Ethical dilemma involving a dying patient Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethical dilemma involving a dying patient - Essay Example re faced with an ethical dilemma as to whether to save the patient or not and not only save the patient but the baby that the patient was carrying as the patient had refused any sort of medical treatment that involved the use of blood. The doctors were left to questions whether to help the patient or respect her beliefs and not do anything to save her life. The ethical dilemmas face by the doctors in this case was that the patient was a Jehovah’s witness and did not want to be treated with bloid transfusion. The doctors faced four basic principles of ethics; respect for autonomy where in the doctor has to respect the decision made by the patient, beneficence where in the doctor has to assess the risk to benefit ration. Thirdly non-maleficence where the doctors do not want to cause any harm to the patient and lastly justice which balances the benefits, risk and costs equally and uniformly (Van Norman, 2011). The patient was a Jehovahs’s witness which made it difficult to carry out the prescribed treatment for her, Jehovah’s witness, they do not salute to military flags and do not take part in military or city government voting. The Jehovah’s witnesses are banned from blood transfusions or any medical treatment that involves the use of blood or blood products. In cases like these it is necessary to first consider the condition of the patient whether they should be talked to or counseled regarding the decisions being made. If the patient is awake and well aware of what is happening or what has happened, the patient’s caretaker or guardian should also be asked regarding the decision being made. It is important to check the documents as to confirm that the patient is actually a Jehovah ’s Witness. The patient and her caretaker should be informed of alternative blood products and if they still do not agree for no treatment then he/ should sign a document of consent (Van Norman, 2011). In this case when the nurse is faced with a critical situation which

Its Time to Stop the Commerce in Death :: Euthanasia Physician Assisted Suicide

It's Time to Stop the Commerce in Death    One of the symptoms of a society in the grips of moral crisis is a tendency to refer to reprehensible acts by soft-sounding euphemisms, by names that do not directly excite human qualms or agitate scruples and that evade precise reflection on the reality of certain situations. For example, in our modern lexicon, abortion is called "freedom of choice," sexual libertinage is dubbed "alternative lifestyles," and certain forms of genocide-in-slow-motion can be made to seem more acceptable under the name "family planning."    Such are the mental tricks and the "word magic" employed to quiet the normal functioning of our consciences. Sadly, they work on a great many people for long periods of time. Like certain narcotics, they dull the moral senses and can eventually blot out such feelings completely.    This being so, let us examine a concept that is very old, that disappeared from civilized life for almost two millennia, and that has now begun its return, lifting itself ever higher on the distant horizon, like a huge, menacing, black cloud. That concept is known as euthanasia.    "Good Death"    The English word euthanasia is derived from the Greek and means, literally, "good death." According to its oldest meaning, it signifies merely the relatively painless, gentle passage of someone from this life to the next, without necessarily any human inference or intervention.   Even in the Christian tradition, we sometimes hear the term "good death" used in the sense that the departed person died at peace with himself, with his family, and with God.    However, an alternative definition, more in accord with contemporary usages, generally suggests something quite different: It indicates the bringing about of the death of a human being, either by suicide or killing, ostensibly to prevent extreme physical pain or mental anguish. Euthanasia, according to the teaching of every traditional Christian group, is looked upon as suicide or murder, plain and simple, and, until recently, was universally condemned in all societies whose roots grew out of Christianity. This teaching holds that a supposedly worthy end, in this case the termination of pain and suffering, never, according to traditional moral norms, justifies immoral or unethical means.    With the rise of revolutionary ideologies in the late 18th century, Darwinistic philosophies in the following century, and the concomitant decline in fidelity to Christian teaching, especially among educated

