Free Essays on Physician Assisted Suicide

Mary Thompson, 35 years old, was recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. This disease, which results in progressive paralysis, can move rapidly through the body in less than two years. There is no known cause of ALS and no known cure. It is always fatal. Thompson was devastated by the news and knew that there was only one thing she could do. She didn’t want to be a burden for her family so she asked her physician to prescribe a lethal medication for her so she could end her life. Within that week Thompson was dead. This is known as â€Å"physician assisted suicide (PAS).† Many states in the United States have banned PAS. Oregon is the only state that passed the Death with Dignity Act. Even though many terminally ill patients decide to end their suffering by ending their life, doctors shouldn’t be able to assist them. Doctors are supposed to sustain and preserve the patients’ life in stead of killing them. Therefore, Physician Assisted Suicide is unethical. Assisted suicide has great potential for abuse. People without family support or adequate finances, as well as people suffering from depression, are pressured to choose death. â€Å"Suicide is often a desperate step taken by individuals who consider their problems so intractable as to make their situations hopeless† (Balch). Patients suffering from a terminal illness feels that they have no control over what they are going through. Therefore, many patients believe that death is the only way to solve the problem. However, human-rights activists argue that patients must have the freedom to choose when they want to die. But, if the patient is suffering from clinical depression then he or she cannot make his or her own decisions. â€Å"†¦Suicidal individuals tend to think in a very rigid, dichotomous way, seeing everything in ‘all or nothing’ terms; they are unable to see any range of genuine alternatives... Free Essays on Physician Assisted Suicide Free Essays on Physician Assisted Suicide Mary Thompson, 35 years old, was recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. This disease, which results in progressive paralysis, can move rapidly through the body in less than two years. There is no known cause of ALS and no known cure. It is always fatal. Thompson was devastated by the news and knew that there was only one thing she could do. She didn’t want to be a burden for her family so she asked her physician to prescribe a lethal medication for her so she could end her life. Within that week Thompson was dead. This is known as â€Å"physician assisted suicide (PAS).† Many states in the United States have banned PAS. Oregon is the only state that passed the Death with Dignity Act. Even though many terminally ill patients decide to end their suffering by ending their life, doctors shouldn’t be able to assist them. Doctors are supposed to sustain and preserve the patients’ life in stead of killing them. Therefore, Physician Assisted Suicide is unethical. Assisted suicide has great potential for abuse. People without family support or adequate finances, as well as people suffering from depression, are pressured to choose death. â€Å"Suicide is often a desperate step taken by individuals who consider their problems so intractable as to make their situations hopeless† (Balch). Patients suffering from a terminal illness feels that they have no control over what they are going through. Therefore, many patients believe that death is the only way to solve the problem. However, human-rights activists argue that patients must have the freedom to choose when they want to die. But, if the patient is suffering from clinical depression then he or she cannot make his or her own decisions. â€Å"†¦Suicidal individuals tend to think in a very rigid, dichotomous way, seeing everything in ‘all or nothing’ terms; they are unable to see any range of genuine alternatives...

From the Body to the Mind essays

From the Body to the Mind essays We shocked the world!(Ventura 3). Indeed, CNN news anchors were literally laughing when they announced that Jesse Ventura had been elected Governor of Minnesota. An ex-pro wrestler? What could the people have been thinking?! Maybe the people of Minnesota knew something about the man born James George Janos that CNN news anchors didnt. Maybe Ventura is a man of courage and determination. Before entering pro wrestling, Ventura was a member of the Navy SEALs, an elite corps of underwater demolition experts. Becoming a SEAL required an extensive twenty-two-week training program. Ventura said, I was in the best physical condition of my life, (Hunter 60). After his honorable discharge from the Navy, Ventura discovered bodybuilding, rode with an outlaw motorcycle club, and attended college. Then he decided to try pro wrestling. Surfer Jesse Ventura made his debut in Kansas City, and soon competed in Oregon and Hawaii. But it wasnt until Jesse The Body Ventura began wrestling in the American Wrestling Association that the wrestling world began to really take notice. Two years later, Jesse arrived in the World Wrestling Federation, then returned to the AWA, where he first wrestled Hulk Hogan. He would face Hogan again in the WWF. But Jesses World title hopes were dashed when it was discovered that he had blood clots in his lung. The Body hung up his wrestling boots and picked up the microphone, and became one of the most popular broadcasters the WWF has ever known. He rode his popularity fight to Hollywood, where he appeared in such films as The Predator and The Running Man. Jesse was elected mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota s sixth-largest city. He then went into radio broadcasting before scoring his incredible upset for the office of Minnesota governor. Today The Body wants to be known as The Mind. Appropria...

Auditing HIH disaster Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Auditing HIH disaster - Essay Example In spite of major events which took place in succession in the HIH, some thing was lurking behind. By January 1999, the HIH acquired FAI insurance for A$ 300 million which later turned out be worth onlyA$100 million though the external audit of Arthur Andersen for the year 2000 did not make any issue of it. On the other hand the company was lauded to be worth A$ 939 million. Soon after in September, it sold half of its profitable retail general insurance business for cash liquidity and as a result its share prices fell down from A$ 1.05 to A$ 0.45 when the company announced losses. Yet the regulatory authority did not think fit to inspect the accounts as it relied on the external audit report had painted a healthy picture. This was followed by the resignation of the CEO founder of the company for 30+ years, with a compensation of A$ 5 million in December 2000. As the company had not filled its December statements, when they became overdue by February 2001, the regulator APRA was conc erned for the first time. Meanwhile on 27 February Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) took the initiative by suspending HIH's share trading soon followed by the APRA's fire fighting act of transferring the company's risk portfolio to other insurance companies to the extent possible. On 15 March 2001 HIH declared provisional liquidation with Government agencies covering some of its obligations which might cost the tax payer about A$ 1 billion to bail out policy holders. On 16 March, finally APRA started inspection of the HIH affairs. Government of Australia lost no time to set up an independent Royal Commission by August 2001 as already announced in May 2001 to investigate into the failure of the company. It took 6 months for the liquidator to arrive at the losses as between A$ 3.6 billion and A$ 5.3 billion. It has been stated that not only the settlement of policies and the company's creditors could not be made in full but also it would take ten years for disburs ement which might be in the ratio of 1: 0.5. This was how the second largest Australian insurer's corporate bubble burst representing the biggest collapse in the corporate history of Australia to date. The whole imbroglio was attributed to poor management by under pricing of policies and overestimation of its assets mostly non tangible rather than frauds. Soon after the company's fall, the premium market shot up steeply. While the APRA conceded that it was because of not provisioning the company with sufficient capital to cover its risks for quite a number of years that this had happened, the Australian Prime Minister had to rebut the public accusations that political donations siphoned off the company's resources. (Sungard Banc ware Erisk). Actually the company had indulged in acquisition spree of more than 200 subsidiaries which only made the company's size unwieldy in an already overcrowded and competitive insurance market though the acquisitions accounted for 26% premium growth per annum for a decade. Most controversial of all was the acquisition of FAI insurance for A$ 300 million which was worth hardly A$ 100 million and that too the company had borrowed money for the settlement. Rodney Adler the major stock holder of FAI who also became a member of HIH Board however clarified "that the purchase price of his company was too high by stating that the price was set, by definition,