Sherman Alexie Essay Example for Free

Sherman Alexie EssayAccording my researching from Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, Academic Search Complete, and Superman and Me in class, I found out biographical information on Sherman Alexie. The reason I searched somewhat Sherman Alexie because I wanted to lie with about how he had been through his vitality and become a successful Ameri dismiss poet. He also writes essays and novels. In childhood, Sherman Alexie was born October 7, 1966 on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington. He lived where surrounded by alcoholism, crimes, and drugs around him. His father was an alcoholic. Alexies health was poor which hydrocephalus -water on the brain was. The doctor gave up to save his life, and he was not expected to pull through through his severe disease. The hydrocephalus had left him with an enlarged skull, and he suffered from seizures and bed-wetting throughout his childhood. Even though he had suffered his life through his mental disabilities, he patiently spent most of his childhood narration. Time went by his surgery was successful and survived. His backbreakingworking is the cornerstone to success when he spent most of judgment of conviction to read. This reminds me that even though I conduct struggle in my life, I will stand up to jazz with problems and never give up on anything. Without my hardworking, I wont go anywhere and have a successful life.I think that all his efforts spending time his childhood read will bring matter to a resolution and equality to his life. Alexie had to deal with all the challenges and problems that he met at the taciturnity school even though he was teased by other kids. As a boy, Alexie was teased mercilessly by the other reservation kids, who called him The Glode. I think he was called The Globe because his guide was larger than other kids due to his as infant hydrocephalus. He also was kept out from many of the activities at the reservation school for young Indian males due to his health issues. Noth ing he could do at the moment, Alexie was being outstanding to read anything available to him (Lynn 197-198). This shows me that I try hard and spend the sum of my available time to work on anything, the price of success will come from my hardworking. According to Sarah Quirk, one of the American novelists said Blend elements of popular culture, Indian spirituality, and the drudgery of poverty-ridden reservation life to createhis characters and the world they inhabit .One of the influences of Alexies writings is meant to bring sadness to the conscious mind. He uses humor, literature, and cultural activities.The purpose he wanted to use humor in his plot was to leave the readers with an observation of a particular aspect, admiration, understanding, and sympathy. This means Alexies influences for his literary works dont depend all the listings of Indian modern forms. Alexies work is filled with using humor to present all his characters works, and most of his writing cerebrate on wha t he had experienced as a Native American. It was very meaningful to read his collection of poems and mindless stories because all his works helped me to explore and know more many facts of contemporary life on a reservation. Alexie has the best way of describing circumstances and tenderness through different poems and presently stories that make me breach and pain for the Native Americans who live on reservations. Alexie thought to have a better life and better himself, so he decided to leave the reservation and attended Reardan High school at his eighth grade. He tried all his best to study hard and at the end all the render he received from his hardwork made him at expert at his studying and became a basketball star and elected as class president. There, he flourished, decorous a star player (and the only Indian) on the schools basketball team (ironically called the Reardan Indians), as well as the team captain, class president, and a member of the trade debate team (Lynn 1 98). His achievement in High School was admitted his admission to Jesuit University in 1985. He had a successful academic career path. later Alexie successful academic career in there, he transfer to Washington State University in 1987 where he started writing poetry and short fiction .I knew that because of his hard working brought them a better life. I also think that even though there is any problem in my life, I have to deal in order to overcome problems, never give up in my life. Giving up easily every decision I make, it wont let me succeed and bright me the path I choose to go. In 1990, one of Alexies first work collections of poetry was The Business of Fancydancing. It was published in Hanging Loose magazine. The Business of Fancydancing, was published in 1992, The New York Times described him as one of the major lyric voices of our time. Ever since, the writer has act to receive critical acclaim. (McNally) .The knowledge and learning all he put gave him satisfaction and mo tivation hesucceeded in writing first poetry. It also gave him the motivation to quit drinking. On the night of his twenty-first birthday, Alexie-drunk, as usual-was robbed at knifepoint. He had sunk low enough. He gave up drinking for good. (Lynn 198). He knew that the jeopardize of drinking was bad for health, so he chose the right decision to focus on his work. The right decision he made would lead him to attain immenseness and make him rich through an enormous awards and grants of his hard work. Sherman reflects on his successful career and being a successful Indian writer. I used to be a binge alcoholic. Ive substituted writing for alcohol. Writing is everything. It takes stuff away. Its like being married. Its a high-maintenance relationship. You cant get lazy. Im doing something around it every day culture, writing, editing, and thinking. I can be staring out the window, and Im working real hard.(Lynn 202). Alexie received many awards and grants. In 2010 he won a number of literary awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Award for fight Dances (2009 another mix of prose and poetry) and the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas( Daniel). Through his hard working, it led him a successful career path from poems to short stories to novels through reading and writing. In his essay Superman and me, Alexie writes, In all my years in the reservation school system, I was never taught how to write poetry, short stories, and novels. I was certainly never taught that Indians wrote poetry.This reminds and wants readers to explore their new options in reading and writing, it may save your life (Sherman 112). I think that exploring new options in reading may ultimately save my life. The more I explore new options in reading, the more I gain more knowledge. Just like Sherman Alexie, he was surprised he became a writer despite all the books he read and all the time he spent reading consequently, education can save his life successf ully. Education can save life once people spend time and work hard on it. From what I have been reading and knowing about Shermans literacy work, I explore new possibilities for assessing his rich and challenging work. Not only do I know about his life, but I also know about how much time he put his efforts in and how hard his life had been through to be a successful literacy career. When I do research, each research step is to determine the purpose of my research, to do some background I have done reading that familiarize with the topic, select and use the bestLibrary Catalogue research resource, analyze my research, organize and write, cite my research. Since I had been doing with research, I learned about a particular topic in depth, enhancing of credentials, understanding process, an ability to think and work independently, MLA formatting and style, works cited and citations. The more I do research, the more I resurrect my experience, knowledge, and credibility.Works CitedMcNal ly, Joel. Sherman Alexie. Writer (Kalmbach Publishing Co.) 114.6 (2001) 28. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Feb. 2014. Cline, Lynn. About Sherman Alexie. Ploughshares 26.4 (2000) 197.Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Feb. 2014. Quirk, Sarah. Dictionary of Literary Biography.278. American Novelists since World War II, seventh Series. Detroit Gale Group,2003 Grassian, Daniel. Sherman Alexie. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.

Arguments For and Against Euthanasia

Arguments For and Against euthanasiaEuthanasia Whose decision is itI. IntroductionIn a 1988 bring d make of the Journal of the Ameri screw Medical Association, an obligate titled Its Over Debbie describes how an anonymous doctor administers a plonkal dose of morphine to a woman dying of ovarian cancer (Anonymous, 1988). In a 1989 issue of the impertinent England Journal of Medicine, ten doctors associated with the nations fleeting hospitals and checkup schools decl atomic number 18 their belief that it is non immoral for a physician to assist in the keen-witted self-destruction of a bournein all in ally severely soul (Wanzer, et. al., 1989). In 1991, the recent England Journal of Medicine published a detailed account written by Dr. Timothy Quill which discussed his decision to help a tolerant suffering from leukemia commit suicide (Quill, 1991). In 1990, Dr. jack up Kervorkian uses his suicide machine to help a woman suffering from Alzheimers disease, one Janet Adkin s, end her spiritedness in the back of a Volkswagen bus (Risen, 1990). Janet was the first of twenty tolerants who pay out been feared by Kervorkian in the past common chord years. He remains committed to his act. In 1991 the Hemlock Society publishes a how-to manual on committing suicide. Entitled Final Exit, it zooms to the top of the subject field best seller lists and stays there for some(prenominal) weeks (Altman, 1991). Each of these evets has litigated to provoke ever widening media coerage of the issues skirt mercy killing and physician help suicide, and a national knock over has arisen around these utilizations. This debate is not merely limited to attorneys and physicians. Suddenly, these issues and this debate ar now a part of manners in mainstream America, and galore(postnominal) Americans face dilemmas that did not exist in simpler times dilemmas that many would rather not waste to face.II. Review of the literary productionsa. Euthanasia The Natur e of the logical argumentIt is this sharp change in the way Americans are stilting with ending, the nature and scope of the debate close dying, which prompts this analysis of the issues contact mercy killing. This debate is largely a debate about what is ethical. Questions the debate flaks to answer include Is it effective to commit suicide? Is it ethical for someone else to help? Is it in just order wing(a) to erect differentwises to oddment at their bear postulate or at the pass of family members? These questions are authoritative because they help to define our edict and our culture. The way plenty deal with and respond to issues of life story, ritual, and death serves to stamp the nature of our society. This is why society must attempt to decide what is salutary what is ethical conduct for the several(a) actors in our communities when we face death. There are some(prenominal) reasons why this debate has surfaced in the 1980s. Death is nothing new, it has existed for thousands of years. Each culture has developed its own rituals and mechanisms for dealing with death. These mechanisms serve to provide solace, a sense of continuity, and acknowledge the culture to conduct even as the members of the community cannot. However, our own culture has experienced many shattering changes that acquit altered the nature of dying. Suddenly we are forced to rethink the issue of death and we must decide what types of behavior are ethical when someone is dying. beforehand we can examine the debate about the ethics of dying, we must examine why the debate exists. Perhaps the main reason that death has changed in occidental culture has to do with assigns in enforce of medicine and technology. Many of the diseases that flip historically killed hoi polloi are now no longer a threat to most(prenominal) individuals. Medicine has do a kind of advances in the preaching of diseases such as smallpox, metrorculosis, malaria, pneumonia, polio , influenza, and measles. People now rarely pass away of such traditional causes. flavour expectancy has risen to almost 75 years in the United States. The quality of life has overly changed fundamentally during the past 100 years. Not scarcely does almost e actuallyone in the United States take live on enough to eat, further volume eat higher on the food chain. There is a great deal to a greater extent(prenominal) meat and animal fat in modern diets. Just these oddments alone have changed death significantly. People now develop heart disease, adult onset diabetes, cancers, and AIDS. These types of diseases are to a greater extent the response of lifestyle than bacteria.With these new diseases, suffering