Euthanasia3

1

Euthanasia

    There is a thin line between live and death. The normal tendency of
any human being, at least in our culture, is to preserve its life.
This is how this society evolves. At first sight, nobody can imagine
how some people make the decision to put an end to their live. In our
culture, we almost venerate life and reject, in some aspects, death.
The most valuable thing that any person has is to be alive and to
have the opportunity to wake up and see a new day. Any individual
grows up and works in order to have a better quality of life, but in
order to live we need to have health first. When our environment is
interrupted by anything unsuspected, we can drastically make
decisions that will affect our destiny. Situations such as a terminal
and incurable illness, can be the precursors that lead any human
being to the resolution of taking the “easy” and painless
way to evade their situation.
    Etymologically speaking, euthanasia means good death, but maybe that
does not means to take the destiny of our life in our own hands.
Nowadays that meaning has turned into something different. Euthanasia
means to end someone’s life who is suffering and having a
miserable life because of an incurable or terminal illness. In
adition it is called a homicide for compassion. How can we say that
a homicide can be done with good intensions and it can be an act of
love and empathy?

    
Sue Rodriguez, a mother in her early thirties, died slowly of Lou
Gehrig's disease. She lived for several years with the knowledge that
her muscles would, one by one, waste away until the day came when,
fully conscious, she would choke to death. She begged the Courts to
reassure her that a doctor would be allowed to assist her in choosing
the moment of death. They refused. She lived on in terror, helped
eventually by a doctor who, in February 1994, covertly broke the law
to help her die in peace. A law on assisted suicide with rigorous
safeguards could have saved her the nightmare during those months
before her death, given her the confidence to carry on - with the
reassurance that when it got too bad she could rely on a
compassionate doctor to follow her wishes at the end. Exit is pledged
to support research for drafting the most thorough, yet feasible,
assisted suicide Bill yet presented to Parliament. Your support will
make it happen. Basically, euthanasia is intimately related to our
faith in God (Docker, 2000). When adversity comes to your life you
can feel lonely and abandoned. It is in that specific moment you can
prove to yourself and to the rest of the world what are you made of.
I know that it is easy to say “We should accept and take with
humility the life that God have for us”. It would be very hard
and sad to know that you will be confined to a terminal illness that
will consume your essence and life. As human beings, we tend to be
afraid to new experiences, no matter if they seemed to be for good.
When we loose the command of our life we can feel misplaced as Sue
did. It is hard to found the good side of our problem or situation,
even a small one. We have to be brave for the people that is around
you because in most of the cases they do not suffer the physical pain
but they suffer the emotional one.

    
According to Breitbart et al. (2004) “dying patients require
attention to physical, emotional, and psychological needs”.
This is an important fact that implies the importance to have someone
beloved at your side. Most terminally ill people are left alone with
their suffering. It is important to count with the support of the
family and friends. At least, a terminally ill person can fight
against everything, if it has something that brings hope and
significance to his or her life. Those motivations can help a patient
in a positive way over a patient that does not have any. In addition,
Siegel and Schrimshaw (2002) found that nearly all of their
participants reported that religious and/or spiritual beliefs and
practices were an important coping resource for those who were dying
from HIV/AIDS. They found that religion provided a way to ease the
emotional burden of the illness, allowed for the relinquishment of
control over to God, facilitated meaning and acceptance of the
illness, and slowed the progression of the illness. They also found
that it (a) relieved the fear of death and uncertainty of the
afterlife and (b) facilitated the self-acceptance and reduced
self-blame. As mentioned earlier our faith, is the stronger argument
when a person decides to put end to his/her life. God provides to us
the confidence that things would be better, no matter if is in this
or in the other life. Maybe we can think that our future is out of
our control. In a situation like that, we can hope that everything
has a purpose and if He gives to us any assignment we should take it
and make it the better possible, no matter the difficult that can
result.

