Euthanasia

Should euthanasia be legalized? Discuss.             

According to Wikipedia, Euthanasia refers to the practice of ending a life in a manner which relieves pain and suffering. In many cultures of the world and almost all religions oppose euthanasia and its ways. Euthanasia is and always will be a sore subject among people and yet there is a growing positive trend towards the use of euthanasia. According to students.cis.uab.edu, it has been reported that in 1990 2300 patients have lost their lives to euthanasia. As a society of man, the value of human life is placed in high regard and Euthanasia challenges that value. Euthanasia should be a person’s own personal choice, to terminate suffering and an individual’s human rights to end one’s own suffering are all concrete grounds to legalize euthanasia.

When it comes to a person’s own personal choice of euthanasia, it is known as voluntary euthanasia. There are four main categories for euthanasia to exist: active, passive, voluntary and involuntary. Passive euthanasia removes all forms of medical treatment and tools to prolong a person’s life and lets the patient die of natural causes. Active euthanasia is the most common form of euthanasia that uses drugs and medicinal tools to end a person’s life. Involuntary euthanasia is when the decision to end life has been taken from the patient because that patient is unable to mentally and consciously make a credible and well-thought out decision. Voluntary euthanasia is when the person is fully competent and capable of making that decision for their own. The controversy surrounding euthanasia can be divided in to two main categories that are cause for debate and criticism as to whether euthanasia should be legalized is because of these four categories, people are worried when euthanasia is passive and involuntary which is debated against murder and active and voluntary in which case doctors and people surrounding the patient wonder if the person is capable of making that decision. No one can fully begin to understand or comprehend what a person goes through dealing with that illness. The kind of pain and suffering that would drive a person to make that kind of decision must truly be great which is why if it is a person’s individual choice to end his/her own life, then that choice should be respected.

Suffering plays a huge role in euthanasia. Suffering comes in the form of financial suffering, emotional suffering and physical suffering. The main reason behind euthanasia is to end suffering. According to CBS news in America, for the year 2010 Medicare spent $50 billion just for doctor and hospital bills during the last two months of patients’ with terminal illness and it has been estimated that 20 to 30 percent of these medical expenditures may have had no meaningful impact. For a small country of 5 million people, Singapore has been able to keep its healthcare cost under $8 billion and that’s with a high elderly population of 8.8 percent or 440000 of the total population. According to Minister for Health in Singapore Mr. Khaw Boon Wan who quoted a Businessweek article in 2010 on an American patient whose seven-year fight against kidney cancer topped US$600,000. After his death, the man's wife concluded: "The only thing I can see that the money bought for certain was confirmation he was dying." As can be seen, healthcare certainly doesn’t come cheap and for the terminally ill medical care is a huge burden to bear not only on the individual but his/her surrounding family and friends. The high cost of medical expenses on a life that will just continue to deteriorate and suffer to the point of death is enough reason to choose euthanasia. When dealing with the emotional strain of euthanasia, it doesn’t only affect the patient, his/her family and the care-givers professional or otherwise, but the decision that is asked of a doctor or physician who swore an oath to practice medicine ethically and to break that oath. The emotional strain that a doctor must go through when deciding whether to take a life on the basis to end suffering is beyond measure. The physical suffering may very well be the worst of all to bear. One does not take the decision of euthanasia very lightly especially if the life lived has been a good and happy one. But to suffer through that kind of pain and to watch as nobody can help you and help ease the pain is also a form of emotional suffering on those closest to you. Altogether, the financial, emotional and physical suffering can be simplified to one word, burden. It is that burden that the sick must impose on their family and friends to maintain a life that cannot be saved is one of the main reasons people with terminal sickness decide to take up euthanasia.

Every human has a right to control their own life. It is in decisions that we are allowed the freedom to live our lives in a way we see fit. To force a person to continue to live in a manner of torturous and unbearable pain just because it is morally wrong against society’s rules or even religion is cruel and totally wrong. No one has the right to interfere with an already dying person’s decision to euthanize. The decision to take up euthanasia is not an easy one and must have been considered for a period of time. This sort of decision should be respected. Euthanasia allows for a painless way to die and end suffering.

Euthanasia is no doubt a highly sensitive and debated topic. There are many reasons against euthanasia such as religion, murder and even abuse of power. However, the reasons given for euthanasia are about the person and putting the person’s needs first. In my opinion, making it a personal choice, ending suffering and basic human rights are all solid reasons to legalize euthanasia. Medicine is a form of science that ends sickness, pain and suffering. If euthanasia can do all of that, it leaves us with an important question, why shouldn’t euthanasia be legalized? 

