over because it gives arguments for euthanasia and counter argues these points.The text gives several arguments such as the quality of life, regulation of the law if passed, societal affects and the ‘conflict with aims of medicine.

Euthanasia in Oregon

Currently, Oregon is the one and only state in the United States where active euthanasia is legal. In this post I will discuss how this law came to be about and the components of this law. It all began in 1994 when voters approved of active euthanasia. Like numerous other locations, there are certain criterias that have to be met in order of active euthanasia to be approver:
· The patient has to be terminally ill
· The patient must have 6 months or left to live (per doctor)
· The patient must make two verbal requests for euthanasia
· The patients must make one written request for euthanasia
· The patients must prove to two doctors that he/she truly wants to be euthanized and that it is not just an impulse decision
· The patient must not have depression as an influence for the euthanasia request
· The patient must know of ‘feasible alternatives’
· The patient must wait 15 days
All of these steps must be taken in Oregon before a person’s wish for euthanasia can be granted. At the end of 1998, after the law was passed, 65% of persons who applied for euthanasia ended there life. These points are most likely the laws that will be taken if active euthanasia is legalized all over the United States. Also after these laws were put into place studies were taken as to why most people opted for euthanasia in Oregon. About 84% of person’s reason was fear of loss of autonomy. This was shocking to me because I would have guessed that it would have been something such as un relievable pain. This statistic associated withfear of loss of autonomy is something that health care providers should zero in on when providing care to terminally ill patients. This is not a reason to legalize euthanasia. What are your thoughts?

Euthanasia’s Effect on Family

A study has been done to show the effects of euthanasia on family and friends. The study included 189 family members of a person suffering from a terminal cancer who was euthanized. They compared the grieving process and post traumatic stress of these persons to 316 family members who’s loved one died of a natural death. The results of the study showed that the family members of the person who died from euthanasia had an easier time dealing with the loss. This is obviously good for the family member but should we consider this when debating whether to legalize euthanasia or not? I do not think that it is good to consider the family member’s feeling over the life of a person. There are always cases where people go into remission after having cancer. We must also consider family members who do not want the terminally ill person to be euthanized. Only forty percent of Americans would aid a terminally ill family member to kill themselves. One must also consider the fact that the other sixty percent could just be holding on hoping for a recovery so that they will not have to cope with the pain of death. It would be interesting to see how these anti euthanasia persons deal with death. Leave a comment if you have an opinion as to whether the feeling of family members should be considered over a valuable human life. Also feel free to discuss how you think family members would react to a euthanasia death if they were not in support of it.

Could Euthanasia Be Linked to an Increased Suicide Rates?

As the blogging process for my English class gets closer to the end, I strive to continue to come up with new topics and perspectives for active euthanasia. When thinking about new topic for this post I began to wonder if active euthanasia were made legal, would it influence those persons who were contemplating suicide. If it becomes socially acceptable for a physician to aid in the killing of his or her patient, will it also become socially acceptable to ends one’s own life. Of course it starts off as someone being terminally ill and in extreme pain, but what if that links to a person feeling depressed or not having a good year and deciding to end their life. “A succession of stories [about euthanasia] can [possibly ] increase exposure and normalize euthanasia or suicide as an option for vulnerable people, not only the terminally ill”. The media has a lot of influence on the way people think and behave and euthanasia is not no invincible to this rule. We have to consider the future if this law was to be passed to legalize active euthanasia. Feel free to leave comments as to what you think this future would hold?

Implications Post

The question that I have been exploring through this entire blog experience is whether euthanasia should be legalized or not. If this issue were to remain unsolved there are two things that I am proposing would happen. One the people that oppose euthanasia would be satisfied, and two the people who are for the right to euthanasia would continue to fight. The debate will not simmer down just because questions go unanswered. There will always be those who will continue to fight for the right of a person to decide if they want to end their life. And there will also always be those who continue to fight for life. The problem with such a controversial topic as euthanasia is that politicians do not want to make a ruling about it. Similarly to abortion and gay marriage most would rather for the debate to continue rather than getting the problems resolved. This way they are not upsetting any particular group. There are so many grey areas and circumstances when it comes to terminally ill patients and it is rather difficult to make one laws that fits all of these circumstances. The popularity of the topic of the debate dwindles as time goes a long when there is uproar about the topic. There only seems to be big publicized debate about euthanasia when there is a sad story of some old man, woman or terminally ill patient who feels that they have the right to end their own life. Until a story like this comes about, it is easy for those who make laws to put this topic on the backburner. It is easy to see that the media has a lot to do with the strength of the sentiments of heated topics such as euthanasia. With this being said, I do believe that one good outcome to the issue being unresolved is the possible increase in palliative care. With no legal way to permanently end suffering through death, physicians and health care providers will hopefully work harder to relieve their patients of stress and pain through other methods.

Doctor's View of Euthansia

It is important to look at how physicians feel about active euthanasia simply due to the fact that they will be the ones with the ability to perform it if it does become legalized. A study was performed at the University Of Miami School Of Medicine to view the sentiments of medical students, physicians, and house staff about euthanasia. There were 360 persons involved in the story. The results of the study show that the majority of the participants were more willing to perform passive euthanasia and more against performing active euthanasia. Only a small percentage of 6% would be willing to administer a drug to end the life of a patient if they requested it. This may only be a small population of the many hospitals in the United States but the number presented in this study say a lot. I think that we should listen to doctor’s opinions when it comes to Euthanasia.