    
Another case presented by Docker (1996-2000) stated the story of a
young woman called Karen Ann Quinlan:

Karen collapsed on April 15th, 1975. She was twenty-one years old.
Within hours, she entered a coma from which she could never recover.
Her parents, staunch Roman Catholics, knew their daughter would not
want to be kept alive by extraordinary means. A year later, as Karen
lay in a "persistent vegetative state," the courts finally
allowed her treatment to be stopped; but artificial feeding was
continued and she was maintained as a living corpse until June 1985,
when she eventually died of pneumonia. Her case spurred thousands of
letters of sympathy and fuelled the "right to die"
movement. How many people need to die degrading deaths before society
learns a little humanity? Exit is committed to research and teaching
in these difficult areas. Help us to help you, and all those who
would seek die with dignity and give you their heartfelt thanks.

In contrast to Sue’s story, in this situation the young lady
was in a coma, and she was incapable to decide her destiny. What we
can one do if someone elses life is in our hands. How can we decide
if a person should live in suffering or not? It should be the hardest
decision a person should take. I can not imagine the pain and agony
that those parents experienced. In this case, it was an option to let
that girl died? Maybe she was in coma, but if she was enabled to
known everything that happened. I think that those things are the
ones that make euthanasia a controversial theme. There are no middle
terms in here. Is the life, of someone that needs help, that we have
in discussion. Should we respect the decision of a person, leaving
out our faith? After all it is not our life. We are not suffering
knowing that your days are counted to end.

    
Let’s talk about the persons that are more in contact with the
ill patients, the doctors. Any physician traditionally takes the
Hippocratic Oath before it obtains its diploma. The oath is
pertaining to the ethical practice of medicine. It is widely believed
that the oath was written by Hippocrates,
the father of medicine, in  the4th century BC, or by one of his students. In
such oath a doctor swears to the gods and goodness to be responsible
and to preserve human life. In addition to that, they will never give 
a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it. According to the oath, a
physician can not take the decision of ends a patient life. They are
the ones that should try at any instance to save a person life. In
the moment that a physician offers euthanasia as an option to a
patient is breaking with his/her word. Jack
Kevorkian is a doctor called as “Dr Death”.
He offers death counseling to those persons with a terminal illness.
He helps to die around 130 people before he was sentenced ten to
twenty-five years in prison. The situation for him took a surprising
ending when he was diagnosed with hepatitis C. He asks for the same
services that he gave in one time.

    
As we can see euthanasia can be seen through different perspectives:
as a patient or as the person with the responsibility of someone else
life. It is important to evaluate our life and convictions. A
person’s life after all is the most important thing that we
have. We should take care of our mind and body in a responsible way.
Love your life even when you can find anything good to it. Do not let
the bad moments decides your future in this world. Anything has a
solution as well as your life. Fight for you and for one that you
love.

References:

Docker, C. (1996-2000).
http://www.euthanasia.cc/cases.html#sr

Reiner S. (Fall 200). Religious and Spiritual Beliefs: An Avenue
to Explore End-of-Life Issues. ADUlTSPAN/owraa/
VoL 6 No. 2

http://www.rsrevision.com/Alevel/ethics/euthanasia/cases.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath

Obama

Barack Obama

    The future of the United States has
been decided during this year elections. In this year in specific
there where some historical facts that will be latent in the history
of the entire world. First of all in the primaries for the Democratic
Party one of the candidates was a white women and the other was a
black man. The interest in this election was so big that the federal
government gave a unique opportunity to participate in the primaries.
The participants Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton make a good
campaign in the island and they even talk in Spanish in their
political conventions. Finally the black man takes out the victory. I
don’t want to sound racist but we have to accept that in the
United State the discrimination about the ethnicities and race are
huge, but it is very interesting that people pick up a black man over
a white woman. This indicates that we are living a change because the
citizens elect a candidate not for his race or gender but for his
abilities and intelligence. That is not all; Obama won the elections
over the republican candidate John McKaine and for the next year he
will be in front of one of the most powerful nations in the entire
world.

