Should Euthanasia be legalized?

According to the Stedman's Dictionary euthanasia is defined as a quiet,painless death and the intentional putting to death by artificial means of persons with incurable painful disease. Pain and incurable illness are therefore predominant features in the euthanasia debate. In the United States of America the act of euthanasia is not recognised as under the American Model Penal Code (article 210:5) (Broady, Acker  and Logan 2001), helping another to commit suicide is a criminal act. a famous quote said by Karl Brandt "Because God w never give us any pain that is unbearable." Euthanasia would not be legalized due to the religious reasons, declaration of medical development and slippery slope.

             Religion has a major influence against euthanasia. Talking about people that have faith in God, euthanasia seems to be an illegal aspect, as it goes against the will of God to end one's life and also that it de means the value of life. Focusing more on a specific religion; Christianity uses phrase such as "Sanctity of Life" to justify that all human beings are to be valued, human life is sacred because it's gift from God. The famous philosopher Immanuel Kant said that human beings must value one; it doesn't depend on whether we are having a good life that we enjoy or whether we are making other people's lives better. We exist, so we have values and we have no rights to end our suffering by terminating our lives. Christians believe that life is a gift from God and that the sustaining and terminating of that life are equally under his control. Also that the fifth commandment states that "Thou Shall Not Kill." It is a specific command intended to protect the dignity and sanctity of human's life.            

             Another potential danger of the legislation of euthanasia is the declaration of the medical progress for palliative and hospice. Decreasing pain and suffering of the patient is one of the goals for the medical profession. If euthanasia was legalized commitment of doctors and nurses to saving lives would be undermined it will also discourage the search for the new cures and treatments for terminal illness (Jacob,2008). Furthermore, legislation of euthanasia could undermine the purpose of hospice. If euthanasia is performed legally then the number of patients in the hospice would dramatically decrease thus making no different from a hospital (Jared, 2010). 

             Furthermore voluntary euthanasia is actually the start of the slippery slope that leads to a non-voluntary euthanasia which would be categorised as murder. When euthanasia is carried out on a terminally ill patients without their approval, complications would arise; doctors would soon start killing their patients without their permission. When the patient is not really comprehending anything that the doctor is exactly saying, he suggest euthanasia and however it is done without the approval of the family members or the patient him/herself. This is where the slippery slope comes into the picture and also that the relationship between the doctor and the family members would cut off or end up bad. A famous Dr Jame Hawker said that "I can see no circumstances where a doctor is justified in actually killing a patient. We can and must relieve suffering in our patients, but this does not give us the right actually to kill them." The whole picture of euthanasia will eventually circumscribe the weak, disabled, demented and old. Making euthanasia legal could misuse where depressed people would euthanised themselves and a number of them would kill themselves. 

               Euthanasia shouldn't be legalized as people and doctors may misuse this law just because they cannot face their pain or depression. As long as there is a chance to live and the resistance to fight the question of euthanasia should not be brought up. So the question here is "do we have the right to die?"

Capital Punishment

According to the dictionary capital punishment refers to death for a crime or a death penalty. This method of death penalty was a universal method and it is still practiced in certain countries such as U.S, Japan and South Korea (Bruce A Robinson, 2011). Due to the introduction of the death penalty; it has proven that the crime rates in the US has decreased for example in the year 2000 there were 85 cases to face the death penalty and as years passed the number of criminals in the year 201 have come upto 46 (updated April, 2011). Well the majority of Americans support death penalty, with 64% favoring it and the rest against (Gallup, 2010). as Orrin Hatch says "Capital punishment is our society's recognition of the sanctity of human life." Does on believe that death penalty actually deters crime? Capital punishment should not be abolished because of retribution and deterrence. 

Retribution is way of severe and deserved punishment which adjusts the balance of justice.This kind of punishment shows the public that murder is an intolereble crime which will be punished in such a kind. People believe that the presence of retribution is a great way protecting lives on earth. Seeing pain in the eyes of the victim's family or friends is the one that for fits the argument for death penalty, if the criminal is put behind bars and not given a death penalty once the criminal is out he is ought to do the same acts, it is better to destroy the person who's doing the crime because as the criminal vanishes the crime will automatically vanish. As the Bible Romans 13: 1-4says  "Let every person be subjected to the
governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been
instituted by God. Therefore he who resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will
incur judgment.... If you do wrong, be afraid, for [the authority] does not bear the sword in vain;
he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer" So beig punished through a death penalty actually comes from God.  

