On the Cross

In the beginning of this argument, I was for the euthanasia of terminally ill patients.  However, after more research, I understand more about the topic and have switched sides of the controversy.  The terminally ill should not have the choice to live or die.  When life support is your only way of “living” then God has already planned for you to go.  People argue that it is their body and therefore their decision, when in reality; it’s not your body at all. Life is a gift of God, and just as only God can give life God only can take life away. I am also guilty of arguing that because of the unbearable pain, it is okay to kill the terminally ill if they want to die. …Although, now I disagree…  Suffering has a “special place” in God’s saving plan; and has been taught as a “sharing in Christ’s passion,” especially in the last moments of life.  After reading a discussion on how God was not responsible for death I realized how crazy it is to “decide” when you are going to die.  God has a purpose for everyone.  Everything in our life has meaning and purpose.  I now agree that euthanasia is suicide and murder.  Just because the pain is intolerable doesn’t mean euthanizing is necessary.   Jesus died on the cross for us.  His limbs were nailed to a cross.  No pain is worse than what he went through.  … and Jesus wasn’t euthanized.  I have never experience pain like those mentioned by a terminally ill patient, but the ill must not give up on life.  They have a right to live, murder/suicide is not an option.

Fairy Tale Fatality

When we are young, we are told many fairy tales and riddles, some of which remain trapped in our heads for a lifetime.  One specifically that I remember was called “Try, Try Again.”  The message in this catchy tale was to never give up. The intentional death of a terminally ill patient is just another way of giving up.  The teams of doctors have decided they have tried everything. The only remaining option is to euthanize the patient; which seems perfectly fine because the “ill” patient is no longer alive they are merely a body lying in bed. The patient’s family loves him/her and wants to extinguish all the pain and suffering. Therefore, “pulling the plug” just seems right.

However, Stanley J. Swierzewski, III, M.D. says otherwise. A comatose person is “still very much alive.” Isn’t euthanizing a “very much alive” person the same as murder?  Even though these “ill” patients are not completely functional, they are still living, breathing, people (with help).  In fact, a December edition of The Sunday Times mentions forty percent of patients in a vegetative state “may be misdiagnosed.”  If a “terminally ill” patient is one of the forty percent then euthanizing them would be nothing less than an execution. These people have the right to LIVE not a right to die (as well as a right to a proper diagnosis).

“If at first [the doctors] don’t suceed, [they should] try again.” …NOT kill off the problem!

 

 

 

Euthanasia…Crime or Care?

Everyone has the right of choice.  To ask the question, “Do the terminally ill have a right to die,” is like asking if the terminally have the same rights as the well.  On this note, dying is not a “right,” for everyone dies at some point.  The debatable question really is, “Should the terminally ill be euthanized?” 

Procon.org mentions that Americans should enjoy a right in which was enforced by The European Declaration of Human Rights. This right “not to be forced to suffer” should take place in the decision of euthanizing a terminally ill patient. Therefore, forced to live with “excruciating pain” when the patient does not “wish to continue” their life should also be a crime.
          Assisted suicide enables a doctor injecting the patient of a drug that will “painlessly” cause the ill to die.  A definition of “terminally ill” states that for a person to be terminally ill they are expected to live for no more than twelve additional months. Living a life with unbearable pain, with the thought of dying in less than twelve months… Why should it be a crime to “put down” the terminally ill? They are dying and they have to live their remaining life in agonizing pain.  Putting a patient at rest, getting rid of all present and future pain, how can this be wrong?  Isn’t that what doctors are for anyways, to help the patient, to relieve them of their sickness, and in this case, their terminal illness. Maybe euthanasia is the only way. <http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=55>

Do The Terminally Ill Have A Right To Die?

Claim:
Dying is not a “right.”  There is no miracle drug that will give ‘us’ eternal life on Earth, everyone will die at some point, it’s just a matter of when, and in this case, why?  The debatable question is, “Are the terminally ill being murdered if their life support is taken away from them?” The decision to “pull the plug” should be relied on the condition of the “ill” and how “ill” they truly are.  If the “ill” are in a vegetative state and could donate organs to save someone else, then they should, even if it means “killing” the “ill.” 

Evidence (Data):
The definition of living is “in actual existence or use.”

Warrant:
Do you consider lying in a bed, having no function, no thoughts, no senses, no feelings, no awareness of what is going on around you, truly “living?”

Backing:
What if there was a little boy, 6 years old, he hasn’t even begun to live his life.  Since he was two, he has been in and out of children’s hospitals, doctors operating on him, scratching their heads in confusion on what could possibly make this boy so sick.  On the boy’s last trip to the hospital, one of his many doctors tells him he has only three days left to live…unless…he gets a heart transplant.  With the boy’s rare blood type, it will be one difficult task to find an appropriate donor.  Meanwhile, a man, eighty-seven years of age, is in the same hospital as the boy.  The man is in a coma and has been for several weeks.  His family is too attached to let go of the man and wants to keep him “living” as long as possible.  It turns out that the “ill” man and the desperate boy have the exact same rare blood type.  This man’s heart could save the boy’s life, and allow the boy to actually live his life.  The man has been living a long and happy life until now.  The boy is “living” what appears to be a short and miserable life. The man will probably never waken from this coma but the family doesn’t want to give up.  The boy will die in less than 72 hours.  Wouldn’t you say the boy should have a chance at life? The man’s life was great. I believe the coma is God’s way of saying it’s time for him to go.  In other words, by killing this old man who lived his wonderful life, you are saving this young child who hasn’t had a life yet.

