Should Euthanasia be legalized?

The definition of Euthanasia as given by the Oxford English Dictionary is: "the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable disease or in an irreversible coma". It comes from the Greek, literally translating as "a good death". Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands and in the state of Oregon in the U.S.A. Euthanasia is when someone decides to end their lives voluntarily. They may have a terminal illness and think that their life is no longer worth living. The act of Euthanasia is illegal in Australia and any person who assists in it can be charged with assisting or abetting. In any case, it's either die now and not live to see a few more days of your life and have a painless death, or die later, see a few more days of a hospital wall, then die painfully. Which would you choose? Euthanasia should be legalized because individuals have a right to die (a personal decision, and no one should interrupt), euthanasia stops family financial burden.

Individuals have a right to die when life becomes excruciating or undignified. Those who are in the late stages of a terminal disease have a horrific future ahead of them: the gradual decline of their body, the failure of their organs and the need for artificial support. In some cases, the illness will slowly destroy their minds, the essence of themselves; even if this is not the case, the huge amounts of medication required to ‘control' their pain will often leave them in a delirious and incapable state. Faced with this, it is surely more humane that those people be allowed to choose the manner of their own end, and die with dignity. Chantal Sebire, a 52- year-old Dijon schoolteacher, suffering from a rare disease that has left her disfigured by facial tumors, said in 2008 to Time magazine: "I no longer accept this enduring pain, and this protruding eye that nothing can be done about. I want to go out celebrating, surrounded by my children, friends, and doctors before I'm put to sleep definitively at dawn." From the Time article, "Making a Case for Euthanasia", Mar. 15, 2008, "Sebire and her backers retort that preventing her from getting medical assistance to end her life swiftly and painlessly ensures months or years of additional torment from pain. Her death will come, they say, after a long coma that will reduce her to being nothing but an inanimate burden on her family." Forcing a person to stay on life support in excruciating pain is cruel French President Nicholas Sarkozy said in a 2007 campaign speech. Euthanasia can be appropriate when a person is no longer themselves. The most sacred element of a person is their identity as individual and a soul. Once this is lost, much of the sanctity and fulfilment in life is lost. While this is not a full justification for euthanasia, it is a silent factor.

Secondly, for those who are terminally ill, they do not want to be an emotional and financial burden to their relatives, therefore without their existence, they would be lightening their family’s burdens. Initially it may be unfair to their families but in the long run, their decision to give up on life would help their families greatly. Their families would then not be burdened by the hefty medical bills and the emotional strain of care giving. People have faced financial problem to pay through their nose for expensive medication fee, especially when a person has diagnosed as a terminally ill patient. Due to the high cost of treatment, the charges are not affordable many people especially those paupers. So is that worth for them to own arrears just to pay for their incurable diseases? People should have the right, with certain restrictions, to end their lives in the best way possible to stop suffering an endless pain. Society should have compassion and respect to the patient's decision whose life becomes unbearable. According to Wesley J. Smith, "drugs used in assisted suicide cost only about $40, but that it could take up $40,000 to treat a patient". What all matters are that the money spent cannot ensure that the patient will totally recover. Furthermore, practicing will bring peace to the patients who have been in miserable pain and striving hard to restore health but have no more hope but sufferings. In addition, legalized of will also relief to the associated people.

Finally, the essence of human existence is to be able to live a dignified life. When some law forces one to continue living in intense pain and humiliation, there is something wrong with our society. Therefore euthanasia should be legalised. All individuals should have the legal right to a humane death that is one without undue pain, suffering or indignity. Euthanasia is compassionate, merciful and humane. Legalisation of euthanasia would give people without hope of recovery the option and the right to a dignified death, a ‘good death’, a death that is within their rights.

Should Capital Punishment be abolished?

What is the death penalty? It is the highest type of punishment for a murderer or convicted felon to be punished by our government legally, through death. Some question whether the death penalty is a deterrent. How can it not be! Almost no one wants to die. Guilty murderers do everything to avoid being executed. They appeal their cases endlessly; accept plea bargains for life in prison. Is there any reason to believe the death penalty deters murders? From the Opinion Journal June 21, 2002, it was a deadly disaster. Between 1965 and 1980, there was practically no death penalty in the United States. During that time (1965-80), murders in United States doubled from 9,960 to 23,040 per year. Obviously, murder becomes more attractive to potential killers when they know that prison is the worst they can face. Well, I support capital punishment because it has the potential to lower crime rates; it could provide a safe society for us and make us realize the value of life.