is often more prolonged and intervention is frequently quite untellable. Also, as people are liveliness longer, the diseases of the aged have turn over increasingly prevalent. Many more people now suffer from problems like senile dementia and Alzheimers disease. These diseases fracture the mind while preserving the body, allowing life to continue long after any quality that the life might have is gone. If what we die of has changed, perhaps the way that we die has changed even more. Throughout history, death has been a family affair. People usually died in the home after a short bout with an illness or as the extend of an accident. Today, increasingly, death occurs in an institutional setting such as a convalescent home or a hospital, after a salmagundi of technologies are applied in an attempt to prolong the life of the sick person. Often these technologies can be quite effective. People can now go for months and even years attached to a variety of tubes and technologies. About 75% of all deaths in 1987 occurred in hospitals and long margin care facilities, up from 50% in 1950 . . . The Office of Technology appraisal Task Force estimated in 1988 that 3775 to 6575 persons were dependent on mechanical ventilation and 1,404,500 persons were r eceiving artificial nutritional support. This growing susceptibility to fo easeall death has contributed to the increased solicitude to health check decisions near the end of life. (CEJA, 1992, p. 2229) People realize that the chances of facing the institutionalization of death increase daily, and they feel a unfathomed lack of control. Surveys have consistently indicated that a large majority of people in the United States would like to be allowed to end their lives before incurable and painful diseases finally kill them (CEJA, p. 2229). Because of the changes that have impact death, with regard to two how and where we die, the debate about how we should be allowed to die has been renewed. This paper leave examine the several facets of this debate. It depart define the footing that are applicable to the debate, examine the legal invoke of mercy killing at once, discuss the ethics of mercy killing by examining arguments made by proponents and opponents of euthanasia, a nd by applying several Normative good Theories to the issue. Finally, it will explore the strength implications that infuse the debate on euthanasia and present arguments in favor of moving toward a care based ethic of dying and away from the current offices based ethic.b. DefinitionsIf we are to effectively understand the debate about the right to die in the United States, it is imperative that a some basic terms be understood. The first and most important term is euthanasia. Originating from the Greek terms eu (happy or good) and thanatos (death), euthanasia convey literally happy death or good death. The American Medical Associations Council on Ethical and legal personal business defines the term as follows Euthanasia is comm alone define as the act of bringing about the death of a hopelessly ill and suffering person in a relatively quick and painless way for reasons of mercy. In this declare, the term euthanasia will signify the health check administration of a fatal doer to a patient for the purpose of relieving the patients unsupportable and incurable suffering. (p. 2230) Other sources have specify euthanasia variously The act or practice of painlessly putting to death persons suffering from incurable conditions of diseases. (Wolhandler, 1984, p. 363), . . . to recall un motiveed medical sermon or to have ongoing care withdrawn even though the patient will die if treatment is terminated. (Adams, et. al., 1992, p. 2021). Euthanasia is a common term that can actually mean a variety of different things depending upon the context in which it is used.For this reason, a number of supporting terms has become the convention when discussing euthanasia. These terms help to narrow the subject matter and distinguish amongst different types of euthanasia. The important terms that help to subdivide and come apart euthanasia by type are voluntary/ instinctive and alive(p)/ peaceful. Voluntary euthanasia is a death consummateed by an separate with the consent of the person being killed. This consent may be in writing as in the chance of a living will or advance directive. impulsive euthanasia is a death performed by another without the consent of the person being killed. The AMAs Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs learns three distinctions concerning consent and euthanasia Voluntary euthanasia is euthanasia that is provided to a commensurate person on his or her informed request. Non-voluntary euthanasia is the readying of euthanasia to an incompetent person match to a surrogates decision. Involuntary euthanasia is euthanasia performed without a competent persons consent.(p. 2230) Wolhandler compares the terms in a different context.Those who convict euthanasia of both kinds would call the spontaneous form murder and the voluntary form a compounded crime of murder and suicide if administered by the physician, and suicide alone if administered by the patient himself.As far as voluntary euthanasia goes, it is imp ossible to separate it from suicide as a moral class it is, indeed, a form of suicide. Voluntary euthanasia may involve participation of second parties. (p. 366) The distinction between industrious and peaceable euthanasia is not nigh as clean as the antecedent distinction. Although many authors claim that the going away between the two types cannot be identified or is irrelevant at best, oft of the debate on the subject is over this distinction and most of the current legal issues turn on this distinction.While this paper will prove that the difference between the two should not be recognized, it is both usable and important to know where the line is drawn. The AMA, which is strongly opposed to active agent euthanasia, has seen fit to endorse passive euthanasia in appropriate situations. The Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs makes the distinction as follows The physician is obligated only to offer blend in medical treatment and to refrain from providing treatment s that are detrimental, on balance, to the patients well being. When a physician withholds or withdraws a treatment on the request of a patient, he or she has fulfilled the obligation to offer sound treatment to the patient. The obligation to offer treatment does not include an obligation to impose treatment on an slow patient. In addition, the physician is not providing a harmful treatment. Withdrawing or withholding is not a treatment, but the foregoing of a treatment. (p. 2231) According to Wolhandler, (p. 367) it is the nature of the acts performed by the second party that distinguishes between active and passive euthanasia. The courts have held that acts of omission (removal of inhalery assistance, hydration, and ply tubes) are allowable behavior. Although unplugging a respirator and switching off a dialysis machine are arguably acts of commission, an increasing number of judges and commentators have accepted these acts as permissible passive euthanasia in both voluntary and involuntary settings. Gifford (1993) describes the difference between the two types of euthanasia this way Passive euthanasia involves allowing a patient to die by removing her from artificial life support systems such as respirators and feeding tubes or simply discontinuing medical treatments necessary to sustain life. Active euthanasia, by contrast, involves positive travel to end the life of a patient, typically by lethal injectiond (p. 1546) The right to passive euthanasia has in addition been termed the right to die by some authors (Adams, et. al., p. 2021-22). With an understanding of the different types of euthanasia, we can now define some other key terms. It is important to understand how physician back up suicide differs from euthanasia, and it is also necessary to define the terms advance directive and competence since they are crucial in determining the difference between voluntary and involuntary euthanasia. The term physician assisted suicide is some self-explana tory. It occurs when a physician provides aid to a patient so they can commit suicide.However, it is also necessary to see the difference between this type of run and euthanasia. The AMAs Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs states that Euthanasia and assisted suicide differ in the degree of physician participation. Euthanasia entails a physician do the immediate life ending body process (e.g., administering a lethal injection). Assisted suicide occurs when a physician facilitates a patients death by providing the necessary means and/or information to enable the patient to perform the life-ending act (e.g., the physician provides sleeping pills and information about the lethal dose, while aware that the patient may commit suicide). (p. 2231) It is important to realize that the difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide lies in the behavior of the physician. This difference in behavior has tardily become a major legal field of study that will be explored in the follow ing pages. The advance directive has recently become an important new art to aid the terminally ill. Many states have countenanced the advance directive, partly in an attempt to avoid dealing with problems associated with active euthanasia, and partly to help ease the burdens on the dying and their families. Singer (1992) provides a good definition of advance directive and explains how it is used. An advance directive is a written document completed by a competent person that aims to guide medical treatment after the person becomes incompetent. There are two types instruction directives, which focus on the types of life-sustaining treatment that the person would want under various clinical situations, and proxy directives, which focus on who the person would want to make health care decisions if the person were ineffective to do so. (p. 22) The advance directive is useful because it can theoretically eliminate the need for involuntary euthanasia. It ensures that a voluntary decis ion is made in advance, even if the individual could not make such a situation at a later date. If everyone made use of the advance directive, there would be no need to debate policy decisions that must be made in the representative of an incompetent person on life support. Because advance directives have uncomplete been accepted nor widely used by the general public, many of the problems that could possiblely be solved remain. This situation caused right to die convocations in both calcium and Washington to propose ballot initiatives that would legalize active euthanasia (Gifford, p. 1550-51). Although active euthanasia is not legal in any United States jurisdiction, passive euthanasia is generally allowed at the request of a competent individual. Because of this it is critical to understand what constitutes competence. philanders have defined legal competence as the mental ability to make a rational decision, which includes the ability to perceive, assess all the relevant fa cts, and to reach a rational judgement upon such facts. In the euthanasia context, legal competence is the incurables ability to understand that in requesting active euthanasia he is choosing death over life. Only clear and convincing evidence should suffice for a conclusion of an incurables competence. (Wolhandler, p. 366-67)c. The Legal State of EuthanasiaWith a knowledge of the meaningful terms that will be involved, it is important to discuss the legal state of euthanasia in the United States today. As technology has move more and more people on life sustaining devices in this country, the courts have had to deal with several cases that pertain to euthanasia in a variety of ways. This portion of the paper is designed to review those cases briefly and to assess how the rulings in those cases have set the policy for the practice of euthanasia today. The courts first dealt with euthanasia in the Quinlan case in 1976. Karen Ann Quinlan lapsed into a coma after mixing a variety of pills and alcohol at a party. After it became apparent that she would not be revived, her parents went to court to have her respirator get outd. The New Jersey Supreme accost ruled that her parents had the right to have the respirator removed and that Karen be allowed to die. Ironically, because her parents did not request removal of feeding and hydration tubes, she survived nine more years curled in a fetal position in a New Jersey rest home (Wolhandler, p. 366). In this case, the New Jersey court effectively sanctioned nonvoluntary passive euthanasia. The next bountiful case was decided by the New York Supreme Court in Superintendent of Belchertown State School v. Saikewicz. Here the court found that a competent patient had the right to refuse medical treatment, allowing for a patient to decide in cases of voluntary passive euthanasia (Gifford, p. 1575-76). Later, in Satz v. Perlmutter, a Florida District Court of Appeals came to basically the same