The Praise of Folly

The Praise of Folly The author of â€Å"The praise of folly† Erasmus, wrote this book not with the intention of starting wide spread theological debates but with the intention of showing how pointless these debates are. The book is written in first person so that Folly herself is the one who the readers/listeners (because the book is written as if she were speaking to a crowd) are hearing and not just some man acting like he knows more or is better than anyone else. The book addresses three different classes of people and how folly affects them.The first class is the regular people and women. The second type of people she calls out is the academic and higher standing social classes. The third and final group folly talks about are Christians and religious men. Folly is not saying anyone is a bad person for having foolishness in their lives, but she is calling out the society and how she is looked down upon while everyone not only takes part in folly, but folly is a necessary pa rt of our lives. One of Folly’s points that she brings up is women and how they are in and of themselves full of foolishness. I, who am both a woman and folly herself, attribute folly to them. †(29) Folly later states that women owe it to folly for being far better off than men. Women’s beauty is a natural thing according to folly, she bring up how men grow beards, have course skin, and go gray in the hair as all signs of aging. While women have soft delicate feature which are almost eternal signs of beauty. According to folly all some men want from life is pleasure, and who can give them pleasure other than a woman who will have sex with them? No one according to folly, but the folly is not of men wanting pleasure.The point Folly makes is that a woman must have folly to have sex with a man(30) She says â€Å"Women have no other way of giving pleasure but through folly†(30). Women are not the only ones involved in folly in this first class of people; Folly also speaks of friendships, marriages, and of parental love as well. Folly states that friendship is held in a high regard in this society and this it is as necessary as air and water. She does not use clever words or parables to point out the folly in friendship but simply states how one treats a friend, wife, or child to prove that folly is involved in all of these relationships. Tell me know to wink at a friend’s faults, to be deceived , to be blinded to his vices, to imagine them away, even to love and admire certain notorious vices as if they were virtues-surely this is not far from folly. †(31) She later brings up how a man can love a mole on his wife even though it is an imperfection, or how a father can has a cross eyed son and say that he only has a light squint. Folly is not trying to say that these average people are idiots or foolish for these things, Folly simply is showing that she is everywhere even in the good things.Folly in her second class of people she mentions are the higher class people the nobles, doctors, lawyer, and the philosophers. Unlike with the first group of people folly speaks to with a light and somewhat cheery tone, her words toward this crowd become sharp and somewhat brash. These men who spend so much time with their jobs and with their peers trying to prove themselves by out doing everyone around them are full of themselves and their folly is in the fact that they are missing out on the true happiness of life that is going on around them.Unlike the people in the first section of the book Folly knows these people are too smart to be able to just enjoy the small things in life like the average people of the first class. For example she says how wise men are unable to overlook the follies and faults of their friends but instead notice them with the â€Å"eyes of an eagle† or the â€Å"nose of a bloodhound† (32). Where the normal man could overlook these faults and even accept them as part of their f riends’ personality and possibly come to adore this part of their companion, these supposedly wise men are too smart to overlook the follies of their peers.The final group that folly points out is the religious people of the time. The monks and priest are the main targets of Follies words. A time of reform and a time of questioning is beginning to appear and rules and customs that have gone on for years without question are now being put under scrutiny. Even harsher with her words to this particular group of people Folly now is calling out not only the group of people in charge of the church but also the people who think they can find their lives only through the church.Her main charge against these people is there refusal to understand that folly and foolishness is as if not more regarded than wisdom in the Christian religion. One could say Christ is the biggest fool of all for accepting man’s sin and dying for us while he had lived a perfect and sin free life. Knowle dge and wisdom are the downfall of am according to Genesis when Adam and eve eat the apple of forbidden fruit and gains the knowledge of good and evil it separates them forever from the full relationship they had with God before that.Folly is not attacking the religion of Christianity it is the opposite in fact. Folly says how peter and the disciples went around baptizing everyone but not explaining why, not because they didn’t know but because the people only need to know the basics and not the understanding of everything to be happy, in other words to keep them from overcoming their follies. She also brings up how the disciples didn’t need certain words or rules to worship, but in face they worshiped the way god intended them to in spirit through their deeds done only for him and not for some church or for others to see. 92) Folly was giving her speech with the intent of trying to explain that foolishness and folly is not bad and evil thing that need to be avoided, b ut that the opposite of that is true. Wisdom is to be put on display for others and folly is to be hidden, in the same manner do people not hide their valuables and protect them from unwanted visitors. She believes and proves her point that foolishness is essential to a happy and fulfilled life. In a quote from Folly herself â€Å"Fortune loves those who are not too bright, headstrong, and are fans of the proverb let the die be cast† (116). Taylor Shadwick

How Many Trips Did Hercules Make to the Underworld

Hercules (Herakles), like some of the other major heroes, went to the Underworld. Unlike the others, he seems to have repeated his visit while still alive. How many times did Hercules actually go to the Underworld before death? Hercules Journies Into the Underworld It is not entirely clear how many times Hercules went to the Underworld. As the 12th Labor Eurystheus assigned for Hercules penance, Hercules was to fetch the hound of Hades, Cerberus (usually shown with 3 heads). Hercules was initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries in order to engage in this act, so he wouldnt have descended to the Underworld before this labor, at least within the logic of Greco-Roman mythology. While he was there or, possibly, on another occasion, Hercules saw his friend Theseus and observed that he was in need of rescuing. Since Hercules returned to the land of the living immediately after rescuing Theseus, and no other purpose is assigned Hercules visit at the time, other than borrowing Cerberus, it makes sense to see this as one and the same visit to the Underworld. The other occasion when Hercules may have descended to the Underworld is the rescue of Alcestis by wrestling her from Thanatos (Death). This rescue may or may not have occurred in the Underworld. Since Thanatos had already taken Alcestis (the brave woman who was willing to sacrifice herself so that her husband, Admetus, might live), to me it seems more likely that she was in the land of the dead, and so I take this as a second trip to the Underworld. However, Thanatos and Alcestis may have been above ground.