Personal Narrative- Waiting for Death
She suspects she has only ever had one true affair with the knife, and all those since have been meager attempts at regurgitation, petty rivalries borne of intention and tainted by the anticlimax of recreation. She sits daily watching the synthetic roses, virulent with red, fluoresce persistently on the porch. Moth bitten, with broken stems and a hairline crack running the length of the ceramic pot that marks their station on the brick step. She sits observing their activity, disassociates herself from the solemn sermon their blushing heads deliver, ducking in the wind. Waiting for something to happen. She has lost, or perceives she has lost (and looks for death on the horizon because she fears she has lost) the ability to make things occur. How useful youth was in the day to day creation of happenings. Now she has displaced the seasons, and the pleasant expanse of nothingness, a featureless backdrop, assimilates itself to her emotionless countenance, as she welcomes the weather.
Her father’s house, in the Polish town. Its healthy walls, its strong bone structure. She found it easily, buried knee-deep in the liquid winter, and enquired of the locals as to whether anyone currently resided there. They regarded her, not more obliging than they were wary, with the heavy, knowing gaze of people carrying the burden of the past – both pervasive and private. Her accent was rusty, the native tongue had long since been liberated – a stray cut loose from its derelict cultural confinement. She spoke in dislocated dialogue; the secure, prosaic language of dinner parties and familial get-togethers. Of pleasantries exchanged between well-wishing strangers. Broken German from an elementary text-book. How she hated the sluggish tongue, the barren vowels that tripped reluctantly from the lips, imprisoned by the teeth. The English language seemed a positive ballad of elegant syllables. She had wished never to hear these sunken verbs again. She had tried to forget it all, but they spoke with a dramatic flourish, demanding that she remember, their tone didactic and intense with purpose. Those primitive villagers, deeply set in their archaic ways, the spit in the palm. Such old gestures seem a blessing on unimaginative bones, bones of gypsy ancestry; wrapped in incense and adorned with elaborate jewelry. She briefly caught the delicate, sickly scent of patchouli and lavender, an odor that seeped from their pores, traveled on the breath and suggested unrelenting hardship and wisdom and infinite strength.
In her paper entitled "Euthanasia," Phillipa Foot notes that euthanasia should be thought of as "inducing or otherwise opting for death for the sake of the one who is to die" (MI, 8). In Moral Matters, Jan Narveson argues, successfully I think, that given moral grounds for suicide, voluntary euthanasia is morally acceptable (at least, in principle). Daniel Callahan, on the other hand, in his "When Self-Determination Runs Amok," counters that the traditional pro-(active) euthanasia arguments concerning self-determination, the distinction between killing and allowing to die, and the skepticism about harmful consequences for society, are flawed. I do not think Callahan's reasoning establishes that euthanasia is indeed morally wrong and legally impossible, and I will attempt to show that.
• AW’s work is deeply rooted in oral tradition; in the passing on of stories from generation to generation in the language of the people. To AW the language had a great importance. She uses the “Slave language”, which by others is seen as “not correct language”, but this is because of the effect she wants the reader to understand.
Globally an estimated one million deaths every year are a result of suicide, which is more than all wars, conflicts, terrorist attacks and homicides combined annually. Over the past century studies have revealed that suicides occur in almost all societies and cultures (Khan and Mian, 2010). Therefore there exists a profound need for understanding this complex phenomenon and the challenging ethical issues for individuals, health care providers, governments and society. For centuries there have been philosophical debates on the act of suicide with no clear answers, due to the complexity of the topic. Mental health care professionals, especially mental health nurses, directly caring for suicidal patients should be aware of their own beliefs as well as the legal and ethical issues associated with caring for suicidal patients. Mental health nurses are encouraged to understand their own and other nurses’ attitudes and responses to suicide. There are two relevant ethical viewpoints regarding suicide: the moralistic and the libertarian perspective.
The basic concept of insurance is the transfer of risk from one entity to another through certain conditions. Health insurance is no different, only the entities mentioned are consumer or the patient and the insurance company. In the health insurance concept, a premium is paid by the individual to the company for a year and the insurance company has to pay for the cost of healthcare for that individual. Hence the risk for the consumer is transferred to the insurance company.
The objective of this paper is to explore the relation between death anxiety and individual’s self-esteem. “Death Anxiety” and “Self-Esteem” will be the main variables of the research. Death anxiety can be defined as the realization of inescapability of death, which leads many people to experiencing deep sense of terror (Harmon-Jones et al., 1997). Humans are unique due to their ability to learn and adapt to live with an understanding of their mortality. It is a task for the cultural systems to symbolize death and provide a meaning for its occurrence, furthermore to interpret its superiority over human life (Becker, 1973). Death anxiety is a multidimensional concept, which revolves around fear and anxiety related to the reality of dying and expecting it to happen. This fear might be based on various emotional, cognitive and motivational components that depend on the development stage and sociocultural life events (Letho, 2009). Second concept in this research - “Self-Esteem” is defined as confidence and satisfaction in oneself, self-respect” (Merriam-Webster). In this research self-esteem will be viewed from two sides: Intrinsic and Extrinsic, since individual’s self-esteem consistency depends on both – internal and external factors as it is specified in Contingencies of Self–Worth Scale. In this case, measurements were conveyed through an analysis of internal and external sources of self-esteem, which are: approval of others, physical appearance, dominating over others in competition, academic competence, family love and support, being a virtuous or moral person, and God’s love (Crocker et al., 2003).