conclusion (Wolhandler, p. 372-73). In Severns v. Wilmington Medical Center, the Delaware Supreme Court gave the hus banishd of a comatose woman the right of guardianship and the authority to remove her respirator or withhold other treatment as he saw fit. In this case the court relied on previous decisions made in Quinlan, Saikewicz, and Satz for its finding (Wolhandler, p. 373). In Thor v. Superior Court ( atomic number 20), the court granted the request to withhold treatment from a severely depressed quadriplegic only after a psychiatric evaluation determined that the request was based on poor quality of life and not scarce on severe depression (Pugliese, 1993, p. 1326). The courts have not restricted the right of passive euthanasia to just the terminally ill. Elizabeth Bouvia was a relatively young woman who suffered from severe cerebral palsy and act to starve herself to death in a California hospital by requesting the removal of a nasogastric feeding tube. She was denied this request because the hospi tal feared it would be party to suicide.The California court of appeals ordered the physicians to remove the tube and grappled that she had the right to enlist the assistance of others in ending her life (Sprung, 1990, p. 2213). The courts have also found that doctors and hospitals must at least obtain consent from tertiary parties that would have a significant interest in the patients outcome if the patient is incompetent. In the case of Helga Wanglie, a atomic number 25 court denied a hospital executive permission to disconnect her respirator against the wishes of her husband (Gifford, p. 1571). In sum, these cases indicate an emerging consensus that courts will generally allow treatment to be withheld from patients who are terminally ill if it is in the best interests of the patient and at the request of patients or family members. It is this emerging consensus that made the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in the Cruzan case so interesting. In the only euthanasia case heard to da te by the U.S. Supreme Court, the justices, in a 5-4 decision, allowed to stand the decision made by the Missouri Court of Appeals not to disconnect the life support apparatus from Nancy Cruzan (Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Dept. of Health, 1990). Although the court did find that a right to refuse treatment could be found in the delinquent Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and did not prohibit the courts from looking in other areas for this right (Adams, et. al., p. 2025), it also upheld the right of the State of Missouri to require . . . clear and convincing evidence that Ms. Cruzan would have desired withdrawal of these treatments. (Newman, 1991, p. 175). In the realm of physician assisted suicide, only two major cases have been decided. In the case against Dr. Timothy Quill that arose because of the publication of his article in the New England Journal of Medicine, the grand jury for the state of New York refused to return an indictment (Bender, 1992, p. 524). In the m ore publicized case of Dr. Jack Kervorkian, the courts have not yet decided on the constitutionality of the Michigan law that bans physician-assisted suicide. Kervorkian is shortly free on bond and continues to aid other patients who wish to commit suicide (Pugliese, p. 1300-05).(1) A brief assessment of the cases described above indicates that the courts have essentially legalized voluntary passive euthanasia, finding vindication to refuse or have medical treatment withheld in the constitutional right to privacy, the common law right of self determination, or the more general concept of autonomy (Gifford, p. 1575-78). With regard to involuntary passive euthanasia, the courts are generally supportive of the practice, but they have the right to insist on a more stringent standard of evidence before approving such procedures. The courts have generally employed a fit test that weighs the patients right to privacy and self-rule against the interest of the state in preserving life. The interests of potential third parties that might desire that the patient continue to live, and the ethical control of the medical profession (Adams, et. al., p. 2022). In cases of assisted suicide, some states have laws against the practice, the AMA forbids it, most juries are refusing to find the actors guilty, and the courts have yet to decide the question. Both voluntary and involuntary active euthanasia remain illegal.d. The Debate About EuthanasiaThe deed to legalize active euthanasia has existed for quite some time. Initially popularized in Britain during the nineteenth century, it gained some adherents in the United States during the 1920s. It was the national socialist syllabus of active euthanasia in the 1930s and 4os that cast a pall of disrepute over the practice that remains today. The revival of this movement today can largely be attributed to the onset of the issues discussed at the beginning of this paper, and to the efforts of the Hemlock Society, a group of indiv iduals that actively promotes the right to dignified death. The Hemlock Society recently promoted ballot initiatives in both Washington and California that would have legalized active euthanasia in those states (Gifford, 1993). This revival of the right to die movement has led to heatedly contested debate about the practices of active euthanasia and physician assisted suicide.This paper will attempt to capsulise this debate by presenting the arguments made by both opponents and supporters of these procedures. Since arguments made by both sides are used in cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide, the generic term euthanasia is used for simplicity to elicit the concept of aided death unless otherwise indicated. Those opposed to euthanasia and assisted suicide present a variety of arguments in support of a ban.e. The possibility Against EuthanasiaEuthanasia destroys societal respect for life. By becoming common invest and used in medical practice along with more traditional method s of healing, society becomes desensitized toward death to the crown where life is no longer valuable. This attitude serves to degrade humanity and leads to a variety of affectionate ills. In a society that devalues life, people have no compunctions about committing violent crimes and murdering others. The overall quality of life becomes seriously undermined and society as a whole deteriorates (Doerflinger, 1989, p. 16-19, Koop, 1989, p. 2-3). Once euthanasia becomes legal, opponents contend, the potential for abuse at the hands of caregivers vastly increases. Closely related to this argument is the argument that those who lie with the exercise of power over others might become stir with it and actually come to enjoy killing. One step down the path toward euthanasia simply makes it that much easier in the future to take further steps. This argument is also referred to as the stick to theory or the slithery heel over. One of the most outspoken opponents of euthanasia, Universi ty of Michigan professor of law Yale Kamisar, has articulated a three pronged attack that utilizes the wedge theory, the risk of abuse, and the risk of mistake. The proponents of the wedge theory argue that Once society accepts that life can be terminated because of its cadaverous quality, there is no rational way to limit euthanasia and prevent its abuse. According to this theory, voluntary euthanasia is just the thin edge of a wedge that, once in place, will be driven deeply into our society. Kamisar concludes that legalized voluntary euthanasia inevitably would lead to legalized involuntary euthanasia because it is impossible to draw a rational distinction between those who seek to die because they are a burden to themselves and those whom society seeks to kill because they are a burden to others.(2) (Wolhandler, p. 377) Many who wake up the wedge or slippery slope argument use the Nazi experience with euthanasia as an a posteriori example of this process in action. They argu e that a public policy of murder inexorably follows from an initial, limited step, namely the adoption of a carefully defined euthanasia program, and that a program designed to get rid of those with lives unworthy of life quickly degenerated into the holocaust (Newman, p. 167). What follows is a description of the Nazi euthanasia program excerpted from Liftons (1986) book National Socialist euthanasia or mercy death was a program of killing persons with unworthy lives. These persons were not moribund, and their families, with the rarest exceptions, wanted them to live. It was not a good death, as the word denotes, but a systematic program of killing without any mercy whatever . . . The program, referred to in the National Socialist bureaucracy as T4, was not based on any law, but was initiated by a secret order traceable to Hitler and his chief physician, Karl Brandt . Mental hospitals were required to report all chronic schizophrenics, manic-depressives, mental defectives, epilep tics, and later, asthenic old persons. A separate division, the Public Transport division for the Sick, took care of the collection and transport of such patients to institutions where they were put to death . Relatives received false death certificates and even letters of condolence . . . It is estimated that during two years of this program, ninety thousand persons went to their deaths. While this description of the Nazi euthanasia program is indeed chilling, it provides within it a devastating attack against using it as justification for the slippery slope argument. Proponents of euthanasia in the United States point out that the Nazi program was not one of euthanasia, but a program of mass murder disguised as euthanasia. Gifford (p. 1570) sums up the response of several authors by stating that The Nazis hid their racist, eugenic agenda stool the term euthanasia, terminating in secret the lives of undesirables. It must neer be forgotten that the Nazi euthanasia program was neve r euthanasia at all. That the Nazis co-opted the term for their own purposes should not obscure the fact that their motive was, from the very beginning, stainlessly different from that of todays euthanasia proponents.The current euthanasia movement is anything but covert. The Hemlock Society and other supporters of the right to receive aid in dying have spent millions of dollars to publicize their efforts. In this context, death is presented as a positive alternative to pain and suffering, not a utilitarian tool. Proponents of euthanasia also attempt to refute the slippery slope argument in a variety of other ways. They contend that the current mechanisms used by the courts could easily prevent any slide toward involuntary euthanasia,(3) that the current practice of passive euthanasia proves that the slope isnt all that slippery since we havent witnessed any massive killing programs, and that the example of how forced sterilization in the U.S. has diminished rather than increased, provides a more appropriate example to rely on. take down Callahan (1989), a vocal opponent of active euthanasia, admits that the Nazi experience is not particularly applicable to the U.S. experience and that Lives are not being shortened. They are steadily being lengthened, and particularly for those who are the most powerless sick children and the very old, the mentally and mentally retarded, the disabled and the wan (p. 4). Newman (1991) also attacks the concept of the slippery slope itself. Arguing that just pointing out that one type of action could conceivably lead to another constitutes a very unpersuasive argument and that for the premise to hold align, it must be shown that pressure to allow further steps will be so strong that these steps will actually occur. He also reminds us that such arguments are frequently abused in legal and social policy debate (p. 169). to a fault Kamisar, the risk of abuse argument has also been put forth by a host of other authors who vario usly claim that assisted suicides might result in flagrant murders that may be perpetrated by deliberately forcing or coercing self-destruction and that others may advance personal motives by aiding in suicide (Adams, et. al., p. 2031) that when the entire medical profession is involved in euthanasia, including the poorly trained, the insensitive, the less skilled, there becomes the danger that physicians might not do whatever they can to avoid euthanasia if possible (Newman, p. 177) and that some people who enjoy the exercise of power over others might become addicted to the process (Doerflinger, p. 19). It is this fear of abuse that leads the AMAs Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs to argue that the ban on active euthanasia is a bright line distinction that deters this type of potential abuse. They state Allowing physicians to perform euthanasia for a limited group of patients who may truly benefit from it will present difficult line-drawing problems for medicine and society. In specific cases it may be hard to distinguish which cases fit the criteria complete for euthanasia. For example, if