Right to Life - Definition - Assignment Example

Assignment 21 I would not endorse the idea of personhood by Waren as the suggests that fetus is not a person. I do not agree, even though fetus is not a person it has life and soul in it which makes it a valuable life form. The fetus grows and develops into a person and the initiation of life cannot be terminated and is a crime. I cannot endorse an idea which favors termination of homicide. 2. A new born infant is a person because it has life and behavior and a personality. A person is a life form with an attitude and appearance. So infanticide is not morally permissible. Infanticide is murder and it is indeed a crime. Morally one cannot harm any creature which has life unless it is for his survival. Assignment 22 Abortion is immoral because it is a killing of a life. A fetus is a developing person and a human in formation. Just because the fetus is silent and unseen it does not lose the right to live. It is a life form given chance to live in world by God and no one has the right to abort its life. Immorality is any effort of human to kill another life form. A fetus is human and killing is crime and against natures law. A fetus has the right to live and need to give consideration which a human get and hence killing a fetus is immoral. Abortion is a shame on humanity and is equal to killing of a person. Assignment 23 No, Thompson does not provide a defensible argument to the right to life. Right to life is something which God bestow upon a creature and a human does not have the power to kill a fetus. A fetus is life and a mother and a human has an obligation to protect the life. The life could be taken only if it is a threat to the life of the mother or her health. Unless and other wise, these is no defensible argument which can justify abortion. Thompson considers the fetus out of rape as a threat to mother, but the child which is unborn is innocent and is her offspring so she should protect it. A mother cannot unplug a child from her body like an ailing person who is connected to her. A child is the blood and gene of a mother and she is no way can steal her right to live. Assignment 24 George is right on arguing against abortion as they advocate fetus to be a complete person. A human being is formed from the point of fertilization. When ovum and sperm unite, the human is formed and then it is a person. The authors are right on the fact that a mother has the responsibility of protecting her child in the womb. An embryo has pain and it can feel as a life form and has the right to live. The author explains that fetus performs bodily action and can have sensation hence it has the right to live. Assignment 25 Margaret Little in her article argue that it is permissible to perform abortion. However, I am completely against this argument as I think life needs protection at any cost. Once a life is formed it automatically receives the right to live. A mother cannot terminate the life of a child, it is the life blossoming under her trust and she need to protect it. There is not morality in killing a life, it is definitely immoral. Any person indulging in sex knows the consequences of it and a birth of a child can be avoided but cannot be terminated as it is a violation of right to life. If one took risk of having unprotected sex then one should have the courage and responsibility of bringing up the child. Assignment 26 Active and passive euthanasia is indeed different as the former is a deliberate act while in the second case we let the nature do the process. Sometimes in passive euthanasia a person may live longer. Whether dying sooner or later, a person interfered killing can never be justified. In case of Jones and smiths, both are condemnable for their act. It is said that mental intention of killing a person is same as killing . Killing and letting a person die is similar as the intention of the person is to kill the person. However in euthanasia, the dying person is not killed due to medical reason. If it is active then is wrong, passive euthanasia is like dying out of illness or biological decoration. Assignment 27 Callahan is right on arguing that there is valid distinction between killing and letting to die. Active euthanasia has a human intervention while passive euthanasia is a natural process. One can argue that in both case reason for the death of the person is disease, but in active euthanasia a person is killed before his time to die. It might sound impossible but some people do recover as a miracle so killing is different from letting to die. Assignment 28 1. Self determination and individual well being are not consideration enough to establish the moral legitimacy of the active voluntary euthanasia. A person committing voluntary euthanasia is a violator of right to life and he is killing a person. 