Euthanasia be legalized.

  Euthanasia refers to ending a life for relieving pain and suffering. It also means a good death in Greek. People usually describe a circumstance like this: A person has some horrible, deadly disease. He is trapped in a hospital bed, with all kinds of medical equipment around him, unable to move or do anything except exist. He is in tremendous pain. He begs to have these machines disconnected, so he can go out and live out whatever life he has left and leave in peace. But the doctors say no, because to turn off the machines would definitively result in his death, and they have an ideological bias against doing this. Doesn't the patient have rights to make that decision for himself? (Johansen, 2000). Luke Gormally said that “The claimed justification for euthanasia first takes the moral high ground of compassion. When a truer form of compassion is found in palliative care, the ground shifts to an appeal to human rights, especially to the sovereignty of self- determination.” Euthanasia should be legalized because of human right, unbearable pain, patient’s wills.

People have the right to make decision by themselves. Everyone has the right to decide how they should die. “In…cases where there are no dependants who might exert pressure one way or the other, the right of the individual to choose should be paramount. So long as the patient is lucid, and his or her intent is clear beyond doubt, there need be no further questions.” (The Independent, 2002) There is a fact that “There are no laws, medical associations, church denominations, or right-to-life groups who insist that unnecessary, heroic, or truly futile treatments be provided to prolong life and all recognize the right of competent patients to refuse medical treatment.”(Terrisfight). A survey by the NIPO Institute (Netherlands) obtained the result that 76% favored voluntary euthanasia whereas 77% agreed with non voluntary euthanasia meaning killing your dead or mom out of mercy for example.

It is inhuman and unfair to make patients endure the unbearable pain. Assisting a patient to end painful life might be a better choice than demanding that he go on the suffering life. The goal involving euthanasia is to "aid-in-dying" painlessly and therefore should be considered and accepted by lawfully (Dr. Maisie M). The Voluntary Euthanasia Society (EXIT) argues that faced with terminal illness, pain or a useless existence, for which there is no cure, everyone should have a chance to turn to “…..the mercy of a painless death.” They expect that the law will give doctors authority to end the lives of patients who have made it clear that this is what they want.

People who want to die can not be forced to stay alive. We should not make people stay alive only by looking at our perspectives. If a patient with a terminal illness is hover between life and death, it is necessary to allow the patient to speed up the process for a decent death. People falling under the definition of possible euthanasia patients are the patients whose brains are not competent, or bodies are dying. They may think that they would rather die than lead such lives with their bodies in severe pain every day (Amarasekara, 2002). French President Nicholas Sarkozy said in a 2007 campaign speech, "when I hear debates on euthanasia, I tell myself that while I respect the principles, the convictions, at the bottom of my heart I still say there are limits to the suffering that can be imposed on a human."

In conclusion, by considering human right, miserable pain, patient’s wills, we ought to legalize euthanasia. People’s decision should not be influenced by others. Furthermore, it is cruel to see that patients bear so much pain and they can not deal with the pain neither end their life. Also, we should not force people to go on their life if they do not want to. Try to imagine, if one day, we are the one who are kept in the bed and not able to do anything except live with huge pain. We shall not want this endless and painful life, shall we?

Should capital punishment be abolished?

  According to Wikipedia, capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution refers to the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. In many places, such as Canada, Australia and so on, the death penalty is a controversial issue. Advocates of the death penalty believe that it is a helpful tool for police and prosecutors. Opponents of capital punishment think that it is against human rights. According to Death Penalty Information Center (updated September 20, 2010), there are 35 states with the death penalty. There are 15 states without the death penalty. 47% people prefer death penalty, and 48% people prefer life without parole. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov who was a major Russian short story writer and playwright said that” Capital punishment kills immediately, whereas lifetime imprisonment does so slowly. Which executioner is more humane? The one who kills you in a few minutes, or the one who wrests your life from you in the course of many years?” Capital punishment should not be abolished because of deterrence, retribution, justice.