the existence of unbearable pain and suffering was a criterion for euthanasia, the definition of unbearable pain and suffering could be subject to different interpretations, which might lead to abuse of the process in the case of certain practitioners. (CEJA, p. 2232).Proponents of euthanasia argue that the risk of abuse, while certainly present, is not really much of a threat. This is true first, because laws against homicide are severe enough to provide a strong deterrent (Newman, p. 178) second, because a clear set of guidelines prescribing when active euthanasia is allowed will prevent admiration (Adams, et. al., Gifford) third, because we already risk the practice of abuse by allowing passive euthanasia, and such abuse has not occurred (Newman, p. 178) and finally, that the current state of illegality promotes an absence of discussion and actually encourages the practice of clandestine euthanasia (Newman, p. 177). As Gifford (p. 1572) succinctly puts it, what slope could be more slippery than one with no guardrails whatsoever? Additionally, the balancing tests already in place by the legal system should serve to eliminate this problem. Adams, et. al., (p. 2034) explain For example, some opponents of physician-assisted suicide argue that permitting some assisted suicides may lead to the killing of patients who want to live. This slippery slope argument expresses a utilitarian rationale for prohibiting suicide assistance. Others argue that suicide and the assistance of suicide is intrinsically evil, and that sanctioning them will defame the fabric of social morality. These and other utilitarian and moral considerations are encompassed within the states interest in preserving the sanctity of all life and affect its weight in the balance against the patients interest in self-determination. Opponents of euthanasia contend that there is no g uarantee that euthanasia will be strictly voluntary. The potential for subArguments For and Against EuthanasiaArguments For and Against EuthanasiaEuthanasia Whose decision is itI. IntroductionIn a 1988 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, an article titled Its Over Debbie describes how an anonymous doctor administers a fatal dose of morphine to a woman dying of ovarian cancer (Anonymous, 1988). In a 1989 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, ten doctors associated with the nations leading hospitals and medical schools declare their belief that it is not immoral for a physician to assist in the rational suicide of a terminally ill person (Wanzer, et. al., 1989). In 1991, the New England Journal of Medicine published a detailed account written by Dr. Timothy Quill which discussed his decision to help a patient suffering from leukemia commit suicide (Quill, 1991). In 1990, Dr. Jack Kervorkian uses his suicide machine to help a woman suffering from Alzheimer s disease, one Janet Adkins, end her life in the back of a Volkswagen bus (Risen, 1990). Janet was the first of twenty patients who have been aided by Kervorkian in the past three years. He remains committed to his practice. In 1991 the Hemlock Society publishes a how-to manual on committing suicide. Entitled Final Exit, it zooms to the top of the national best seller lists and stays there for several weeks (Altman, 1991). Each of these events has served to provoke ever widening media coverage of the issues surrounding euthanasia and physician assisted suicide, and a national debate has arisen around these practices. This debate is not merely limited to attorneys and physicians. Suddenly, these issues and this debate are now a part of life in mainstream America, and many Americans face dilemmas that did not exist in simpler times dilemmas that many would rather not have to face.II. Review of the Literaturea. Euthanasia The Nature of the DebateIt is this sudden change in the way Amer icans are dealing with death, the nature and scope of the debate about dying, which prompts this analysis of the issues surrounding euthanasia. This debate is largely a debate about what is ethical. Questions the debate attempts to answer include Is it right to commit suicide? Is it ethical for someone else to help? Is it right to put others to death at their own request or at the request of family members? These questions are important because they help to define our society and our culture. The way people deal with and respond to issues of life, ritual, and death serves to shape the nature of our society. This is why society must attempt to decide what is right what is ethical conduct for the various actors in our communities when we face death. There are several reasons why this debate has surfaced in the 1980s. Death is nothing new, it has existed for thousands of years. Each culture has developed its own rituals and mechanisms for dealing with death. These mechanisms serve to p rovide solace, a sense of continuity, and allow the culture to continue even as the members of the community cannot. However, our own culture has experienced many shattering changes that have altered the nature of dying. Suddenly we are forced to rethink the issue of death and we must decide what types of behavior are ethical when someone is dying. Before we can examine the debate about the ethics of dying, we must examine why the debate exists. Perhaps the main reason that death has changed in western culture has to do with advances in medicine and technology. Many of the diseases that have historically killed people are now no longer a threat to most individuals. Medicine has made a variety of advances in the treatment of diseases such as smallpox, tuberculosis, malaria, pneumonia, polio, influenza, and measles. People now rarely die of such traditional causes. Life expectancy has risen to almost 75 years in the United States. The quality of life has also changed fundamentally dur ing the past 100 years. Not only does almost everyone in the United States have enough to eat, but people eat higher on the food chain. There is a great deal more meat and animal fat in modern diets. Just these differences alone have changed death significantly. People now develop heart disease, adult onset diabetes, cancers, and AIDS. These types of diseases are more the result of lifestyle than bacteria.With these new diseases, suffering is often more prolonged and treatment is frequently quite painful. Also, as people are living longer, the diseases of the aged have become increasingly prevalent. Many more people now suffer from problems like senile dementia and Alzheimers disease. These diseases ruin the mind while preserving the body, allowing life to continue long after any quality that the life might have is gone. If what we die of has changed, perhaps the way that we die has changed even more. Throughout history, death has been a family affair. People usually died in the hom e after a short bout with an illness or as the result of an accident. Today, increasingly, death occurs in an institutional setting such as a convalescent home or a hospital, after a variety of technologies are applied in an attempt to prolong the life of the sick person. Often these technologies can be quite effective. People can now live for months and even years attached to a variety of tubes and technologies. About 75% of all deaths in 1987 occurred in hospitals and long term care facilities, up from 50% in 1950 . . . The Office of Technology Assessment Task Force estimated in 1988 that 3775 to 6575 persons were dependent on mechanical ventilation and 1,404,500 persons were receiving artificial nutritional support. This growing capability to forestall death has contributed to the increased attention to medical decisions near the end of life. (CEJA, 1992, p. 2229) People realize that the chances of facing the institutionalization of death increase daily, and they feel a profound lack of control. Surveys have consistently indicated that a large majority of people in the United States would like to be allowed to end their lives before incurable and painful diseases finally kill them (CEJA, p. 2229). Because of the changes that have impacted death, with regard to both how and where we die, the debate about how we should be allowed to die has been renewed. This paper will examine the several facets of this debate. It will define the terms that are relevant to the debate, examine the legal state of euthanasia today, discuss the ethics of euthanasia by examining arguments made by proponents and opponents of euthanasia, and by applying several Normative Ethical Theories to the issue. Finally, it will explore the power implications that infuse the debate on euthanasia and present arguments in favor of moving toward a care based ethic of dying and away from the current rights based ethic.b. DefinitionsIf we are to effectively understand the debate about the right to die in the United States, it is imperative that a few basic terms be understood. The first and most important term is euthanasia. Originating from the Greek terms eu (happy or good) and thanatos (death), euthanasia means literally happy death or good death. The American Medical Associations Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs defines the term as follows Euthanasia is commonly defined as the act of bringing about the death of a hopelessly ill and suffering person in a relatively quick and painless way for reasons of mercy. In this report, the term euthanasia will signify the medical administration of a lethal agent to a patient for the purpose of relieving the patients intolerable and incurable suffering. (p. 2230) Other sources have defined euthanasia variously The act or practice of painlessly putting to death persons suffering from incurable conditions of diseases. (Wolhandler, 1984, p. 363), . . . to refuse unwanted medical treatment or to have ongoing care withdrawn even th ough the patient will die if treatment is terminated. (Adams, et. al., 1992, p. 2021). Euthanasia is a general term that can actually mean a variety of different things depending upon the context in which it is used.For this reason, a number of supporting terms has become the convention when discussing euthanasia. These terms help to narrow the subject matter and distinguish between different types of euthanasia. The important terms that help to subdivide and classify euthanasia by type are voluntary/involuntary and active/passive. Voluntary euthanasia is a death performed by another with the consent of the person being killed. This consent may be in writing as in the case of a living will or advance directive. Involuntary euthanasia is a death performed by another without the consent of the person being killed. The AMAs Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs makes three distinctions concerning consent and euthanasia Voluntary euthanasia is euthanasia that is provided to a competen t person on his or her informed request. Non-voluntary euthanasia is the provision of euthanasia to an incompetent person according to a surrogates decision. Involuntary euthanasia is euthanasia performed without a competent persons consent.(p. 2230) Wolhandler compares the terms in a different context.Those who condemn euthanasia of both kinds would call the involuntary form murder and the voluntary form a compounded crime of murder and suicide if administered by the physician, and suicide alone if administered by the patient himself.As far as voluntary euthanasia goes, it is impossible to separate it from suicide as a moral category it is, indeed, a form of suicide. Voluntary euthanasia may involve participation of second parties. (p. 366) The distinction between active and passive euthanasia is not nearly as clear as the previous distinction. Although many authors claim that the difference between the two types cannot be identified or is irrelevant at best, much of the debate on the subject is over this distinction and most of the current legal issues turn on this distinction.While this paper will contend that the difference between the two should not be recognized, it is both useful and important to know where the line is drawn. The AMA, which is strongly opposed to active euthanasia, has seen fit to endorse passive euthanasia in appropriate situations. The Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs makes the distinction as follows The physician is obligated only to offer sound medical treatment and to refrain from providing treatments that are detrimental, on balance, to the patients well being. When a physician withholds or withdraws a treatment on the request of a patient, he or she has fulfilled the obligation to offer sound treatment to the patient. The obligation to offer treatment does not include an obligation to impose treatment on an unwilling patient. In addition, the physician is not providing a harmful treatment. Withdrawing or withholding is not a treatment, but the foregoing of a treatment. (p. 2231) According to Wolhandler, (p. 367) it is the nature of the acts performed by the second party that distinguishes between active and passive euthanasia. The courts have held that acts of omission (removal of respiratory