Rebuttal:
Although miracles do happen…people have been known to wake up from comas that they had been in for years.  If you went and “pull[ed] the plug” on a man that had been in a coma then he would never get a chance at that possible miracle.  Even though the terminally ill are…well…ill…they are still alive (to some point). Some people have stated, “The direct killing of an innocent person is never acceptable in a civilized society.” I am a Christian and by saying this I am not questioning God, but their chances of waking up are slim.  Harshly speaking, they could help save another life, by taking away their own. 

Qualifier: 
 In some cases, the condition of the person’s illness may be well enough to live a life after life support.  Although in the cases of people who can not live with out their machine, their bodies are just laying there, useless, when inside the body are organs or blood that might just save another human being.

The Fourth Leaf of Rhetoric

[The Fourth Leaf of Rhetoric]

 

Finding a four leaf clover may be a strenuous task.  At some point in your life, you will, or have, searched for that supposedly lucky fourth leaf. Very few people have found the little green wonders, in fact, statistics say only one in every ten-thousand clovers will have four leaves.  Searching for the “rare flower” may get you nowhere; instead, you might want to let the clover find you.  Don’t waste time searching.  The same goes for rhetoric.  Rummaging around for specific rhetorical devices may be difficult.  One must understand what rhetoric really is and then the fourth leaf will be found, metaphorically speaking that is. But unlike the four leaf clovers, rhetoric is EVERYWHERE: in movie titles, magazines, commercials, famous speeches, books, billboards and even the Bible.  So stop your agonizing search and enjoy what ever it is you are reading or watching, because the rhetoric will always be there hiding and waiting to be found.

Examples of rhetoric:

• Anaphora(repetition)-  [Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech]
  “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.  “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.  I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.  I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.  I have a dream today.  I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.  I have a dream today.”
• Alliteration- [Sonic Menu]
  Tater Tots
• Parallelism- [Sonic Advertisement]
  “Big Drink. Little Price”     
  “Easy On The Pocket. Delicious On The Stomach”
• Simile- [Mike Morrell Comment for “The Shack”]
  “This story reads like a prayer filled with sweat and wonder and transparency and surprise.”
• Personification- [Oreo Commercial]
  “Milk’s favorite Cookie”

 

Plainly searching for a specific rhetorical device is as difficult as searching for that propitious clover, but rhetoric IS everywhere.    
Can you find a fourth leaf? . . . and I’m not talking about clovers.

RSS Feed #3 (Greasy Grandpa? Muscular Moma?)

During my search for more RSS feeds, I ran across one that really caught my attention.  A news feed in the New York Times was titled, “60-Plus, Ripped, and Natural Competitors.”  Disgusted by the thought of “ripped” elderly men and women made me a little curious on whet exactly this news feed was about.  Apparently, The World Natural Sports Organization puts on a body building competition for the “chizzled” men and women over sixty years of age.  Just picture your own grandfather up on stage, greased, oiled, and in a skimpy Speedo.  I’m sure this is not a sight you would be interested in seeing, however these people are no ordinary old men and women. A competitor in the contests had this to say, “Age is a statistic, not a burden and

RSS Feed #2 (Window View Relieving Stress)

Inside a classroom, no teacher wants their student sitting by the window.  The environment inside a class room is to plain and boring.  If it wasn’t for the posters on reading and learning on the walls, students would be pretty convinced they were sitting inside a penitentiary. Though most students are easily distracted when it comes to the window seat, teachers may begin to admire this seat for their students.  Most teachers will notice that the trouble making student is normally by the window, gazing into the outside world.  If teachers would read this news feed I found, then there would probably be more windows in the classroom.

RSS Feed #1 (“the” conflict of “the”)

While searching for RSS feeds, I skimmed over one that really caught my attention.  I am always interested in what is going on in other people’s minds.  Because of my curiosity towards people’s thoughts, I spent most of my RSS feed reading in the “Opinions & Columns” section after subscribing to the “L.A. Times.” 

            Under the category of   “Opinions & Columns,” I came across a news feed titled “Only in L.A.|Steve Harvey.”  This catchy title made me want to read on.  Strangely, this entire news feed was conflict all over the word “the.”  Apparently in Los Angeles, when speaking about freeways they say “the” before the freeways number “(i.e. “the” 405).”

            The writer of this feed posted comments from people who where concerned on using “the” in their

Summer Assignment 01 . . . (blog essay)

  

 

            The internet is a fast way for people to communicate.  All over the world, in seconds, people can talk to one another.   The internet has many concepts of keeping people in touch, one of which is called blogging.  Blogging helps people dish out their thoughts and feelings about a subject, letting people comment or

Playing God or God’s Play?

“Two great moments in our lives are when we are born and when we discover why we were born. We were created for a reason—a divine purpose. Our lives are not accidents or