The more a question is argued the better that question becomes it is often said. That question begins to grow and the side effect of this is the more people it reaches. Whether that question can be put into a category of right or wrong it begs to be answered. Knowledge is something that people instinctively need to function when faced with a problem, an answer must be found or it begins to form eminent possibility in any direction. The problem is a question that no one can truly answer for anyone other than the person faced with it, which is one's own self. The arguments from either side of this philosophical problem must not be centered around one's own belief but all that share the dilemma, which is in fact every human being. Suicide, that is the one thing that every person who is physically capable has the ability to do. The philosophical question of suicide is truly a serious one, so serious in fact that some have proclaimed it to be the only question. To live or to die, a choice that some hold so high as to say it is the only one problem any one person can face. This problem is one seen by many as a philosophical problem and that idea does hold ground. Grounds being that if one dies then the other questions do not really matter in life, as with the invert of this to live. When one is alive all philosophical question matter every second that one is breathing but can be all can be ended with one act. So if life is the beginning of all the problems, then suicide is the ending to every problem. With such a serious question many will have very enlighten and fictitious answers on the philosophical problem of suicide. The philosophical problem of suicide will have supporters and opponents and those people have adequate support...
In a time where science and materialism reign, the topic of the soul is rarely mentioned, ostensibly left in the past with the philosophers of old. Nichols, however, candidly broaches this difficult topic and gives new life to the argument that humans do indeed have an immaterial, immortal soul. Nichols summarizes several popular arguments for the existence of the soul as he builds his own argument, which discusses a soul as limited in relation to its environment as well as a soul that is one with the mind and a controller of the body. He discusses both the strengths and challenges to his argument, offering rebuttals to the challenges. Because this soul is the organizing principle of the body it is involved in the Resurrection as well, bridging the gap between the material and spiritual worlds. However, I disagree with Nichols’ assessment, instead choosing the side of materialism where an immaterial soul does not exist.
I have known many adolescents who have thought about suicide. People’s reasons for suicide just cannot be legit in most cases. Some reasons are: “my girlfriend broke up with me” or “people make fun of me” or how about “I don’t have any friends?” Whatever the reason for the thought of suicide, there isn’t a valid one, unless we are dealing in euthanasia.
This philosophical study will define the good aspects of death that is revealed through the monotony of life over extended periods of time. In my view, death is a good thing because the concept of “self” presumes that I will remain unchanged if I was to live as an immortal. over time, the concept of I would become stagnant, and i would soon wish to kill myself out of boredom. Bernard Williams is an important premise for this belief, since the assumption of immortality usually rests on the assumption of maintaining the “self” over long periods of time. I do not believe that this motive is substantial in the desire to love forever, which would make death a good thing in terms
Emile Durkheim, is the founder of sociology who conceived many theories, in the concept of suicide and its relationship with society. Durkheim’s book “Suicide” makes a distinction between suicide and suicide rate in relation with society. Durkheim conducted his research in a longitudinal study from various countries. He studied the suicide number and compared the mortality rate of different regions. His case study of suicide, explored the differences of suicide rates between social, economic and religious groups. He found people felt intertwine of social surrounding of social factors that produce suicide and, different social classes emerged from the discovery.
Suicide is a preventable, yet a very serious public health problem. In 2009, more deaths resulted from suicide than from car accidents in the United States. Citation here! In the past, suicide prevention has been more geared towards youths and adolescents. However, recent research has shown an increase in suicide of middle-aged adults and this increase places suicide at the fourth leading cause of death among this age group. Citation here Little is known about midlife suicides, so with that in mind, direct practice workers need an understanding in how to address the needs and concerns of the middle-age group, so that suicide can be prevented.
Many live due to the fear of death, many die due to the fear of living. Suicide is the act of ending one’s own life as a result of emotional and spiritual problems. Suicide, to some, is seen as a permanent escape. The Church itself argues against suicide. Life is borrowed and is not for one to just give away, God is the only one who can judge life. Suicide should not be committed because it infringes our relationship with others and ultimately God. Suicide is a selfish act all on its own.
I was very excited to take Death and Dying as a college level course. Firstly, because I have always had a huge interest in death, but it coincides with a fear surrounding it. I love the opportunity to write this paper because I can delve into my own experiences and beliefs around death and dying and perhaps really establish a clear personal perspective and how I can relate to others in a professional setting.
When most think about death and the after life they suddenly become shaken. Is death painful? Is it scary? Is there like after death? Are we truly at peace? What happens to our soul? Those who believe that God is our creator they seem to be less frightened about the idea of death. Socrates on the other hand was never once frightened about the idea of death.
Industrialization was an important change that happened to the world starting form the nineteenth century. The industrial revolution started in Britain when they discovered coal and how to use its ability to produce heat and use that to fuel steam machines in the nineteenth century. According to Robert Mark, there are many factors that contributed to the Industrial Revolution such as, cotton textiles and the British need for coal. The industrialization had affected the way the world work in more than one aspect. It had affected labor, trade, and military environments. I will be exploring each of these environments in this essay and determine how