    Barack Obama represents hope for the
people in and out of the U.S. He represents a positive change that
the situation that we are living right now can change in order to
have a better future. The other nations trust in him, to the point
that Fidel Castro declares to TIME that he will be able to meet, and
he expects that the new government will be one pacifist and without
war. These same expectations are the ones that people have. He
demands change in his campaign and know he has the responsibility to
make it happen. He has the responsibility to make a good job and
demonstrate that no matter were you from or of what color or gender
you are, the most important thing is your intellect and your ability
to take the right choices.

    I believe that he will be a good
president. I hope that he would be the leader of all of the people of
different ethnicities. He represent the black, white, Asian, Latinos
and all of the other people that represents the United States. I
think that he can be able to transcend the political and social
barriers. He is capable to run a country likes United States and this
is a unique opportunity to make a change in the world, leaving behind
the separations and confrontations and uniting the world together.

The Economic Divide3

The Economic Divide

    
Technology has come to our lives with out a turning point. It rules
every aspect of our society including the way that our countries are
directed. With its introduction in the United
Sates, the U.S. Department of Commerce adopted the goal of providing
universal telecommunication and Internet
access. In 1997, the president Bill Clinton declared a goal of wiring
every home by the year 2007 (Reiser, Wallin & Wilson, 2006).
Nevertheless, while some societies are growing exponentially some has
been left out. These differences, in very few cases are small and
untraceable, but in other cases the differences are huge and seemed
at fist sight. Differences that come from the economic area and that
affects directly, positive or negatively, the lifestyles of the
citizens. The reality is that the people that live in those places
like Africa or Haiti are the ones that are directly affected with the
development of technology.

    
Technology encloses the telecommunication media, home artifacts,
among others. Without any doubt the greatest invention of all times
has been the invention of the computer and the internet. The internet
permits us to search information about anything, all that you can
imagine. Nowadays we are able to look up for our family members and
friends; we can even make friends and know people from other places
with different cultures and languages. It is amazing how this tool
has become a virtual socializing agent; we do not need to be in the
same place any more as other people in order to know someone new. It
is sad and lamentable that the same aspects that can be good for
someone can be prejudicial for someone else. Some of us are in total
contact with the latest news, but in contrast there are people that
are enclosed in their own world because they are restricted by their
resources.

    
Dasgupta, Lall & Weeler (2000) explains that although futurists
regularly extol the Internet's potential benefits for poor countries,
skepticism is common among development researchers. The benefits of
the internet implantation in those countries can be favorable in
certain way to their progress, just as we do. People from these
nations can obtain a better education and an educated country has
better opportunities to develop. The difficult aspect resides in how
they are going to carry out this implantation. In these countries the
economic resources are limited and also the physical environment is
not the best. Some of these places are huge in territory and the
people live spread around the country. The curious thing is that some
of these places are rich in natural resources such as Africa that is
abundant in metals and precious stones. That is because the earnings
are from the people that already have money and the technology. As we
can imagine these persons are not the majority and the rest of the
population are the ones left out of the world development,
economically and technologically.

With the advent of technology the economic divide has been increased.
Societies with the best and newest discoveries are ahead in the world
scenario. Science research has been promoted by the governments in
order to obtain leadership and power that ultimately will give them
the best technology to dominate and influence other countries. The
division can be product of many sources, but the final result will be
the same, a division between groups as a result of the economy. We
now live in a material society and we are focused in the money that
will give us a respectful, desired and high position in the group.