assistance, hydration, and feeding tubes) are allowable behavior. Although unplugging a respirator and switching off a dialysis machine are arguably acts of commission, an increasing number of judges and commentators have accepted these acts as permissible passive euthanasia in both voluntary and involuntary settings. Gifford (1993) describes the difference between the two types of euthanasia this way Passive euthanasia involves allowing a patient to die by removing her from artificial life support systems such as respirators and feeding tubes or simply discontinuing medical treatments necessary to sustain life. Active euthanasia, by contrast, involves positive steps to end the life of a patient, typically by le thal injectiond (p. 1546) The right to passive euthanasia has also been termed the right to die by some authors (Adams, et. al., p. 2021-22). With an understanding of the different types of euthanasia, we can now define some other key terms. It is important to understand how physician assisted suicide differs from euthanasia, and it is also necessary to define the terms advance directive and competence since they are crucial in determining the difference between voluntary and involuntary euthanasia. The term physician assisted suicide is somewhat self-explanatory. It occurs when a physician provides aid to a patient so they can commit suicide.However, it is also necessary to see the difference between this type of action and euthanasia. The AMAs Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs states that Euthanasia and assisted suicide differ in the degree of physician participation. Euthanasia entails a physician performing the immediate life ending action (e.g., administering a lethal inj ection). Assisted suicide occurs when a physician facilitates a patients death by providing the necessary means and/or information to enable the patient to perform the life-ending act (e.g., the physician provides sleeping pills and information about the lethal dose, while aware that the patient may commit suicide). (p. 2231) It is important to realize that the difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide lies in the behavior of the physician. This difference in behavior has recently become a major legal battleground that will be explored in the following pages. The advance directive has recently become an important new device to aid the terminally ill. Many states have legalized the advance directive, partly in an attempt to avoid dealing with problems associated with active euthanasia, and partly to help ease the burdens on the dying and their families. Singer (1992) provides a good definition of advance directive and explains how it is used. An advance directive is a writte n document completed by a competent person that aims to guide medical treatment after the person becomes incompetent. There are two types instruction directives, which focus on the types of life-sustaining treatment that the person would want under various clinical situations, and proxy directives, which focus on who the person would want to make health care decisions if the person were unable to do so. (p. 22) The advance directive is useful because it can theoretically eliminate the need for involuntary euthanasia. It ensures that a voluntary decision is made in advance, even if the individual could not make such a situation at a later date. If everyone made use of the advance directive, there would be no need to debate policy decisions that must be made in the case of an incompetent person on life support. Because advance directives have neither been accepted nor widely used by the general public, many of the problems that could potentially be solved remain. This situation caused right to die groups in both California and Washington to propose ballot initiatives that would legalize active euthanasia (Gifford, p. 1550-51). Although active euthanasia is not legal in any United States jurisdiction, passive euthanasia is generally allowed at the request of a competent individual. Because of this it is critical to understand what constitutes competence. Courts have defined legal competence as the mental ability to make a rational decision, which includes the ability to perceive, appreciate all the relevant facts, and to reach a rational judgement upon such facts. In the euthanasia context, legal competence is the incurables ability to understand that in requesting active euthanasia he is choosing death over life. Only clear and convincing evidence should suffice for a finding of an incurables competence. (Wolhandler, p. 366-67)c. The Legal State of EuthanasiaWith a knowledge of the meaningful terms that will be involved, it is important to discuss the legal stat e of euthanasia in the United States today. As technology has placed more and more people on life sustaining devices in this country, the courts have had to deal with several cases that pertain to euthanasia in a variety of ways. This section of the paper is designed to review those cases briefly and to assess how the rulings in those cases have set the policy for the practice of euthanasia today. The courts first dealt with euthanasia in the Quinlan case in 1976. Karen Ann Quinlan lapsed into a coma after mixing a variety of pills and alcohol at a party. After it became apparent that she would not be revived, her parents went to court to have her respirator removed. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that her parents had the right to have the respirator removed and that Karen be allowed to die. Ironically, because her parents did not request removal of feeding and hydration tubes, she survived nine more years curled in a fetal position in a New Jersey rest home (Wolhandler, p. 366) . In this case, the New Jersey court effectively sanctioned nonvoluntary passive euthanasia. The next prominent case was decided by the New York Supreme Court in Superintendent of Belchertown State School v. Saikewicz. Here the court found that a competent patient had the right to refuse medical treatment, allowing for a patient to decide in cases of voluntary passive euthanasia (Gifford, p. 1575-76). Later, in Satz v. Perlmutter, a Florida District Court of Appeals came to essentially the same conclusion (Wolhandler, p. 372-73). In Severns v. Wilmington Medical Center, the Delaware Supreme Court gave the husband of a comatose woman the right of guardianship and the authority to remove her respirator or withhold other treatment as he saw fit. In this case the court relied on previous decisions made in Quinlan, Saikewicz, and Satz for its finding (Wolhandler, p. 373). In Thor v. Superior Court (California), the court granted the request to withhold treatment from a severely depressed quadriplegic only after a psychiatric evaluation determined that the request was based on poor quality of life and not just on severe depression (Pugliese, 1993, p. 1326). The courts have not restricted the right of passive euthanasia to just the terminally ill. Elizabeth Bouvia was a relatively young woman who suffered from severe cerebral palsy and attempted to starve herself to death in a California hospital by requesting the removal of a nasogastric feeding tube. She was denied this request because the hospital feared it would be party to suicide.The California court of appeals ordered the physicians to remove the tube and argued that she had the right to enlist the assistance of others in ending her life (Sprung, 1990, p. 2213). The courts have also found that doctors and hospitals must at least obtain consent from third parties that would have a significant interest in the patients outcome if the patient is incompetent. In the case of Helga Wanglie, a Minnesota court denied a hospital administrator permission to disconnect her respirator against the wishes of her husband (Gifford, p. 1571). In sum, these cases indicate an emerging consensus that courts will generally allow treatment to be withheld from patients who are terminally ill if it is in the best interests of the patient and at the request of patients or family members. It is this emerging consensus that made the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in the Cruzan case so interesting. In the only euthanasia case heard to date by the U.S. Supreme Court, the justices, in a 5-4 decision, allowed to stand the decision made by the Missouri Court of Appeals not to disconnect the life support apparatus from Nancy Cruzan (Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Dept. of Health, 1990). Although the court did find that a right to refuse treatment could be found in the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and did not prohibit the courts from looking in other areas for this right (Adams, et. al., p. 2025), it also u pheld the right of the State of Missouri to require . . . clear and convincing evidence that Ms. Cruzan would have desired withdrawal of these treatments. (Newman, 1991, p. 175). In the realm of physician assisted suicide, only two major cases have been decided. In the case against Dr. Timothy Quill that arose because of the publication of his article in the New England Journal of Medicine, the grand jury for the state of New York refused to return an indictment (Bender, 1992, p. 524). In the more publicized case of Dr. Jack Kervorkian, the courts have not yet decided on the constitutionality of the Michigan law that bans physician-assisted suicide. Kervorkian is currently free on bond and continues to aid other patients who wish to commit suicide (Pugliese, p. 1300-05).(1) A brief assessment of the cases described above indicates that the courts have essentially legalized voluntary passive euthanasia, finding justification to refuse or have medical treatment withheld in the constit utional right to privacy, the common law right of self determination, or the more general concept of autonomy (Gifford, p. 1575-78). With regard to involuntary passive euthanasia, the courts are generally supportive of the practice, but they have the right to insist on a more stringent standard of evidence before approving such procedures. The courts have generally employed a balancing test that weighs the patients right to privacy and self-determination against the interest of the state in preserving life. The interests of potential third parties that might desire that the patient continue to live, and the ethical image of the medical profession (Adams, et. al., p. 2022). In cases of assisted suicide, some states have laws against the practice, the AMA forbids it, most juries are refusing to find the actors guilty, and the courts have yet to decide the question. Both voluntary and involuntary active euthanasia remain illegal.d. The Debate About EuthanasiaThe movement to legalize ac tive euthanasia has existed for quite some time. Initially popularized in Britain during the 19th century, it gained some adherents in the United States during the 1920s. It was the Nazi program of active euthanasia in the 1930s and 4os that cast a pall of disrepute over the practice that remains today. The revival of this movement today can largely be attributed to the onset of the issues discussed at the beginning of this paper, and to the efforts of the Hemlock Society, a group of individuals that actively promotes the right to dignified death. The Hemlock Society recently promoted ballot initiatives in both Washington and California that would have legalized active euthanasia in those states (Gifford, 1993). This revival of the right to die movement has led to hotly contested debate about the practices of active euthanasia and physician assisted suicide.This paper will attempt to encapsulate this debate by presenting the arguments made by both opponents and supporters of these p rocedures. Since arguments made by both sides are used in cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide, the generic term euthanasia is used for simplicity to suggest the concept of aided death unless otherwise indicated. Those opposed to euthanasia and assisted suicide present a variety of arguments in support of a ban.e. The Case Against EuthanasiaEuthanasia destroys societal respect for life. By becoming commonplace and used in medical practice along with more traditional methods of healing, society becomes desensitized toward death to the point where life is no longer valuable. This attitude serves to degrade humanity and leads to a variety of social ills. In a society that devalues life, people have no compunctions about committing violent crimes and murdering others. The overall quality of life becomes seriously undermined and society as a whole deteriorates (Doerflinger, 1989, p. 16-19, Koop, 1989, p. 2-3). Once euthanasia becomes legal, opponents contend, the potential for abuse at the hands of caregivers vastly increases. Closely related to this argument is the argument that those who enjoy the exercise of power over others might become intoxicated with it and actually come to enjoy killing. One step down the path toward euthanasia simply makes it that much easier in the future to take further steps. This argument is also referred to as the wedge theory or the slippery slope. One of the most outspoken opponents of euthanasia, University of Michigan professor of law Yale Kamisar, has articulated a three pronged attack that utilizes the wedge theory, the risk of abuse, and the risk of mistake. The proponents of the wedge theory argue that Once society accepts that life can be terminated because of its diminished quality, there is no rational way to limit euthanasia and prevent its abuse. According to this theory, voluntary euthanasia is just the thin edge of a wedge that, once in place, will be driven deeply into our society. Kamisar concludes that legalized voluntary euthanasia inevitably would lead to legalized involuntary euthanasia because it is impossible to draw a rational distinction between those who seek to die because they are a burden to themselves and those whom society seeks to kill because they are a burden to others.