Erratic Wisdom

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Right to Die

Among other troubling cases in medical ethics I have encountered this year is the proposition of a patient’s supposed “Right to Die”. Such a right would be exercised through either euthanasia or physician assisted suicide (passive euthanasia). Since I’m only examining the right itself – if it can even be called a right – I will not consider the more questionable varieties of euthanasia, nonvoluntary and involuntary, where the patient’s consent is either unobtainable or worse, overridden.

Recently

• Two New Worlds

  A few weeks ago I marked my entrance into two exciting new worlds. All sparked by just fifteen minutes at a friend’s house (although his status is now questionable, this entrance was not cheap). What caused this transformation? It’s quite simple: Gears of War. When I first caught a glimpse of the game, I wasn’t even aware that it was actually a game. The detail was so stunning that I just thought it was a refreshing camera angle in a movie. I quickly found out that it wasn’t and after just a few minutes of gameplay, I knew I had to get me one. More

• Why Medicine?

  The waiting room was cramped and hot. The cheap lab coat I’d picked up on the way began to itch and I could feel my skin boiling beneath the stiff polyester. Forced by my sister’s strong “recommendation”, I had set up my first – and I hoped, last – shadowing session with a local rheumatologist. The nurse called me inside and I met the doctor, after little more than a handshake, the doctor mumbled something that I guessed to be “follow me” and darted off to an examination room with three long strides. He grabbed the file hanging by the closed door, read a few lines and stepped back. He stood at the counter opposing the examination room for a few seconds, eyes closed, with a look of profound concentration. Then, without warning, he opened his eyes, motioned for me to get closer and opened the door. More

• Look up

  If you want something to really give you that “why am I here?” confusion, find yourself a quiet, dark spot tonight and look up. Finding a clear look at the night sky was especially easy for me as my area is suffering from one of the most dramatic power outages in recent history. My apartment has been without power since Thursday afternoon and doesn’t look like it’ll be restored any time soon (don’t get me started on why National Grid crews were working non-stop to get the nearby strip of car dealerships up and running while even a small survey team has yet to visit my apartment complex). More

• An Answer

  Whether it be one of the troubling medical cases or a comparison of philosophical viewpoints, it seems impossible to find any solid ground. A few days ago, we began exploring utilitarianism in my philosophy course. At first, the proposition that we should make decisions to provide the highest amount of happiness or pleasure to the greatest number of people seemed wonderful. Finally a doctrine that was simple, useful, widely applicable and understandable. However, each class began exposing certain flaws and holes. The most obvious and troubling for me was quantifying a complex sensation like happiness. Even if we were to assume that everyone’s ‘happiness’ is equivalent, who would do the measuring. Every person has unique experiences in their lives – experiences that can drastically affect the amount of happiness they may feel from a particular activity. More