    
In addition to the economic divide, that consists of a person or
group of the population does not have the capital to acquire
technology such as a computer, Nielsen (2006) introduces two more
stages for a digital divide. These stages are the usability and
empowerment divide. The first one refers to the fact that one person
has the money to have a computer and internet but they do not know
how to use it. This is a big problem for people that does not have an
education in this technology or just because it is impossible for
them to understand because they did not have the fundamental literacy
skills, such as writing and reading. Nielson argues that the
industries prefer to direct the technology to youths and left out, in
a certain way, the elderly people. The elderly people can have more
capital than the young ones but them does not represent the future in
technology. The elderly are not a priority, in this society this
population has been discriminated because people think that they are
useless for their age. The second stage, the empowerment divide, is
when you can posses the capital to buy technology and you know how to
use it. The divide reside when the person have a widely knowledge but
do not use it at it maximum level.

    
The two stages explained by Nielsen (2006), the usability and
empowerment divide are a subdivision of the economic divide. If
someone is not a literate person maybe it can be a result of the
monetary situation of their home or social environment. For the other
part the elderly people are affected and forget in this development
because they are not considered important in the economic process.
This idea is directly proportional to the economy. In the
capitalistic society the citizens that are important are those that
can contribute to the country with their work and the ones that can
consume the most. For the empowerment divide the connection with
economy is harder to see. The fact that we become more and more
dependent of technology when we have it is the result of the economy
power behind technology. With more money there is more technology
that we can get, and vice versa. The ability to
access and use technology effectively will be the key to economic
success for both individuals and communities. Individuals must learn
to use this new technology to have any chance of being successful in
the emerging knowledge economy (Reiser, Wallin & Wilson, 2006).

    
Reiser, Wallin & Wilson (2006) carried out
a study in North Carolina and it showed that black, rural, and female
respondents were significantly less likely to have home computers
than white, urban, male respondents. Respondents with higher incomes
and more education were more likely to have home computers. These
results demonstrate the importance of education among the different
social ethnicities. Education is the key of successful in this era,
without education there are fewer opportunities to be in a good
economically position. Nowadays is basically necessary to be a
multidisciplinary student we should learn and study about diverse
subjects because those can be the better tool that we can have for
the future. With the fast development of technology our lifestyles
are exposed to a continually change and we should be able to work in
those multifaceted areas in order to be successful.

    
As we can see the economy dictates every aspect, directly or
indirectly, of our lives. In this case the economy affects the way in
which people communicates including the politicians of the powerful
countries. These persons are the ones that take control in the
decisions of the other people that depend on their resolutions. There
are people that do not think that economy is the agent that rules our
societies, but it is. The most important aspect is that it is the
main responsible of the digital divide. The crude reality is that if
someone does not have money, they will not have the possibility to
have technology and to progress in this material world. It is sad
that we can not have another option because every time technology is
changing and we have should goes in the same direction otherwise we
will be in disadvantage. Obviously there are people that do not have
other option and they are enclosed in a technology free society.

References:

-Reiser
C., Wallin J. & Wilson K.; 2006;Social
Stratification and the Digital Divide

-Dasgupta
S., Lall S. & Weeler D.; (2000); Policy Reform, Economic Growth,
and the Digital Divide: An Econometric Analysis; Development Research
Group World Bank

-Nielsen
J., (2006); Digital Divide: The Three Stages;
file:///G:/Digital%20Divide/digital-divide.html

euthanasia 1

        There is a thin line between live and
death. The normal tendency of any human being, at least in our
culture, is to preserve its life. Nobody can imagine how people can
take the decision to put an end to its live. The most valuable thing
that any person has is its life. Any individual grows up and work in
order to have a better quality of life. When that environment fall
apart, there should be problems in the air. Situations like an
terminal and incurable illness, can be the precursors that leads any
human being to the resolution of taking the “easy” an
painless way.

        Etymologically euthanasia means good
death. Maybe those people do not think to take in their hands their
destiny. Nowadays that meaning turned into something different.
Euthanasia means to end someone life that is suffering and having a
miserable life. Also it is called a homicide for compassion. How can
we say that a homicide can be done with good intensions and it can be
an act of love and empathy?