Conflict Management Strategies

Conflict is a disagreement that will occur between two parties or two individuals who feel threatened by the opposing parties’ or individuals opinions and feelings. Conflicts occur for a variety of reasons but they are an inevitable part of our lives because even the smallest things can spark a conflict. This is the reason why conflicts are an everyday occurrence. Often, the problem escalates and becomes too big to be resolved. When this occurs, there might even be a need for an entire relationship to dissolve which isn’t productive and should be an avoidable result. We might not be able to stop the conflict from occurring but we can gain knowledge of resolving it to prevent further and future damage. This is the reason for conflict management. Its sole purpose is to reduce or limit the negative aspects of conflict and bring about the positive ones. There are many various methods to solving conflict but ultimately they revolve around three main strategies which are avoidance, collaboration and compromise.

According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Thomas and Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) use of collaboration is an effective way of management conflict. When using this strategy, both conflicting parties are usually looking for a ‘win/win’ situation where both parties are looking to achieve their goals and maintain the relationship. This outcome is an effective and productive result which applies to everyone who comes into contact with conflict. This method best works when there is a high level of trust, when the people involved are willing to change their viewpoint as new information is brought up and new opinions are suggested. This style engages people to effectively listen, to face the situation head on without hostility, to evaluate the situation and to find the true nature of the problem. However this strategy can lead to one party taking advantage of the other since trust and openness are involved, one may easily manipulate the other. This process also takes a lot of time and energy.

When avoiding conflict, a natural outcome of this strategy is where neither party ‘wins’ nor ‘loses’. The dictionary defines avoidance as to keep away from or to prevent from happening. Both parties have a mutual desire to avoid addressing the problem. People who resolve to use this method usually do have common ground to do so. For some, the issue could be too small to let it damage the relationship that they would just avoid it. This also happens when the particular problem is less important when stacked up against more urgent matters that it is just easier to avoid it. Sometimes it is all a matter of power and how much control one has in the situation. When an individual or when one side of the party is in a position of lesser authority or power, the chances of getting the problem addressed and resolved is resoundingly low. Some may try to postpone the problem so it can be resolved at later date or simply just to reduce tensions.  According to the TKI, Rahim, and Kozan models, avoidance will lead to neither party getting their concerns met. In the decade between 1990 and 2000, one of Kozan’s Group Conflict Management models, the harmony model was not seen as an opportunity to find solutions to problems, but as a harmful state of affairs. When conflict does occur, it is often handled through mediation by third parties. After the millennium, Rahim’s methods appear to be the most ‘current’ of conflict management. Rahim’s model and the TKI method share the same view point. Both models believe that avoidance is appropriate when the issue is minor, when the potential effects of confronting the other party outweigh the benefits of resolution, and that a cooling off period is needed. However the TKI model believes that there are learning capabilities from using avoidance. Certain skills can be developed in this style such as using foresight in knowing when to withdraw, learn to sidestep loaded questions or sensitive areas by using diplomacy, become skillful at creating a sense of timing, and practice leaving things unresolved.

Lastly, people can use the compromising approach to managing conflict. In this method, not all concerns are met but both parties don’t walk away ‘empty-handed’. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines compromise as a settlement of differences by consent reached by mutual concessions. Both parties will usually have mutual goals that can be achieved for the benefit of both, but certain conflicting points of view will have to be foregone, sort of like winning something while losing a little. According to Rahim’s method of compromise, both parties must be equally powerful. If one was in a better standing then the other or had leverage over the other, it would result in a competing or accommodating view. Compromise is used when the goals are mutually exclusive and important, when an agreement cannot be reached, when the integrating or dominating style is not successful or when a temporary solution to a complex problem is needed. The TKI method shares the view that both parties must be equally powerful. However, it only produces temporary solutions and is used when time is a concern. People who excel at compromising are able to come out of it with great communication skills. Keeping an open dialogue is extremely important as both parties need to find a solution that is fair to both parties. It is an extremely effective use of conflict management as lack of it will lead to unnecessary confrontations, frequent power struggles, and ineffective negotiating.

To sum up, although there are many different strategies that can be applied to managing conflict, the three most effective ways appear to be avoiding, compromising and collaborating. Conflict isn’t something anyone would like to go through and yet it is still an unfortunate part of our everyday lives. As a rule of free will and a free thinking society, people will have their own views and opinions. Conflict will naturally show up when two individuals have opposing views and ideas. Maintain balance and peace in any group whether it be among friends, family members or even at work is crucial to life. And that’s what conflict management is all about, maintaining that balance. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself.”

Needs

What does the term ‘needs’ mean to the average person today, and how does it differ from one person to another?