(2) (Wolhandler, p. 377) Many who raise the wedge or slippery slope argument use the Nazi experience with euthanasia as an empirical example of this process in action. They argue that a public policy of murder inexorably follows from an initial, limited step, namely the adoption of a carefully defined euthanasia program, and that a program designed to get rid of those with lives unworthy of life quickly degenerated into the holocaust (Newman, p. 167). What follows is a description of the Nazi euthanasia program excerpted from Liftons (1986) book National Socialist euthanasia or mercy death was a program of killing persons with unworthy lives. These persons were not moribund, and their families, with the rares t exceptions, wanted them to live. It was not a good death, as the word denotes, but a systematic program of killing without any mercy whatsoever . . . The program, referred to in the National Socialist bureaucracy as T4, was not based on any law, but was initiated by a secret order traceable to Hitler and his chief physician, Karl Brandt . Mental hospitals were required to report all chronic schizophrenics, manic-depressives, mental defectives, epileptics, and later, debilitated old persons. A separate division, the Public Transport division for the Sick, took care of the collection and transport of such patients to institutions where they were put to death . Relatives received false death certificates and even letters of condolence . . . It is estimated that during two years of this program, ninety thousand persons went to their deaths. While this description of the Nazi euthanasia program is indeed chilling, it provides within it a devastating attack against using it as justifica tion for the slippery slope argument. Proponents of euthanasia in the United States point out that the Nazi program was not one of euthanasia, but a program of mass murder disguised as euthanasia. Gifford (p. 1570) sums up the response of several authors by stating that The Nazis hid their racist, eugenic agenda behind the term euthanasia, terminating in secret the lives of undesirables. It must never be forgotten that the Nazi euthanasia program was never euthanasia at all. That the Nazis co-opted the term for their own purposes should not obscure the fact that their motive was, from the very beginning, entirely different from that of todays euthanasia proponents.The current euthanasia movement is anything but covert. The Hemlock Society and other supporters of the right to receive aid in dying have spent millions of dollars to publicize their efforts. In this context, death is presented as a positive alternative to pain and suffering, not a utilitarian tool. Proponents of euthanas ia also attempt to refute the slippery slope argument in a variety of other ways. They contend that the current mechanisms used by the courts could easily prevent any slide toward involuntary euthanasia,(3) that the current practice of passive euthanasia proves that the slope isnt all that slippery since we havent witnessed any massive killing programs, and that the example of how forced sterilization in the U.S. has diminished rather than increased, provides a more appropriate example to rely on. Even Callahan (1989), a vocal opponent of active euthanasia, admits that the Nazi experience is not particularly applicable to the U.S. experience and that Lives are not being shortened. They are steadily being lengthened, and particularly for those who are the most powerless sick children and the very old, the mentally and mentally retarded, the disabled and the demented (p. 4). Newman (1991) also attacks the concept of the slippery slope itself. Arguing that just pointing out that one ty pe of action could conceivably lead to another constitutes a very unpersuasive argument and that for the premise to hold true, it must be shown that pressure to allow further steps will be so strong that these steps will actually occur. He also reminds us that such arguments are frequently abused in legal and social policy debate (p. 169). Besides Kamisar, the risk of abuse argument has also been put forth by a host of other authors who variously claim that assisted suicides might result in flagrant murders that may be perpetrated by deliberately forcing or coercing self-destruction and that others may advance personal motives by aiding in suicide (Adams, et. al., p. 2031) that when the entire medical profession is involved in euthanasia, including the poorly trained, the insensitive, the less skilled, there becomes the danger that physicians might not do whatever they can to avoid euthanasia if possible (Newman, p. 177) and that some people who enjoy the exercise of power over othe rs might become addicted to the process (Doerflinger, p. 19). It is this fear of abuse that leads the AMAs Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs to argue that the ban on active euthanasia is a bright line distinction that deters this type of potential abuse. They state Allowing physicians to perform euthanasia for a limited group of patients who may truly benefit from it will present difficult line-drawing problems for medicine and society. In specific cases it may be hard to distinguish which cases fit the criteria established for euthanasia. For example, if the existence of unbearable pain and suffering was a criterion for euthanasia, the definition of unbearable pain and suffering could be subject to different interpretations, which might lead to abuse of the process in the case of certain practitioners. (CEJA, p. 2232).Proponents of euthanasia argue that the risk of abuse, while certainly present, is not really much of a threat. This is true first, because laws against homicid e are severe enough to provide a strong deterrent (Newman, p. 178) second, because a clear set of guidelines prescribing when active euthanasia is allowed will prevent confusion (Adams, et. al., Gifford) third, because we already risk the practice of abuse by allowing passive euthanasia, and such abuse has not occurred (Newman, p. 178) and finally, that the current state of illegality promotes an absence of discussion and actually encourages the practice of clandestine euthanasia (Newman, p. 177). As Gifford (p. 1572) succinctly puts it, what slope could be more slippery than one with no guardrails whatsoever? Additionally, the balancing tests already in place by the legal system should serve to eliminate this problem. Adams, et. al., (p. 2034) explain For example, some opponents of physician-assisted suicide argue that permitting some assisted suicides may lead to the killing of patients who want to live. This slippery slope argument expresses a utilitarian rationale for prohibitin g suicide assistance. Others argue that suicide and the assistance of suicide is intrinsically evil, and that sanctioning them will damage the fabric of social morality. These and other utilitarian and moral considerations are encompassed within the states interest in preserving the sanctity of all life and affect its weight in the balance against the patients interest in self-determination. Opponents of euthanasia contend that there is no guarantee that euthanasia will be strictly voluntary. The potential for sub

Lift And Drag Coefficients Of Planes Engineering Essay

Lift And Drag Coefficients Of Planes Engineering EssayThe term peregrine in prevalent language typically refers to liquids, but in the realm of physics, fluid describes both gases, liquids or plasmas that conform to the underframe of its container.Fluid mechanics is the work of gases and liquids at equalizer and in motion. It is divided into fluid statics, the hire of the behavior of stationary fluids, and fluid dynamics, the study of the behavior of moving, or black marketing, fluids. Fluid dynamics is further divided into hydrodynamics, or the study of water hunt down, and aerodynamics, the study of communicate move.Real-life applications of fluid mechanics included a variety of machines, ranging from the water-wheel to the snapplane. Many of the applications are according to several principles such as Pascals ruler, Bernoullis Principle, Archimedess Principle and etc.As example, Bernoullis principle, which stated that the greater the velocity of take to the woods in a fluid, the greater the dynamic pressure and the less the static pressure. In some some other words, slower-moving fluid exerts greater pressure than faster-moving fluid. The discovery of this principle ultimately made possible the development of the airplane. Therefore, among the most famous applications of Bernoullis principle is its use in aerodynamics.In addition, the study of fluids provides an understanding of a number of everyday phenomena, such as why an open window and door together create a draught in a room.Wind TunnelSuppose one is in a room where the heat is on too high, and there is no dash to adjust the thermostat. Outside, however, the air is cold, and thus, by opening a window, one can presumably cool down the room. But if one opens the window without opening the former door of the room, there will only be little temperature change. But if the door is opened, a nice cool breeze will blow finished the room. Why?This is because, with the door closed, the room con stitutes an area of relatively high pressure compared to the pressure of the air outside the window. Because air is a fluid, it will tend to flow into the room, but at one time the pressure inside reaches a certain point, it will prevent additional air from entering. The tendency of fluids is to move from high-pressure to low-pressure areas, not the other way around. As soon as the door is opened, the relatively high-pressure air of the room flows into the relatively low-pressure area of the hallway. As a result, the air pressure in the room is push downd, and the air from outside can at a time enter. Soon a wind will begin to blow through the room.The above scenario of wind flow rate through a room describes a rudimentary wind delve. A wind tunnel is a chamber built for the purpose of examining the characteristics of airflow in contact with solid preys, such as aircraft and automobiles.Theory of Operation of a Wind TunnelWind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studyi ng vehicles (primarilyairplanes) in free flight. The wind tunnel was envisioned as a means of reversing the usual paradigm instead of the affectation standing still and the aircraft moving at revivify through it, the same effect would be obtained if the aircraft stood still and the air moved at speed past(a) it. In that way a stationary observer could study the aircraft in action, and could measure the aerodynamic forces being imposed on the aircraft.Later, wind tunnel study came into its own the effects of wind on manmade structures or objects needed to be studied, when buildings became tall enough to present large surfaces to the wind, and the resulting forces had to be resisted by the buildings internal structure. tranquil later, wind-tunnel testing was applied toautomobiles, not so much to determine aerodynamic forces per second but more to determine ways to reduce the power needful to move the vehicle on roadways at a given speed.In the wind tunnel the air is moving relativ e to the roadway, while the roadway is stationary relative to the test vehicle. Some automotive-test wind tunnels have incorporated moving belts under the test vehicle in an effort to approximate the actual condition. Its represents a safe and judicious use of the properties of fluid mechanics. Its purpose is to test the interaction of airflow and solids in relative motion in other words, either the aircraft has to be moving against the airflow, as it does in flight, or the airflow can be moving against a stationary aircraft. The first of these choices, of course, poses a number of dangers on the other hand, there is little danger in exposing a stationary craft to winds at speeds simulating that of the aircraft in flight.Wind tunnelWind tunnels are used for the study of aerodynamics (the dynamics of fluids).So there is a wide range of applications and fluid mechanic theory can be applied in the device. airframe flow analysis (aviation, open improvements etc), aircraft