        When adversity is in your life, in
that specific instant you can prove to yourself and to the rest of
the world of what are you made of. I know that it is easy to say,
that you should accept and take with humility the life that God have
for you. It would very hard and sad to know that you will be confined
to a terminal illness that will consume your essence and soul. As
human beings we tent to be afraid to the new experiences, no matter
if they seemed to be for good. When we lost the command of our life
we can felt misplaced as Sue did. It is hard to found the good side
of our problem or situation.

        Most terminal ill persons are left
alone with their suffering. It is important to hold the support of
the family and friends. At least, a terminally ill person can fight
against everything, if it has something that brings hope and
significance to his or her life. Those motivations can help a patient
in a positive way over a patient that does not.

        As mentioned earlier our faith is the
stronger argument when a person decides to put end to his/her life.
God provides to us the confidence that things would be better, no
matter if is in this or in the other life. Maybe we can think that
our future is out of our control. In a situation like that, we can
hope that everything has a purpose and if He gives to us any
assignment we should take it and make it the better possible.

         As we can see the euthanasia can be
seen with different perspectives, you as a patient or you as the
responsible of another life. It is important to evaluate our life and
convictions. A person life after all is the most valuable thing that
we have. We should take care of our mind and body in a responsible
way. Love your life even when you can find anything good to it. Do
not let the bad moments decides your future in this world. Anything
has a solution as well as your life. Fight for you and for one that
you love.

blog3

The Economic Divide

     We live in a material era. Everything is about getting more and more. The more you get the most respectful you can be in the society. It is sad that there are a lot of people that just think in material things and do not care about the intelligence, values and feelings of other people. You get an education in order to obtain a better life, and to position yourself in a privilege position in your community. These privileges are responsible in a big part to the pronounced divide in the world.

     The divisions are spread in every aspect of the life. They are a lot of differences between us like the culture, politics and life styles. In this millennium there is growing up a new divide, called the digital divide. It consists in the division created when one group in a population are in disadvantage in front of the rest of the population, merely because they do not have the resources to have the technology. If the government of any country does not have the economic resources to habilitate it with the infrastructure necessary to acquire the technology it will not have the advantage of that technology and will be left behind by those that can afford it. In a few words I strongly think that the government is the main responsible in the digital divide.

     Jakob Nielsen describes three stages in the digital divide. The first one is economic divide which I already explained earlier. The second one is called the usability divide, which consist when a person have the money to obtain the technology but they did not know how to use it. These persons maybe do not have the opportunity to go to school and receive an education. The last one id the empowerment divide in which the person have the economic resources and the basic knowledge to use technology but they do not know it deeply. The economy is around the other two stages described by Nielsen. He explains them as completely separated subjects but the economy is present in both of them. When a person does not have studies, t must be that this person does not have the economic advantage to finish school.

            The economic divide is present in every area of our lives. Not only for the digital divide but also in the cultural divide. The society is ruled by the economy that it has. If a country is one of the world potency, for sure this country will have the better technology for the citizens and for the defense of their country. For that reason the research in any area of science has been promoted for sciences students. The most important thing is to discover new areas, devices and knowledge in order to be ahead.

blog2ingles

Election 2008

    
In this year the future of our country, Puerto Rico, will be decided
in this week. The people are very concerned with everything that is
happening right now. Every where we go there is something about
politics. The people in this island are the number one fan of
politics. There is not friendship or relationship at all when we are
of different parties but also we can make new friends just because we
have the same ideals. These elections will be very interesting and
only God know what will happened.

    
In my own perception the news in Puerto Rico are somewhat deviated to
a particular political party. They inform in a way that is for their
convenience, just to make a good notice that sells. In the
communication media the most important aspect is to sell and not
precisely to give up the completely and absolutely truth to the
people. I have to say that there is also the economic aspect is in
the game. The political candidate that paid more is the one that will
have the most propaganda in the television, radio and internet.