A need or needs, by definition are what people require to survive and live. It is necessary and a necessity and shouldn’t be confused with wants which is just a human emotion of desire are not as essential and important when it comes to survival. As times change, so do people and their needs and that will affect all the decisions they make in order to ensure every possible need is met. As people will always have their own needs to fulfill and as such differ to each individual, needs can best be sorted by using Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs which include the basic, safety and security, social, esteem and self-actualization.  

The most basic needs refer to the most absolute and essential of needs, for which without it people cannot live, such as food, water, shelter, sleep and metabolic requirements. Fifteen million children die of starvation every year. The World Bank estimates that in Asia, Africa and South America, over five hundred million people are living in “absolute poverty” and cannot afford clean water, food and hygiene requirements. Shelter functions to protect people against the elements. People need a place to sleep, to offer protection against the rain or sun. The United Nations Commission estimates that there are over a hundred million people worldwide who are homeless. In 2005, the World Bank revealed that almost eighty percent of the world’s population is living under the poverty line. At this level on the hierarchy of needs, every human on the planet will have in common as without the basic needs fulfilled, the human body cannot function.

Security comes next on the level of needs after the basics have been satisfied. All people will require a sense of stability and control in their lives and this comes from the safety and security needs on the hierarchy. This along with the basic physiological needs is another necessity for people. The basic fundamentals are job/financial security, health and well being, and safety against accidents and illness. The basic of all these requirements is money. This is a problem that is faced everyday by billions of people as some struggle to survive on just $2.50 a day. All throughout life, people will require financial security whether it is to start a family or to add to that savings account for a comfortable retirement. Health and well-being is something everyone strives too because having a poor health can result costing more than being healthy. Skipping a day’s work or if it is more serious that involves admission into a hospital. Adequate health care is becoming an increasing crisis that faces the world and especially in Africa, the third world countries of Asia, South America and the Middle East where people below the poverty line are unable to receive proper health care because it is unaffordable.  Almost fifteen million people die every year in low income countries from diseases.

The requirement for self esteem and a social acceptance is a need that can differ from person to person. The feeling of belongingness to a group of friends, family or the office setting is another human requirement. Maslow believed that esteem can be divided in to a lower one and a higher one. Esteem achieved from the lower one comes from status, recognition, prestige and attention given from other people. The higher one is the need for self-respect, self-confidence, independence and freedom. A deprivation of these needs will result in psychological imbalances, inferiority complex, social anxiety and clinical depression. The need for acceptance and love is equally important as without these, serious mental and physical effects will start to project and result in the deterioration of a person’s well being. The seriousness of these consequences of these have resulted in the loss of 850 000 lives a year and is estimated by the World Health Organization that 154 million suffer from depression, 25 million from schizophrenia, 91 million from alcohol use disorder and 15 million drug use disorder.

The last need for self actualization is a desire to realize and achieve one’s full potential and become everything that one is capable of becoming. Maslow came to the conclusion that in order to achieve this, all other levels must be mastered first. This level of need refers to each individual’s own goals and dreams and their want to accomplish them. This need however will in fact differ from every individual as arriving at this need requires motivation and an individual desire.

To sum up, any person’s needs can be met with the six levels in the hierarchy that begins with basic needs, the need for security, a strong self esteem and a sense of belonging, - and ultimately the desire for self actualization. People will differ in their needs. Some people may only require the basics and maybe job security to fulfill the simplest of needs. Others may require recognition and praise and status to prove they have succeeded in life. In my opinion, hierarchy of needs is the reason why some people have a different perception to what is ‘needs’.  Some may perceive being fulfilled as being self-actualized, that is reaching what they are capable of becoming or being even more than what they are capable of but to others it may just reach the level of love and belonging. All needs should be met, as each are equally important and is only to maintain an individual’s good health ( be it physical or psychological) and well-being.              

Success

How can success be defined?

 Success has always been a measure of how well a person does. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines success as a favorable or desired outcome. People have dreams and goals they would like to accomplish and a vision of themselves they would like to see come true. Success is also a matter of an individual’s perception of what it is. It could be how wealthy a person is, or measured by selfless acts of generosity toward our fellow man. And it can also be how much influence and authority a person can have that people may perceive as successful. Success can be categorized in to three different ways: a materialistic view, one of power and the contributor. With these three categories, many great human influences come to mind such as Donald Trump, Julius Caesar and Dr Randy Pausch.

The material view of success is a measure of success mostly believed in the Western culture. It is a viewpoint that a person is only successful by the amount of money, social status and possessions an individual owns. And who better to represent this view of success then Donald Trump. The American business magnate who made his millions in the real estate and now has hotels, condominiums, casinos and apartments all over the world. A true businessman, Donald Trump has excelled at every sector he had interest in whether it was authoring his book, a career in the television industry with many cameos in different series or his famous television reality show. His social and political status has skyrocketed with help from the media and has even reached a point where he is being considered a possible candidate for the President of the United States in 2012. The man has an estimated net worth of 2.7 billion dollars and earns an average of fifty million a year.