engines (jets ) performance tests and improvements, car industry reduction of clang, better air penetration, reduction of losses and fuel consumption (thats why all cars now look the same the square off is not a question of taste, but the result of laws of physics) any improvement against and to reduce air friction i.e. the shape of a speed cycling helmet, the shape of the profiles used on a bike are designed in a wind tunnel. to measure the flow and shape of waves on a surface of water, in response to winds (very large swimming pools) Entertainment as well, in mounting the tunnel on a vertical axis and blowing from bottom to top. Not to simulate anti-gravity as said above, but to allow safely the experience of free-falling parachutes.The Bernoulli principle is applied to measure experimentally the air speed flowing in the wind tunnel. In this case, the construction of Pitot tube is made to utilize the Bernoulli principle for the task of measuring the air speed in the wind tunnel. Pitot tube i s generally an instrument to measure the fluid flow velocity and in this case to measure the speed of air flowing to assist further aerodynamic calculations which require this piece of information and the adjustment of the wind speed to achieve desired value.Schematic of a Pitot tubeBernoullis compare statesStagnation pressure = static pressure + dynamic pressureThis can also be written as,Solving that for velocity we getWhere,V is air velocitypt is stagnation or total pressureps is static pressureh= fluid heightand is air densityTo reduce the error produced, the placing of this device is properly aligned with the flow to avoid misalignment.As a wing moves through the air, the wing is inclined to the flight direction at some angle. The angle between thechord line and the flight direction is called theangle of set onand has a large effect on the turn backgenerated by a wing. When an airplane takes off, the pilot applies as muchthrustas possible to make the airplane roll along the runway. But just earlier draw nearing off, the pilotrotatesthe aircraft. The nose of the airplane rises, change magnitude the angle of attackand producing theincreased liftneeded for takeoff.The magnitude of the liftgeneratedby an object depends on theshapeof the object and how it moves through the air. For thinairfoils,the lift is directly proportional to the angle of attack for small angles (within +/- 10 degrees). For higher angles, however, the dependence is quite involved. As an object moves through the air, air moleculesstickto the surface. This creates a layer of air near the surface called a bourne layerthat, in effect, changes the shape of the object. Theflow numberreacts to the edge of the boundary layer just as it would to the physical surface of the object. To make things more confusing, the boundary layer may lift off or separate from the body and create an effective shape much different from the physical shape. The separation of the boundary layer explains why airc raft wings will absolutely lose lift at high angles to the flow. This condition is called awing stall.On the slide directn above, the flow conditions for deuce airfoils are shown on the left. The shape of the two foils is the same. The lower foil is inclined at ten degrees to the incoming flow, while the upper foil is inclined at twenty degrees. On the upper foil, the boundary layer has separated and the wing is stalled. Predicting thestall point(the angle at which the wing stalls) is very difficult mathematically. Engineers usually entrust onwind tunneltests to determine the stall point. But the test must be done very carefully, matching all the importantsimilarity parametersof the actual flight hardware.The darn at the right of the figure shows how the lift varies with angle of attack for a typical thin airfoil. At low angles, the lift is nearly linear. Notice on this plot that at slide fastener angle a small amount of lift is generated because of the airfoil shape. If the ai rfoil had been symmetric, the lift would be zero at zero angle of attack. At the right of the curve, the lift changes rather abruptly and the curve stops. In reality, you can set the airfoil at any angle you want. However, once the wing stalls, the flow becomes highly unsteady, and the value of the lift can change rapidly with time. Because it is so hard to measure such flow conditions, engineers usually carry the plot blank beyond wing stall.Since the amount of lift generated at zero angle and the location of the stall point must usually be determined experimentally, aerodynamicists include the effects of inclination in thelift coefficient.For some simple examples, the lift coefficient can be determined mathematically. For thin airfoils at subsonic speed, and small angle of attack, the lift coefficientClis given byCl = 2whereis 3.1415, andais the angle of attack expressed in radiansradians = 180 degreesAerodynamicists rely on wind tunnel testing and very sophisticated computer ana lysis to determine the lift coefficient.Lift coefficientThelift coefficient(or) is adimensionlesscoefficient that colligates theliftgenerated by an aerodynamic body such as awingor completeaircraft, thedynamic pressureof the fluid flow around the body, and a quote area associated with the body. It is also used to refer to the aerodynamic lift characteristics of a2Dairfoilsection, whereby the reference area is taken as the airfoilchord.It may also be described as the ratio of lift pressure todynamic pressure.Aircraft Lift CoefficientLift coefficient may be used to relate the totalliftgenerated by an aircraft to the total area of the wing of the aircraft. In this application it is called theaircraftorplanform lift coefficientThe lift coefficientis equal towhereis thelift force,is fluiddensity,is uncoiled airspeed,isdynamic pressure, andisplanformarea.The lift coefficient is adimensionless number.The aircraft lift coefficient can be approximated using, for example, theLifting-line th eoryor measured in awind tunneltest of a complete aircraft configuration.Section Lift CoefficientLift coefficient may also be used as a characteristic of a particular shape (or cross-section) of anairfoil. In this application it is called thesection lift coefficientIt is common to show, for a particular airfoil section, the relationship between section lift coefficient andangle of attack.It is also useful to show the relationship between section lift coefficients and sop up coefficient.The section lift coefficient is based on the concept of an infinite wing of non-varying cross-section, the lift of which is bereft of any three-dimensional effects in other words the lift on a 2D section. It is not relevant to define the section lift coefficient in terms of total lift and total area because they are infinitely large. Rather, the lift is defined per unit span of the wingIn such a situation, the above formula becomeswhereis thechordlength of the airfoil.The section lift coefficient for a given angle of attack can be approximated using, for example, theThin Airfoil Theory,or determined from wind tunnel tests on a finite-length test piece, with endplates designed to ameliorate the 3D effects associated with thetrailing vortexwake structure. bank line that the lift equation does not include terms forangle of attack that is because the mathematical relationship betweenlift andangle of attackvaries greatly between airfoils and is, therefore, not constant. (In contrast, there is a straight-line relationship between lift and dynamic pressure and between lift and area.) The relationship between the lift coefficient and angle of attack is complex and can only be determined by experimentation or complex analysis. See the accompanying graph. The graph for section lift coefficient vs. angle of attack follows the same general shape for allairfoils, but the particular numbers will vary. The graph shows an almost linear increase in lift coefficient with increasingangle of attac k, up to a maximum point, after which the lift coefficient reduces. The angle at which maximum lift coefficient occurs is thestallangle of the airfoil.The lift coefficient is adimensionless number.Note that in the graph here, there is still a small but positive lift coefficient with angles of attack less than zero. This is true of any airfoil with argot(asymmetrical airfoils). On a cambered airfoil at zero angle of attack the pressures on the upper surface are lower than on the lower surface.A typical curve showing section lift coefficient versus angle of attack for a cambered airfoilDrag CoefficientInfluid dynamics, thedrag coefficient(commonly denoted asor) is adimensionless quantitythat is used to quantify thedragor resistance of an object in a fluid environment such as air or water. It is used in thedrag equation, where a lower drag coefficient indicates the object will have lessaerodynamicorhydrodynamicdrag. The drag coefficient is always associated with a particular surface ar ea.The drag coefficient of any object comprises the effects of the two basic contributors tofluid dynamicdragskin frictionandform drag. The drag coefficient of liftingairfoilorhydrofoilalso includes the effects of liftinduced drag.The drag coefficient of a complete structure such as an aircraft also includes the effects ofinterference drag.DefinitionThe drag coefficientis defined aswhereis thedrag force, which is by definition the force component in the direction of the flow velocity,is themass densityof the fluid,is thespeedof the object relative to the fluid, andis the referencearea.The reference area depends on what type of drag coefficient is being measured. For automobiles and many other objects, the reference area is the frontal area of the vehicle (i.e., the cross-sectional area when viewed from ahead). For example, for a sphere(note this is not the surface area =).Forairfoils, the reference area is theplanformarea. Since this tends to be a rather large area compared to the projected frontal area, the resulting drag coefficients tend to be low much lower than for a car with the same drag, frontal area and at the same speed.Airshipsand somebodies of revolutionuse the volumetric drag coefficient, in which the reference area is thesquareof thecube rootof the airship volume. Submerged streamlined bodies use the wetted surface area.Two objects having the same reference area moving at the same speed through a fluid will experience a drag force proportional to their respective drag coefficients. Coefficients for unstreamlined objects can be 1 or more, for streamlined objects much less.

Genealogical Experiment of Fish Types

Genealogical Experiment of Fish typecastsDavid HessAbstractTo introduce us to proteins, which truly make one organism different from another in terms of phenotype, our instructor challenged us to study the visible and proteomic traits of salmon, cat tilt, turbot, hali scarce, and yellow-fin tuna and estimate how each fish is related on the evolutionary tree. To do so, our lab assort first accessed online research websites to compargon the phenotypes of the different Ichthyoids. We specifically researched sizes, swim types, biological features, habitat preferences, and taxonomic names that derive from the evolutionary tree. After this, we then obtained samples of the musculus tissue in each fish, which were provided by the instructor, and then extracted the proteins from each sample. By treating the samples with sodium dodecyl sulfate and applying heat. We were able to denature theD1 tertiary and quaternary structures of the proteins, which left-hand(a) the proteins long, stringy , and negatively charged. Next, we were able to separate the proteins by length a la gel electrophoresis, and comp be the different proteins in the fish as we observed the different exclude that appeared on the gel. After comparison both the physical traits and the proteins in each fish, we were to predict which species preceded the next according to evolution.PurposeThe purpose of this lab is to study the physical attributes and proteomics of different species of fish to determine the potential genealogical tree connecting these speciesInstructor/BackgroundProteins often bind together, forming polypeptide chains. Some atoms on these chains are hydrophilic, tour others are hydrophobic. This is due to the fact that the different r- crowds (the only part of an amino acids that distinguishes it from another), may or may not form hydrogen bonds with the water molecules that they are summered in. When a hydrophobic group enters the body of water, the hydrogen bonds in the water break apart, yet fagnot bind to the r group on the amino acids, so the water forms bonds with itself again around the r-group, thus pushing the r-group away due to the magnetic forces that push similarly charged atoms away from eachother. However, if a hydrophilic group is exposed to water, hydrogen bonds are formed with the r-group, pulling the r-group out of the remaining protein structure due to magnetic forces pulling the two bodies together as they are oppositely charged. These two interactions cause the protein to bundle up, making it hard to