    
The internet has played a new role in this election. We can make use
of the web pages of the newspapers. There are good because we do not
have to buy anything and we can have the same benefits of the
physical one. The candidates have their own web pages that presents
their platforms, information about the caravans and it also have
photos and videos of their activities. I think that the use of
internet is a brilliant idea. It promotes the particular candidate
but it also brings you the opportunity to know and analyzed the
things that they offer, if it is a real option or if it is just a
fantasy. Most of the candidates also have a Facebook and MySpace
account and you can become a member of them.

    
This election will be close. We count with four official political
parties. This means that the votes will be divided more than the past
elections. In addition to that there is also the group of Pedro
Roselló that will be by direct nomination. I know that this is
a democratic country, but I can not understand how a politician that
run in primaries and is not elected, returned back and said that the
“el pueblo habló y yo obedezco”. This is an
irresponsible act that is against his party. He demonstrated that he
is selfish and he does not care a thing about the future of this
island. I think that you should be a good looser and the most
important thing is the benefit of the party.

    
Even that we have four parties, there are two that are at the top.
There are the “Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP)” and the
“Partido Popular Democratico (PPD)” that are fighting for
the first place. The fist one promotes change, progress and defends
the union with the United States. They have some new and young
candidates that present innovation to the environment of the
elections. The PNP has accused the other party for the bad economy
that we have because of the bad administration. The young people are
playing a decisive role in this party and also in the other ones.
For the other part the PPD has promoted that the situations in the
economy and all of the problems are because of the legislature of the
PNP that do not made their work. In addition of that the actual
governor has twenty four charges against him that in some aspect can
affect him in his reelection.

    
As I said, the future of our island is in the hand of the population.
They should analyzed and take the best option for us. We should leave
the idealisms behind and take the best decision for all of us. Lets
be responsible at the elections.

Writing as an Integrating Agent

Writing is an important and essential tool for humanity. Since from the very first begging, the earliest civilizations founded the way to express their knowledge. They use paints made from nature and rudimental tools for this purpose. From this unsophisticated paintings and symbols a writing system was evolved to complex system of symbols that makes up words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. It is invaluable the contribution of writing in our development a individual persons and for the whole community. Trough it we can become part of the rest of the world that is around us.

We can express our feelings and emotions trough literacy. It is amazing in the way that we can connect with a story or any reading. It opens our imagination to another fantastic world that only exists in your mind and everybody else will have a different version of the story. For the other part, newspapers maintain the audience inform with the ultimate details of the society. These details correspond with politics, science, sports, entertainment, etc. The central purpose of it is to integrate the individuals to the community and the rest of the world. With it you are able to look at different cultures and lifestyles of different countries. How other people interact, their political and educational systems and their thoughts and beliefs.

The benefits of writing are unlimited. Word is nothing if is not written. Any legal implantation must exist as a written item. Even when you are going to be married you must sign up a document, other wise you are a single person. Another example is the pre marital contracts in which a couple makes up to divide their belongings before the marriage takes place. At the moment that you sign up a written document your word becomes important and it integrates you to the society. A society with given specific rules and laws that you must follow and if you do not make it you will be penalized.

The last summer I went to make research at The University of New York at Buffalo. My graduate student over there speaks very fast and at the beginning if was very hard for me to understand him. I was also a little oxidized with my English skills so it was hard for the both of us to communicate with each other. So the best way to speaks was trough writing. When he gave me any instruction and I did not understand he just explained to me with drawings and writing. For me writing was my life saver during the first weeks at Buffalo, so I did not exploited any laboratory.

As we can see trough writing we become an active part of our society. We are able to express our knowledge, feelings and thoughts. Is of great importance to work with our writing skills in order to improve and be better with it. In the way that we can communicate with each others trough writing we will be categorized. It can be the first impression of our personalities.