Society wants to have a safe and better environment to live in, thus to make that happen strongest punishment should be available to deter murder. zthis kind of punishment is necessary for people who intentionally commit murders, it is a threat for potential criminals. Death penalty may deter murderers and it is the penalty that could deter prisoners already serving a life sentence and tempted to kill. 

Deterrence is not just aimed at the actual offender who is being sentenced, but is also meant to act as a signal to others in wider community that this is the sort of treatment that can expect if they carry out similar offences. Detterence is a coin (2 sided) aimed atthe individual in the dock and others in society who may well be considering to avoid similar behaviour. The law's aims is to deter potential future culprits by punishing past offenders. Becker a famous economist (1968) said that "

In order for deterrence to be effective and crime to be reduced, the costs must be made to outweigh the benefits. Increasing the probability of conviction or the severity of the punishment would make the prospect of crime less attractive and induce the individual not to commit crimes." 

In conclusion, taking into account the act of deterrence and retribution capital punishment should not be abolished. If they do the crime rate would increase at a higher rate making us live in a non-safe environment. If the criminals are punished severly then the crime rate would eventually vanish.

Stress

Humans are overloaded and wonder whether they can really cope with the pressure put upon them. Basically anything that poses a challenge or a threat to our well-being is a stress. The stress response is called the fight or flight response, this is a powerful response which our body activates resources to protect us to either get away as fast as we can or fight. The study done by the CBS New York in the year 2010  concluded that 75% of the world is stressed and out of that 10% are the Americans which is higher than rest of the country.  Natalie Goldberg an American author says that “Stress is basicall a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath. Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emerency. Nothing is that important.”  Does stress change the way we live our life or the way we live our life stresses us out? Stress negativey affect people in the modern society in terms of behaviours and the physical health.

Stress influences person’s behaviour, basically the way in which the person behaves when they are under the influence of stress. Stress induced intense emotions remain to pile up inside without the release, which then keeps the body in a highly tensed state for long. This leads to the body being at the state of perpetual tension or impossible to feel relaxed. This however leads to a sudden outburst of either anger or tears. It also affect person’s eating habits, due to the increased level of cortisol (the stress hormone) where by stressed people tend to crave foods high in fat, sugar and salt even though they are not hungry (Elizabeth Scott, 2007). In addition stress can also lead to substance abuse, where the youngsters believe that when they take alcohol  to numb the stressed out feelings over a several days this is called Binge Drinking. People look at alcohol as a way to reduce stress, even though it ends up creating stress (Steven Downsen, 2009). Statistics suggest that 12-17 year olds in America take a higher consumption of alcohol due to stress. Stress would also lead to social isolation, it is that when one is stressed sudden outburst of anger occurs where then people dont really like moving around with someone who is short tempered, they spend too much of their time thinking about their impossibilty of feeling relaxed that they dont spend anytime talking to their mates and this distance the relationship leading to social withdrawal.

Prolonged and unbated stress can produce the wide variety of symptoms. High Blood pressure also known as hypertension, which develops when adrenalin is released by the adrenal glands under the condition of stress. Which then causes the blood vessels to constrict which raises the blood pressure, and if the stress is frequently occured it may cause a permanent state of high blood pressure. The chronic stress produces the extra amount of adrenalin or the fight-flight response, the adrenal glands also produce the corticod hormones. Where by the liver is unable to control the release thus it leads to infections such as cough and cold. The excess of adrenaline attack the stomach causing an ulcer, because adrenaline increases the stomach acid which then attack the tissue present in the stomach (B4U switch, 2009). Moreover stress affect the heart, as the adrenalin is pumped out it increases the heart rate where by the release of fatty acids into the bloodstream for energy, it then goes to the heart causing it to block the artery thus a person gets a heart attack ( Rachel Martin, 2009). Some people also experience skin breakouts due to the excess level of hormone produced in their body and this causes the allergies. Research depicted that 7-9 out of 10 suffer physically due to stress (Gaetane Ross, 2009). Well there are other affects due to stress such as palpitations, sweating, asthma.