Most people have a natural fear of death- it’s a trait man have to think about what will happen before we act.  If we don’t think about it consciously, we will think about it unconsciously.  Think- if every murderer who killed someone died instantly, the homicide rate would be very low because no one likes to die.  We cannot do this, but if the Justice system can make it more swift and severe, we could change the laws to make capital punishment faster and make appeals a shorter process.  The death penalty is important because it could save the lives of thousands of potential victims who are at stake (Bedau, H., 1982). Some people might think that death penalty is inhuman and barbarous, but ask those people who have lost their beloved or whose lives have been tied to a hospital bed because of some barbarous person. I am sure they would be very unhappy to see the person who ruined their lives just getting a few years of imprisonment or mere rehabilitation. Consider the example of the rapist and killer given above. Now, suppose the woman raped was your wife, sister, or daughter. How would you feel knowing that the person who ruined your family is calmly enjoying the benefits of an asylum and an air-conditioned room? Anti-death penalty supporters believe that death penalty is barbarous. Well! So is murder. Death penalty is not revenge. Rather, it is a matter of putting an end to a life that has no value for other human lives. Sentencing a murderer to death is in fact a favor to the society. Despite the moral argument concerning the inhumane treatment of the criminal, we return to the "nature" of the crime committed. Punishment is meted out because of the nature of the crime, devoid of any reference to the social identity of the victim. In "The Death Penalty in America", Adam Bedau wrote, "even in the tragedy of human death there are degrees, and that it is much more tragic for the innocent to lose his life than for the State to take the life of a criminal convicted of a capital offense". I believe that if one cannot value the life of another human being, then one's own life has no value.

Capital punishment is often defended on the grounds that society has a moral obligation to protect the safety and welfare of its citizens. Murderers threaten this safety and welfare. Only by putting murderers to death can society ensure that convicted killers do not kill again. Second, those favoring capital punishment contend that society should support those practices that will bring about the greatest balance of good over evil, and capital punishment is one such practice. Capital punishment benefits society because it may deter violent crime. While it is difficult to produce direct evidence to support this claim since, by definition, those who are deterred by the death penalty do not commit murders, common sense tells us that if people know that they will die if they perform a certain act; they will be unwilling to perform that act. If the threat of death has, in fact, stayed the hand of many would be murderer, and we abolish the death penalty, we will sacrifice the lives of many innocent victims whose murders could have been deterred. But if, in fact, the death penalty does not deter, and we continue to impose it, we have only sacrificed the lives of convicted murderers. Surely it's better for society to take a gamble that the death penalty deters in order to protect the lives of innocent people than to take a gamble that it doesn't deter and thereby protect the lives of murderers, while risking the lives of innocents. If grave risks are to be run, it’s better that they be run by the guilty, not the innocent. Opponents of capital punishment also argue that the death penalty should be abolished because it is unjust. Justice, they claim, requires that all persons be treated equally. From the research of Claire Andre and Manuel Velasquez (1995), of 19,000 people who committed willful homicides in the U.S. in 1987, only 293 were sentenced to death. Who are these few being selected to die? They are nearly always poor and disproportionately black. It is not the nature of the crime that determines who goes to death row and who doesn't. People go to death row simply because they have no money to appeal their case, or they have a poor defence, or they lack the funds to being witnesses to courts, or they are members of a political or racial minority.

All in all, I believe that for the sake of saving few criminals we cannot let hundreds and thousands of innocent people to die. Even if we have to take strict action against them, even if it is a capital punishment we should come forward and support it. We have seen that due to the lack of proper and strict actions, thousands of innocent people are raped and murdered every year and the criminals walk freely without any fear of getting punishment. Moreover, countries with stringent criminal and judicial systems always show a decreasing trend in such heinous acts as murder and theft. Take the example of Saudi Arabia where Islamic code of law is strictly implemented; the numbers of such dubious crimes are very low there. So capital punishment should be there in the larger interest of the country at least as a 'necessary evil'.

Various causes of stress in today’s urban society

Stress plays a role in our daily lives so it is just a normal thing for every person. In limited quantities, stress is good; it can motivate you and help you become more productive. However, too much stress, or a strong response to stress can be harmful. Stress can come from any situation or thought that make feel frustrated, angry, or anxious. From Praveen’s research, “stress is the reason for two thirds of the total visits to the Physician”. Moreover, it is also the leading cause of the coronary artery diseases, cancer, accidents and respiratory diseases besides some others. So, what are the biggest causes of present day stress, and how do these lead to such high levels of tension? According to the “Stress and Relaxation” book by Praveen, there are three main causes of stress: they are Financial Problem, Workplace Stress, and Personal Relationships.

