The Ethics of Euthanasia: Active vs Passive

1. REVIEW

2. Review • The distinction between active and passive euthanasia is thought to be crucial_ for medical ethics. Passive euthanasia is the cessation_ of the treatment and permissible_ while active euthanasia is contrary_ to the policy of AMA. Several arguments are going to be put forward to make a strong case_ against the doctrine.

3. Review • Once the initial decision not to prolong his agnoy(痛苦)_ has been made, active euthanasia is actually preferable to passive euthanasia. The process of being “allowed to die” can be relatively slow_ and painful and contrary to the humanitarian__ impulses whereas being given a lethal(致命)_ injection is relatively quick and painless. For a patient who is dying of incurable cancer of throat, the pain can not be alleviated_ while for the baby born with Down’s syndrome together with the intestinal obstruction, the dehydration and infection wither_ him over hours and days. In the above two cases, passive euthanasia is really a terrible ordeal(折磨)_ for them.

4. Review • The conventional doctrine leads to decisions concerning life and death made on irrelevant_ grounds. As an operation to remove the intestinal obstruction is not prohibitively_ difficult, the matter of life of death should not allowed to depend on the essential irrelevant question of whether the intestinal tract is blocked, instead on the basis of Down’s syndrome_.

5. Review • Killing is not morally worse than letting someone die. In both cases, Jones and Smith acted from the same motive_ and the same end in view_. Therefore, Jones should be as relevant_ as Smith and his defense of “doing nothing and letting die” is only a grotesque怪诞的 perversion歪曲，曲解_ of moral reasoning. • The doctors do not involve the personal gain and the destruction of the healthy child, hence the bare difference between killing and letting die does not , in itself, make a moral difference. • The AMA contended that cessation of treatment is not the intentional_ termination of life and many people also find it hard to accept this judgment because they tend to think killing in a much worse light(方面)_ than letting die.

6. Review • Active euthanasia is not any worse than passive euthanasia. People argue against it with the evidence that in the former, doctor is the cause of death while in the latter the disease the cause of death. Although fixing_ the cause of death may be important from the legal_ point of view but show no moral difference as in euthanasia death is not considered as a great evil_ .

7. Idiom Study • Out of spirits • 没精神 • On the side of the angels • 在道义一方 • For the hell of it • 仅为取乐 • Give the devil his due • 公平对待,平心而论 • Move heaven and earth • 想方设法, 竭尽全力

8. Idiom Study • Talk of the devil and the devil comes • 說曹操到曹操就到 • Sell one’s soul • 出卖灵魂 • Bear one’s cross • 忍痛，忍受痛苦 • A tin god • 自命不凡的人 • Rush in where angels fear to tread • 胆大妄为,愚蠢而自负地去冒险

9. Idiom Study sell your soul • Never ___________ to anybody and/or for anything. Always be true to yourself. • ____________; our boss pays well even if he does work us extremely hard. • In any dispute, he always comes down _____. • They were feeling ____________ after so many days of rain.  • Now that John was been made manager, he's behaving like ____________.  Give the devil his due on the other side of the angels out of spirits a tin god

10. Idiom Study • In spite of our warnings, he decided to invest in that venture. I suppose it's case of fools ____________________________.  • You must ____________ your disability. • John said he'd be coming—and ____________________ here he is now.  • I’d _______________ to get a date with Andrew for you.  • The boys said they had smashed the windows just _____________.  rushing in where angels fear to tread bear the cross of talk of the devil and the devil comes move the hell and earth for the hell of it

11. Organization • In an essay, ideas and information have to be arranged in some order. The pattern of organization in an essay should be suited to the writer’s subject and purpose. • Personal accounts • Description of a plant

12. Organization • Patterns of organization • Time order / chronological order • To present events as they occurred • To be rearranged for special effect • Space order • To describe a person, a place, or a thing • To begin at a particular order and move in some direction • Logical order • General to specific • Most familiar to least familiar • Smallest to biggest • Least importance to most importance / the climactic order

13. Organization • Except for personal journals, writing is social, a way of interacting with other people; thus, every time you write you are trying to think in these terms: • What do I want to say to whom and why? • To say something informative, interesting and surprising. • To whom you are writing ? • For what purpose you are writing? • To entertain, inform, share experience, bring about changes, persuade, provoke emotional responses, to reinforce existing ideas or attitudes.

14. Organization • Narrow down a topic • If you try to use all or even most of the material you have generated on a topic through brainstorming, you may end writing a superficial paper, long on generalizations and short on details. • The most effective way to narrow your topic to manageable size is to draw diagrams that “tree it down.”

15. Organization • Make a chart on which you divide and subdivide the topic into smaller and smaller parts, each of which branches out like an inverted tree. • The upside down tree will help you see how many ideas you can generate under each division and which branch offers the most promising material. • Then you can pick out the most promising part of your first diagram and tree it down a second time to serve as an outline.

16. Organization

17. Organization

18. Organization • To control your material and arrange it effectively for readers, you usually need a specific plan when doing writing. • Once you have a plan, keep referring to it, but stay flexible. Don’t lock out good ideas.

19. Organization • Making 2 upside-down outline trees. • Tree down the topic “Cloning”. • Then again tree down the topic “Cloning in medical use” • Arrange the points in a climatic order.

20. 谢谢观赏！ Thanks!