Deterrence makes criminals fear so that they will not recidivate in the future. Deterrence stops crime by making punishment more severe than the benefits gained from criminal acts. Capital punishment is necessary for people who intentionally commit murder. Judgers execute capital punishment very carefully. Hence even thou it is not used so often, it still is a threat for potential criminals. According to literature, many people, particularly politicians, indicate that the death penalty is an effective deterrent for the crime of murder (Ellsworth and Ross, 1983; Fagan, 1986; Vidmar and Ellsworth, 1974; Whitehead and Blankenship, 2000; Zeisel and Gallup, 1989). Proponents of the death penalty for deterrence reasons argue that a death sentence is a far more effective deterrent than life imprisonment (Ellsworth and Gross, 1994). If we do not know whether the death penalty will deter others, we will be confronted with two uncertainties . If we have the death penalty and achieve no deterrent effect, than, the life of convicted murderers has been expended in vain (from a deterrent point of view)—here is a net loss. If we have the death sentence, and deter future murderers, we spared the lives of future victims-(the prospective murderers gain, too; they are spared punishment because they were deterred). In this case, the death penalty is a gain, unless the convicted murderer is valued more highly than that of the unknown victim, or victims (Carrington, F., l978).  Interestingly, when there was a interruption on Capital Punishment in the United States, the murder rates increased by 100%.

Retribution is a deserved and severe punishment that is used to adjust the balance of justice. When a murder case happen, the victim is not the only one who suffer, but also the people around the victim will have to live with both the pain of losing the friend or family member and the fact that the person responsible for their loss still lives while the victim does not. Victims cannot avenge themselves, only the law and those closest to the victim can do this. A victim’s family feels that they have the duty to gain justice for the victim. Actually what they want is not only justice, but also retribution. The retribution may not bring the victim back. Nevertheless, it provides peace of mind to people around the victim and shows the power of law. In the Christian Bible, in Leviticus 24: 17-20, “Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. ¹⁸ Whoever takes an animal's life shall make it good, life for life. ¹⁹ If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, ²⁰ fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth”

  People have capital punishment in order to make the world more just. “May the punishment fit the crime.” Personally, I think this is the best definition of justice. Most humans have a desire for justice, and justice protects society from falling into a tyrannous chaos where the individuals are likely to go into the anger, violence, and madness of criminals. For the sake of society’s stability, fair and swift justice must always exist, and the complete removal of people who would destroy that society through crime is absolutely necessary. The death penalty serves this purpose better than any other form of punishment, as it ultimately ensures that a criminal can never harm another person again. From the perspective of justice, the death penalty serves any given populace by erasing its worst element: the criminal one. (Luther Avery,2010) Irwin Isenberg (1977) said, when you kill a man with premeditation, you do something different than stealing from him. “I favor the death penalty as a matter of justice and human dignity even apart from deterrence. The penalty must be appropriate to the seriousness of the crime (p. 135).

  In conclusion, considering about deterrence, retribution, justice, capital punishment should not be abolished. It is not hard to assume that if we abolish the capital punishment, there will be more and more murders. Therefore, I suggest that we should let more people know about the influence of capital punishment and I believe that there will be less murder cases.

The various causes of stress in today’s urban society

The word “stress” is defined by the Wikipedia as “a negative concept that can have an impact on one’s mental and physical well-being.” However, stress can be positive sometimes. Sudha Chandran is an Indian danseuse. Although she faces lots of pressure because she lost both of her legs in an accident, the physical and social inadequacies encourage her to continue her dance performances with the help of prosthetic legs instead of giving up her interest. Because people don’t make use of stress, they have lots of problem because of daily stress. “75% of the general population experiences at least ‘some stress’ every two weeks.”(National Health Interview Survey). "Stressed workers suffer a greatly increased risk of heart disease. Stressful jobs have a direct biological impact on the body. Workers under 50 who said their work was stressful were 68 per cent more likely to develop heart disease than the stress-free."(European Heart Journal). Why do people get stress? People get stress because of personal relationships, financial problems and workplace.