Financial Problem is the main cause of stress these days. First of all, debt levels are rising faster than both incomes and assets. Never has it been easier to access debt in all forms – lines of credit, mortgages, credit cards. You can now buy pretty much anything without having cash. Debt has created a lot of the economic problems we face today and was the biggest factor in the world financial crisis in 2007. Secondly, retirement is supposed to be the best years of a person life but instead, it is stressing people out because of lack of planning, fewer pension plans, low savings rates, high debt levels and fear about the foundation of government benefits. Financial stress is all too common in our society and we need to do something about it. The starting point is a little knowledge but true success comes from action (RetireHappyBlog.ca). It comes from taking control of financial affairs and developing good financial habits.    

Work place stress occurs in a wide range of work circumstances but is often made worse when employees feel they have little support from supervisors and colleagues and where they have little control over work or how they can cope with its demands and pressures. Research findings show that the most stressful type of work is that which values excessive demands and pressures that are not matched to workers' knowledge and abilities, where there is little opportunity to exercise any choice or control, and where there is a little support from others. So, here are the solutions of above problem, the more support workers receive from others at work, or in relation to work, the less likely they are to experience work stress. Moreover, when workers have control over their work and the way they do it and the more they participate in decisions that concern their jobs, the less likely they are to experience work stress.

Relationship problems are another type of "stress" we all experience from time to time. Conflicts can arise with our spouse, parents, children, friends, co-workers, employees, bosses, or even with total strangers. As common as our relationship problems are, we often misunderstand what causes them to occur. Much of the time they come from hidden conversations and action patterns within us, not from the behaviour or attitudes of others. The problem is we often don't notice the role that we play. Of all the relationship-destroying patterns that affect both men and women, the most damaging is our tendency to blame someone or something other than ourselves when relationship difficulties occur. This pattern is hard to resist, since we can usually find many irritating habits or behaviours in others that seem to be the cause of our problems. When we blame either our partner or our "relationship" as the source of our dissatisfaction, we not only fail to acknowledge how we may have contributed to our problems, but we also fail to see that we often have the power to successfully resolve them.

All in all, these main causes of stress are taking their toll on today’s urban man in the shape of stress related diseases that we mentioned at the top.  To break yourself out of the daily stresses, start by practicing stress releasing exercises, and you will be on your way to freedom from the main causes of stress afflicting our present day lifestyle. Develop resilience and never let stress get you down. It can be learnt. But, yes, you have to try.

Explain how people’s differences in their definitions of success influence the way they lead their lives

Over the years, many people have viewed success as the gaining of fame and fortune. While this is true, success encompasses all kinds of prosperity. Fame and fortune is just one form. The reason why most people view fame and fortune as the prototype of success is because these two things usually come to people who have worked long and hard. For the most part, in order to be and feel successful, one needs to have worked at it. Bob Brown once declared, “Behind every successful man there are a lot of unsuccessful years” (Cyber Quotations n.pag.). Colin Powell also stated, “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure” (Cyber Quotations n.pag.). Success is something that usually takes a lot of effort to get, but is worth it in the end.

Success is also something that is viewed differently in the eyes of everyone. This is because success means doing what you have always wanted to do, being where you have always wanted to be. If a man’s goal in life is to eventually get married to a good wife and have many happy children, and he accomplishes that, then he could view himself as having success. Success basically means being happy with what you are doing in life. John R. Amos’s statement supports this idea, “It's simply a matter of doing what you do best and not worrying about what the other fellow is going to do” (Cyber Quotations n.pag.). Just as in the book I read mentioned above; each woman was successful, even though they all had done something entirely different with their lives.



Sometimes, success can be experienced after the accomplishment of just a short-term goal. For example, one can feel success after completing a small project at work or school. A person’s life is usually full of many little successes. Success ranges from getting an A on a test or paper to graduating from high school to becoming the CEO of a major company. From little to large, success can come in any size.

In a nutshell, success occurs in many forms and has many meanings. It includes being happy with yourself and being where you want to be in life. It also typically means finishing something that you have worked hard at. In brief, success is happiness and prosperousness that comes after putting forth some form of effort.