Power is a view of success that can be seen all over the world. People of this viewpoint will always want more and more because when it comes to power, enough is never enough. The power view wants control and wants to be in control of everything. Julius Caesar is a true example of the definition of power. A man who began his career in the military, Caesar rose up the ranks to general and on one of his return to Rome, his political career began. He applied what he learnt in the military in his political life. Power was a very motivational tool and he was willing to betray, lie, cheat, blackmail and manipulate his way to the top, all the while transforming the Republic in to the Roman Empire.  All who opposed him were no match for his unrivaled military power and when the Empire was at the brink of total chaos, he emerged as ruler and self-proclaimed dictator. He would pass laws that would help him stay in power and prevent others from opposing him by limiting their authority. He also passed a law that allowed him to choose his own magistrates and changed them from becoming representatives of the people to representatives of the dictator. So drunk with power, he is known for a particularly famous saying, “I had rather be first in a village than second at Rome.”

                The contributor view of success has people believe that they are only as successful as the amount they contribute, whether it be to society in their community or society in general on a world scale. People of this view point feel that giving back is its own reward. Dr Randy Pausch was someone who was a staunch believer in giving back and doing your best to help others. Dr Randy was an American professor of computer science and virtual reality. He was inspired by the Disneyland rides and wanted to build more rides to benefit children. He is most famous for his ‘Alice’ software program that is used to create computer animations using 3d models. He always believed that people should learn something important but in a fun way. He was also a great believer of helping others achieve their dreams. One such particular example is a student of his named Tommy Burnett who studied under Dr Randy and then went on to help in the fourth, fifth and sixth ‘episodes’ of the Star Wars saga. In this view, people will generally see Dr Randy as incredibly successful in his field of academia and for his contributions to humanity and the future of technology.

In conclusion, success can be defined in many different ways and viewed by many different people and these definitions play an extremely important role in one’s life. Whether it be material wealth and the amount of expensive possessions they can own, or how much a person can contribute to his fellow man or how much power one can amass. Someone’s definition on success can shape and mould the way one creates their path in life and is a measure of how well they do and how people perceive their success.

Topic of Expertise

The subject I’m most interested in is psychology. However psychology is too vast a field to just say I’m interested in just psychology. So let’s start with its definition. Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes in both human and animals. So of course what I’m most interested in is human behavior and that age old question – what makes people ‘tick’? There’s a certain stereotype regarding psychology in which people believe that mind control or mind reading is involved and that scientists conduct mental experiments on unwilling, helpless patients. This could not be further from the truth.

For many others and me included, psychology is ultimately a way to help people with difficult internal problems that have nothing to do with the physical body but that which lies in the mind. Observing human behavior has always come very naturally to me. But in order to help people every piece of information is important. Information like a person’s perception, emotions, motivations, personality and relationships are just some of the many examples that are needed to truly understand a person and so help counsel them in the right direction. People all throughout my life have always come to me for advice and counsel. Having to provide that is a huge responsibility as they were people I cared about so understanding every single bit of information was crucial to getting them into the right direction.

Psychology as a science hasn’t been around that long as compared to the other sciences, around 125 years and in that time it has become a very important subject in relation to mankind such as in industrial and organizational settings, human development and aging, sports, health, the media, law and forensics. In the field of psychology there are 5 main categories that interest me and that I can relate to. They are behaviorism, humanism, clinical, social and personality.

Social psychology revolves around the study of how humans think about each other and how they have an influence on a person’s behavior beliefs, attitudes, and stereotypes about other people. Personality psychology is well basically the study of the human personality and the factors that affect personality like behavior, emotion and thought. Clinical psychology is a bit more complicated than the previous two. Although the common goal of promoting well-being and personal development is clear, the route to understanding, relieving and preventing psychological based problems comes with psychological assessment and psychotherapy. Humanistic psychology has a very fresh outlook when it comes to understanding a person’s distress. Instead of breaking down a person’s life in to different categories and trying to see how each category has a link to the problem, humanism focuses on the whole person and uniquely human issues such as free will, personal growth, death, aloneness, freedom and meaning. The theory of behaviorism is that people might be conditioned to behave in a certain way as a result of their environment. Certain stimuli in the environment and what reaction follows from that change is a very interesting study.

Psychology in its very basic form studies the human mind and to help solve problems that arise within the mind. Everything mentioned above and more is needed to help figure out the cause and the solution to their current predicament and help them lead better lives. And that’s really what it’s all about, helping people.  

Subject matter taken from Wikipedia.