 When people are not able to keep a good relationship with others, they tend to be more stressful. When individuals have problem with getting along with others, first of all, they will feel angry and sad. After that they will become lonely because it seems like they lose a friend. For example, a husband somehow is not able to get well along with his wife. Then the wife may believe that her husband does not love her anymore, and he is going to divorce with her. Hence her life may be totally changed. In addition, we clearly see that teens are quite worried about their personal relationships from the followings. “From the study, the five stressors causing the most worry included "school work (68%), parents (56%) friends' problems (52%), romantic relationships (48%), and drugs in the neighborhood (48%)". The five sources of stress most often experienced for the youth in the study included "school work (78%), parents (68%), romantic relationships (64%), friends' problems (64%), and younger siblings (64%).” (Confronting Teen Stress, Meeting the Challenge in Baltimore City)

People are seriously stressed when they have financial problems. As we all know, in reality, people have to work so that they can make a living. Financial problems stress is usually a debilitating mental burden that happens again and again in a chronic way. More likely, adults are stressed because of financial problems. 73% of Americans name money as the number one factor that affects their stress level. (American Psychological Association, 2004) By contrast, children seldom worry about their incomes. However, 30% of children reported being worried about the family's financial situation.( American Psychological Association, 2004). Financial stress has led the list in many polls.
 
People usually get a lot of stress in workplace. Whether they are teachers, architects, or students, they get stressed because of the work. As I mentioned before, people should take advantage of the stress from workplace. It can motivate you to work harder. Unfortunately, most of people are not able to see the benefit of stress in workplace. Therefore most of them suffer from stress. “62% of Americans say work has a significant impact on stress levels”. (APA Survey 2004)"
“Millions of Americans suffer from unhealthy levels of stress at work.” (A study several years ago estimated the number to be 11 million--given events since that time, this number has certainly more than tripled--studies in Sweden, Canada, and other Westernized countries show similar trends.)

In conclusion, there are three main sources of stress. They are relationships with others, incomes worries, stress from workplace. People who have problems with others are possible to get a higher stress level. Most people have another stress because of financial problems. People who do not make use of stress find working stressful. There are other causes of stress. As long as we recognize them, we can make use of them and reduce the negative influence of stress.

How people’s differences in their definitions of success influence their lives.

  There are different definitions of success. And, there are successful people in the world. Bill Gates is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third. Albert Einstein is the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history. Everyone wants to be successful in some way. Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all time, proposes that “I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed. “Abraham Lincoln, a champion for human liberty, proposes that“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.” Because of people’s differences in their definitions of success, people are divided into three categories, Puritan, materialist and contributor.

People who follow the puritan mindset work in order to prove themselves. They believe that to be successful, they need to show their value. Helen Keller is one of the people who struggle for proving their value. She can just give up and stop struggling. However she wants to prove that even a disable person has value. She gets in the fight against illness, her spirit and her extraordinary successful experience have been inspired many normal person and disabled people to confront and overcome the difficulties. The reason that people are eager to prove their value is that they regard self -worth as the icon of success. As soon as they reach an achievement, they get more sense of worthiness, and there is always another goal they need to get. Therefore, we see many “puritan” busy with their work. There is a band called “Yes” says that “Prove yourself, you are the move you make, take your chances win or loser.” It obviously represents the importance of “proving myself ” for “puritan”

People who grow up on the material view of success tend to be crazy about money or possessions. This kind of people want to gain as much luxury and money as possible. They will never be satisfied with current situation. It is because they believe that successful people have this stuff therefore they need to have this stuff. They do not realize that successful people can enjoy luxury because they have already succeed, however normal people who have succeed yet should work harder instead of blindly seeking of material. We usually connect materialism to realism. For example, a couple divorce only because one of them is not satisfied with their financial status. Smokey Robinson says “As human beings, we're very materialistic and have all this stuff - furs and cars and diamonds and money.”

There is a kind of people who would like to sacrifice themselves to make the world a better place. They are different from “Puritan” because they strive for others. They are different from materialistic people because they work for a better world. They are the ones who really have value because they come to the world and really make some difference. The contributors believe that as long as they make the world better, even a bit better, it is successful. There is a person we will never forget, Mother Teresa. For over 45 years, she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. Once, she said that “The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Be good anyway.” Although we may not be able to do things like Mother Teresa did, we can simply be willing to help people through their everyday struggles.

In conclusion, people’s different understandings on success classify people into self-value persons, possession persons, helpful persons. Are there any other sorts of opinions about success? Is it possible that somehow self-value persons have agreement with helpful persons? It is clear that there are some negative understandings among people. To correct individuals’ opinion about success, we must make our citizen receive correct view of success by producing relevant films, and so on. We have seen some negative opinions about success. If more and more negative opinions arise, fewer and fewer people will succeed. It is time for you to think about what success means to you.