2. Yes the voluntary active euthanasia is incompatible with the physicians as healers as they turn in to killers. A person cannot save and kill human at same time. People will lose trust in physicians as they can kill people at their own will if a patient is in illness by convincing their family. Assignment 29 The author is right in explaining that the euthanasia would reduce the potentiality of the treatment on a disease. Doctors would be more relaxed and would not take that last chance of saving a person. There is also a hopelessness and despair related to euthanasia. The people will have a fear when approached by hospital and doctors as they can sense a threat of death in case of less success in treatment. The families can abuse euthanasia and it can also interfere with the aim of medicinal field. The doctors can be against society and can disturb the patients due to fear of killing. Assignment 30 1. The social consequences of physician assisted suicide may not be less than voluntary euthanasia as both has an intervention of a person partially or wholly. Suicide itself is a condemnable act and if a person is assisting suicide will only make it worse. So the social consequences of assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia are same. In either way the person is losing life with the help of another party. 2.Physician assisted suicide should not be legalized as it is killing of a person. Assignment 31 Terminal dehydration and physician assisted suicide are all same as killing. Even in terminal dehydration there is a human involvement. Any death which is caused to human interference is killing and has no morality attached to it. The terminal hydration has an intention to kill a person so there is no difference between it and physical assisted suicide Assignment 32 1.Death penalty is a mandatory for murderers as it is a payback for the dead person. However, the murder case need to be intentional and any murder as a result of illness and protection of life need to be given consideration. 2.If death penalty has an element of racism and bias then it should be abolished. Death penalty needs to be practiced with quality and there should be consideration to whites. Blacks are not more criminal than white, crime is same if done by white or black as the loss of life is the result irrespectively. If there is inequality in punishment then death penalty need to be abolished. Assignment 33 An ‘eye for an eye’ treatment is the ideal way of treating a criminal. A punishment should be in equal proportion to the crime conducted as it gives justice to the murdered. Equal suffering is the answer to the barbaric crimes as the criminal should understand the pain and suffrage undergone by the victim. This is also a right way to alert and avoid more criminal acts in future. Assignment 34 1. Common sense is a compelling basis to understand that the death penalty is an effective deterrent. Once people understand that criminals are given intense punishment they will stay back from crime. 2. The life of the convicted murdered has no worth as he is threat to humanity and society and cannot be compared with the life of a potential murder victim. 3. No, I would not endorse either claim because death penalty needs no conviction but mere crime indicates punishment. Assignment 35 Reiman is true in arguing that common sense is a deterrent effect of death penalty and best bet argument as it is a more feared punishment. He claims that by commonsense one can understand that death penalty intimidates a person to avoid crimes. Potential crimes can be avoided by death penalty and is cost – effective way to reduce crimes. Assignment 36 1. If death penalty is bestowed on the ground of race then it should be abolished. 2. No, mistake argument in itself is not a ground for the abolishment of death penalty. It can give chance for criminals to escape for the incompetence of law authorities. 3. No, procedural arguments is not sufficient to abolish death penalty. Assignment 37 Back ground Euthanasia is a medical procedure where a patient’s life is terminated due to illness. Euthanasia can be active or passive. If the doctor intervenes to kill the person it is active while an assisted suicide is a passive euthanasia. Euthanasia has been a controversial subject since its practice and many do not comply with it for moral and ethical reasons. Euthanasia and assisted suicide comes under homicide and is not validated by most of the countries. Statement of Problem The patient in this case study has HIV and the mental state of the person is highly volatile. The patient has a tendency to suicide as he is depressed. James is young and is only 25 yrs old and cannot withstand the tragedy that he is dying early. He asked for strong pills to sleep as he said he had confronted difficulty in sleeping. However, this can lead to suspicion in the mind of the doctor. This can lead the doctor to perform physician assisted suicide. The medicine asked by the patient is not illegal and even suicide is not illegal but a doctor knowingly cannot allow suicide of James. The doctor should not prescribe the medication as he suspect suicide attempts by the patient. Analysis In this case study, it can be understood that the medication and suicide is not illegal, a physician cannot assist John in conducting suicide. This is like a case of passive euthanasia as the doctor knows John can commit suicide in depression and despair. James is not in the right mind to take a proper decision. Possible Solution He is mentally disturbed and doctor need to console him and give him psychological counseling. If needed, James could be given sleeping pills under the supervision of doctor. Even though, James can die in six months time, he cannot be given any chance for suicide. Implementation James should be give proper medication, care and psychological assistance to prolong his life. He needs to be given a peaceful life until he dies. Conclusion He has the right to live till the nature allows him to do so. Any medical assistance to help James to attempt suicide is ethically and morally equal to euthanasia which is condemnable. Read More