perform accurate gel electrophoresis on. It becomes especially difficult when these proteins bind together with disulfide bonds. light up and sodium dodecyl sulfate break apart the disulfide and hydrogen bonds. This allows us to separate the proteins in electrophoresis, which can then be compared. AData/Organization D2of RecordsThe following data results from reseach using the Fishbase website to compare phenotypes between the studied fish v ernacular NameSalmonscientific FishOncorhynchus Ketataxonomic courseificationFamilySalmonidae (Salmonids)OrderSalmoniforms (Salmons)ClassActinopterygii (Ray-Finned Fish)Size gook Published Weight 15.9kgEnvironmentMarine Freshwater brackish Benthopelagic AnadromousDepth compass 0-250mBiologyInhabits Ocean and Coastal streams. Adults complete eating in freshwater. Die After Spawning. Migrating fry forms instills in estuaries, remain close to shore for a few months, and disperse and enter into the sea. Epilegic.Swim TypeAnguilliform (Moves Body and Caudal Fin) additional FactorsDefinitions of unknown TermsEpilogic-Living in the upper zone of the ocean from just below the surface to about 100m in perspicacityCommon NameHalibutScientific FishHippoglossus HippoglossusTaxonomic ClassificationFamilyPleuronectidae (Right-Eye Flounders)OrderPleuronectiformes (Flatfish)ClassActinopterygii (Ray-finned Fish)SizeMax enter Length 470.0cmMax Recorded Weight 320.0kgEnvironmentMarine DemersalD epth 50-2000mBiologyAdults are Benthic, but occasionally Pelagic. Feeds mainly one other fishes, but also eats cephalopods, large crustaceans, and other bottom-living animals. Seriously affected by overfishingSwim TypeAnguilliform Body and Caudal FinAdditional FactorsDorsal SpinesDefinitions of Unfamiliar TermsBenthic stick ups one the bottom of a body of waterPelagic Lives far away from landCommon NameCatfishScientific FishNeoprius GraeffeiTaxonomic ClassificationFamilyArildae (Sea Catfishes)OrderSiluriformes (Catfish)ClassActinopterygii (Ray-Finned Fishes)SizeMax Length 60.0cmEnvironmentMarine Freshwater Brackish DemersalPH Range 7.5-8.2AnadromousBiologyInhibit freshwater rivers and lagoons, Brackish estuaries, coastal marine waters. Feeds on arthropods, insects, aquatic plants, mollusks, prawns, crayfish, fishes, and bottom detritusSwim TypeAnguilliform (moves body and caudally fin)Additional Factors1 Dorsal spine, 7 dorsal soft rays, and 15-19 soft anal spinesDefinitions of Un familiar TermsAnadromous Migrates from freshwater to spawn in salt-waterCommon NameYellowfin TunaScientific FishThunaus AlbacararesTaxonomic ClassificationFamilyScombridae (Mackerels, Tunas, Bonitos)OrderPerciformes (Perch-Likes)ClassActinopterygii (Ray-Finned Fishes)SizeMax Weight 200.0kgMax Length 230.0cmEnvironmentMarine Brackish Pelagic-Oceanic OceandromousDepth Range 1-250mBiologyLives above and below thermoclines, Pelagic in open water, rarely seen around reefs, school by size, large fish school with porpoise, sensitive to low concentrations of oxygen, resides near ocean debrisSwim TypeAnguilliform (Movements of body and/or Caudal fin)Additional Factors11-14 Dorsal Rays, 12-16 Dorsal soft rays,11-16 Anal Soft Rays, 39 VertebraeDefinitions of Unfamiliar TermsCommon NameTurbotScientific FishScophthalmus MaximusTaxonomic ClassificationFamilyActinopterygii (Ray-Finned Fish)OrderPleuronectiformes (Flatfish)ClassActinopterygii (Ray-Finned Fish)SizeMax Published Weight 25.0kgEnvironm entMarine Brackish Demersal Oceandromous TemperateDepth Range 20-70mBiologyLive one sand, rock, or mixed bottom. Almost Circular Bottom. Eye side without scales, but instead bony tubercles. Feeds one bottom-living fishes (sand eels, gobies, etc.) and larger crustaceans and bivalves. Lives especially in Brackish WatersSwim TypeAnguilliform Movements of body and/or caudal finAdditional FactorsLarvae are initially systematic, but after 40-50 days, the right eye moves to its left side.Definitions of Unfamiliar TermsOceandromous migratory one salt-waterUpon the conclusion of our lab, we obtained a gel with protein bands that looked like this The following graph shows a standard curve based on the distance that the bars travelled and the angle of said barsThe following accede describes the distances various bands of proteins moved down their wells. We would use this information to calculate the weight of these bands by comparing them to our standard curveD3By using the band distances an d the standard curves that we made, we were able to calculate the weight of these protein bands in Kilo DaltonsBy comparing the bands on the gel, our lab group made the following tables showing which fish had certain proteins in their muscles tissue.*Each, X represents the presence of the mentioned protein on the left-hand side of the table in the fishThis table compares the proteins located in the chart above, and shows the similarities of proteins between the species.ResultsUpon the completion of the analysis of our results, we obtained the following CelptogramD4. We knew that Species E only shared a joint protein with species B, so it undeniable to be on one of the ends of the CleptogramD5. We also noted that species C and D shared multiple common proteins in common, so they needed to be close together on the tree. During our analysis of the proteins, our teacher identified which letter represented each fish (it had remained a blind experiment up till this point) as the followi ngFish A-SalmonFish B-Yellow fin TunaFish C-HalibutFish D-TurbotFish E-CatfishWith this extra information, we were able to analyze both our results and the evolutionary tree to create the cleptogram. For example, we noticed that species C and D both had a similarity with D, so we looked at the evolutionary tree to measure whether Tuna or Halibut were closer to Salmon evolutionarily to finish our prediction.DiscussionWhen reviewing the data once more, we noticed some discrepancies in our cladogram compared to the evolutionary tree. For example, our Yellow-fin Tuna found its way onto the set about of the tree, when it should have landed near the end according to the evolution tree in our packet. Otherwise, we believe this experiment D6was a success, as we learned about how proteins can be used to supplement genetics and give us another creature in understanding our history. This could possibly be result of contamination in the fish muscle samples, due to touching the muscles with th e same pair of gloves when transferring them into the tunes for protein extraction. If we were ever to do this experiment again, we would be sure to use tweezers of another similar tool to handle the muscles.Work citedHydrophobic_Interactionshttp//chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Physical_Chemistry/Physical_Properties_of_Matter/Atomic_and_Molecular_Properties/Intermolecular_Forces/Hydrophobic_interactionsD1Include secondary here as well.Get this publishedhttp//www.journys.org/content/proceduresD2Could this have been organized into a data table which contains all the fish and is still able to describe these different features of the bioinformatics?Thank you for getting the bioinformatics in hereD3Good connection between data sets.D4cladeogramD5?D6Great work This experiment went swimmingly Hah

Not Music To My Ears! :: essays research papers

Not Music To My EarsTodays current music scene has steadily become filled with pre-packaged assembly line closed chains and singers. This teen oriented pop phenomenon is repulsive. I see the so-called bands and singers for what they really argon. They are passing trends made special, estimable for the teens, with all image and no real talent. For their own good, I can only hope these brainwashed teens will grow out of this horrible phase. fictive bands such as O-Town, N*Sync, and The Backstreet Boys exhibit a minimum level of talent. The Backstreet Boys, referred to as BSB, for example were initially actors trying to get a job in Orlando, Florida, a virtual hotbed for aspiring young stars. None had any musical comedy past history, however they were hired on an audition for a band because they are marketable. As we all know sex appeal has the power to market anything, and teens have money to burn on CDs and any mathematical product containing the bands name. We have all seen te ens at the mall buying boy band paraphernalia such as Calendars, mugs, and pens. They will purchase just about anything with the band name imprinted on it. The bands and record companies make their money not in record sales, but in revenue form this merchandise. An article from the Montreal Gazette written in July 1998 states that boy bands are a Mass-marketed phenomenon, manufactured for overnight success. Not one of the five members of the BSB can play a musical instrument. I went to the decreed Backstreet Boys website and learned that out of over 40 songs they released, the band only wrote three of them. Is it just me, or arent bands supposed to write their own songs and play musical instruments? How they can be referred to as boys in the first place I will never comprehend, they are all men in their twenties. These posers show teenyboppers that it is authorise to be uninspired. Trans Continental president and music producer Lou Perlman has created such Boy bands as The Backst reet Boys and N*Sync. His latest project, an ABC network show in coaction with MTV called appropriately enough Making the band, has tracked the weekly progress of his latest super group invention O-Town. I have had the unfortunate rage of viewing one episode where their voice coach scolds the five men The coach told the members of O-Town they are easily replaceable.

Tupac Shakur Biography Essay -- essays research papers

Tupac Shakur 1971-1996Born June 16, 1971 in New York, New York, United States Died September 13, 1996 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States Ethnicity African AmericanOccupation Rap Musician, Musician, Actor"Dont shed a tear for me ... / I aint happy here / I hope they bury me and send me to my rest / Headlines hit the booksin bump off to death."--from "If I Die Tonight" on Me against the World (1995)BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYWith his tattoo-splattered physique, piercing deep-set eyes, and shaved head, Tupac Amaru Shakur came across as middle Americas worst nightmare, the darkest lead of hip-hop. To fans, Shakur was only "thuggin against society, thuggin against the system that made me," as he once rapped. Like some other rappers, Shakur was criticized for his sexist lyrics He celebrated his mother, Afeni, but was equally dependent of debasing women in his music. The contradictions hardly ended there. In his last video, "I Aint Mad at Cha," Shakur--newly arr ived in Heaven--saluted an old friend for quitting the "thug vivification." In " except God Can Judge Me," Shakur foresaw death bearing down on him, yet seemed unable to tolerate his rival, The Notorious B.I.G. and B.I.G.s mentor, Sean "Puffy" Combs. Shakurs "Hit Em Up," the last iodin issued during his twenty-five-year lifetime, set new highs of profane rage against B.I.G., who was later gunned down after Shakurs own untimely death. Yet millions of fans found something meaningful in Shakurs troubled life and lyrics, like a thirty-two-year-old Detroit accountant buying her first Shakur album. "Ive never supported that kind of music," she told the Detroit News, "but there was something so tragic about the way he died ... Its almost like Im looking for answers." Politician Jesse Jackson also tried to explain Shakurs downfall and apparent appeal, telling the Los Angeles Times "Sometimes the lure of bowelless culture is so magnetic that even when one overcomes it with material success, it continues to call." Acting bug bit earlyFrom his June 16, 1971, birth in New York City, Shakurs life read much like an epic melodrama. His mother, Afeni, and father, Billy Garland, belonged to the Black Panthers, a militant group dedicated to achieving racial equality. Just two years earlier, in 1969, Afeni and then... ...s murder, " provided a sad, ugly feeling, very creepy, very hollow," he said. "No art, no life, just ashes." Larger-than-lifeVibe chief executive Kevin Clinkscales, however, advised fans against anymore "rumor-mongering," which he found disrespectful to Shakurs family. "These are not comic-book heroes," he told USA Today. "These are real people." That said, however, most agree that Tupac Shakur has won the larger-than-life immortality he craved so much. The sightings and resurrection theories place him in a select club that includes the late Kurt Cobain, Doors sin ger-poet Jim Morrison, and Elvis Presley. On that score, fans need not fear, as poet Nikki Giovanni acknowledged in her own tribute, " whole Eyez on You" "dont tell me he got what he deserved he deserved a chariot and / the accolades of a grateful people / he deserved his life." Nor did Giovanni incorporate there, getting her own "Thug Life" tattoo to honor Shakurs memory, telling the Chicago Tribune "Young black men are in a holocaustic situation." So long as that persists, fans insist, Tupac Shakurs musical legacy will be hard to deny.