In all we can conclude that, stress can affect is physically and behaviourally. This combination of stress has led to an epidemic of stress related disorders in the society. People have accepted that being stressed is natural, but they ar wrong. Human beings work so hard to get wealth and success, if they dont achieve what they aim for leads them to stress and if they achieve it they are stressed due to the fear of anyone stealing it away from them, basically we humans neglect to take cae of ourselves. Danzae Pace an Italian author that says “Stress is the trash of modern life - we all generate it but if you don't dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life.” Stress is undeniable, thus it is a must to cope with.

Success

                                    Different people have different interpretations of what success means to them. Inorder to achieve success one must adjust to every situation with ease. Success is the process of doing a task and receiving a positive result or it is simply achieving one’s own personal goals.  One of the famous successful inventors Thomas Edison was considered stupid in his early years, but turned out to be the one that invented light bulbs. Everywhere we go we hear stories of successful people; when we are at school the teachers relates our scope with the successful people in the world which gives us a higher motivation to study and become successful just like them. The famous quote stated by Robert Collier “Success is the small efforts repeated day in and day out.” Does success mean that one is improving one self? There are different kinds of success;  power, materialistic and contributor.

                                    With great power comes great responsibiility.  Well, this type of success gains a lot of control, basically someone who wants to contrl and the person to be chose as a leader. These kinds of people tend to over rule their peers. These are the kind of people that want to be at the top of the pyramid, they care about nothing but their position not even money. It is very easy to spot them as power driven individuals have dynamic and strong personalities. One of the many greatest example  “Adolf Hitler” he was an absolut power and ruthless in attaining it. His ultimate power was to achieve a lot of power so that he could transfor Germany into comprising solely of what he saw as a superior “Aryan Race”. The way he looked at success forced him to use underhanded means to attack absolute power. In the year 1934 he became the leader of Germany thus he achieved the power success.

                                  People that are materialistic are usually the one that are media driven. They are just materialistic because the media openly publicizes materialism. Materialistic people are usually brainwashed by the media that happiness is only achieved by excessive luxuries and statuses. One of the example of a materialistic person is Jim Carrey, a famous comedian. He was the fourth kid of the family, who dropped out of school at an early age. He wanted to give his family a better home where they could live peacefully without carrying any burden. But Jim here does not know that happiness cannot be bought by money.  Maybe a house can be purchased but it does not become a house unless the people living in it are happy.

                                  The other kind of success is being a contributor. These kind of people are the ones that want to create a better world for the people at the present and that of the future. They want to step in to the world to make a difference. For these people helping one another is on a daily basis and they receive nothing in return. The best example is Mahatma Gandhi, he led nationwide campaigns for easying poverty, expanding the women’s rights and buliding the religious and ethenic amity. Gandhi strove to practice non-violence and truth in all situations and advocated that the others do the same.  Gandhi went to the jail, despite of what the Britishers had done Gandhi got India indepence at a non-violence state.

                                      Evidently, the way people percieve success is influential in the decission that they make. Whatever the decission maybe appropriate or even socially, the thing that matters is the strive to achieve that success. Take Adolf Hitler as an example maybe in people’s eyes he was a scary murderer but in his point of view he was just achieving something that is called success.  When it is a person’s aim to buy a BMW S-Class they work so hard for it that they will eventually get it as hard work pays off and to them that is success; Achieving something that you have aimed for a long period of time. And when you attain that success the happiness that you get is mind-blowing, having that feeling in you “that yes I have achieved success with the help of no one” is amazing. I would like to end this essay with a quote said by  Jack Charlton, British football manager.

“ Nothing comes easy. Nothing is given to you. Whatever you do, you've got to work for it                and earn it. Whatever reward you get you've go to know that you've had your input into that success. There's no substitute for hard work. And if you want to be well known or well liked, you have to put yourself out for people”.