OCR Text |
Show MONDAY • FEBRUARY 27 • 2006 WWW.NETXNEWS.NET A6 1 -. . ^ ; . - , t : - - 'ijjt ;> -:--•:-..:• •;- i v i . i \,,;\- :/:, . : ' A - ; v - > > •»••••• > , ; ^ > N ! v w o . - ' A Act of mercy or murder Dan Workman Opinions Writer Death with Dignity • Two-hundred and eight Oregonians died by doctor-assisted suicide during the first seven years tbe law was in ; effect, through 2004. They represent about one in 1,000 ; Oregon deaths; about 35 in 2005 ^ • The law states that, in order to participate, a patient must be: 1) 18 years of age or older, 2) a resident of Oregon, 3} capable of making and communicating health '; care decisions for him/herself, and 4) diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six (6) months. It is up to the attending physician to determine whether these criteria have been met. ' : : : : :• ? '•'A "Scrubs" is hands down my favorite show of all time. Along with being hilarious, it has a surprisingly high number of profound insights both into medicine and life in general. In the first season Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) tells a young intern that as doctors "Everything we do is...a stall." That is, after he rants about how modern medicine has allowed doctors to keep people alive much longer than they should have "naturally lived." How do we define "natural life?" It may have become a gray area. Through the miracles of modern medicine are we prolonging life past nature's expiration date? Could it be safely said that an elderly person who has undergone several life extending procedures is "naturally" past due? The Supreme Court recently approved the "Death with Dignity" act that will allow physicians to assist in the suicide of those who meet a certain criteria. The topic has obviously created quite a bit of debate. Those who appose the bill argue that it is simply a stepping stone to a much darker future. Apparently the term "Euthanasia" was used by the Nazi's to disguise genocide. I myself am not an advocate of suicide,' I don't really see much difference between taking one pill designed for death, or taking 100 designed for sleep. Does a prescription make itright?Are those who chose this route even concerned about morals? One could assume that they have at least some level of religious belief. After all, they must believe that death is a release from pain and that something better awaits. However, most of those same religions consider suicide murder a sin. The fact is, even if you consider suicide a vile sin, that shouldn't affect your feelings on this act. Whether or not you agree with someone ending their life doesn't change the fact that it is their decision. Right or wrong is irrelevant; they should still have the option. Why not let them have a great day with their loved ones, say their goodbyes and quietly drift away. Wouldn't some prefer to have their loved ones remember them as a coherent, bright eyed individual as opposed to someone who suffers from severe dementia (or worse) and fails to recognize people that they have spent their entire lives with? Waiting for your time, or choosing your day should be up to you. The fact that doctors will be able to facilitate the latter in a painless and peaceful manner seemsfineto me. Wlien the consequences of a choice affect ONLY the person who made it, the involvement of others seems unwarranted. Our ability to make decisions for ourselves is a basic human right. nlerpoi The proliferation of guns must be stopped... We must also stop glorifying the materialism that drives people to vio•Ience. The quill and the sword A bit of shooting takes your mind off your trouble— it makes* you forget^tjie cost of living. —Brendan Behan — Marian Edelman Idler/ lo Ihe editor Find a new topic Dear Kyle Flanagan, I need to open your eyes a little bit. Your letter to the editor in last week's paper was a good attempt at setting Ammon Van Orden straight on his article. But you fell short on more then one issue. First and foremost UVSC already is a great school. Yes, I admit that there is always room for improvement, and everyday UVSC makes large strides to becoming a better and better institute of higher education. But if your loyalties don't lie with this school, or you are not willing to help make it better, then maybe you should look elsewhere for your education. And on the idea of looking inward on our own campus for articles for the paper, I don't think you are telling the truth when you say you would be happier with seeing a hundred articles about Ronnie Price ridding the bench, because 1 know you would just be writing another article complaining about that too. But The College Times does put a lot of articles pertaining to campus activates into its paper. But are you suggesting that it never write about issues going on outside the campus walls? How would it be if all news papers only wrote about things going on in there own respective cities? And in case you have never read The Tiny Universe put out by BYU, you should know that 90% of their articles are pulled from the Associated Press. That is how they can put out a paper everyday. It would be ridicules for a college news paper to ignore what is happening in the surrounding community because it is apart of that community. And don't think that BYU isn't reporting on what we do and how we conduct ourselves. Brian Maier M LETTERS TO THE EDITOR * E-Mail letters to uvscopinions@hotmail.com * The NetXNews room is located on campus in SC220. * All letters become property of NetXNews and may be edited for content, specifically clarity, length or other concerns at the discretion of the Opinions Editor. * Letters between 50-250 words are encouraged and those letters marked by their succinctness are more likely to be published. * Letters must be accompanied by full name, address, and phone number for verification purposes (contact information will not be published). iting any of these symptoms I beg you to do what needs to be done. Guest Writer I would certainly do it for any of This is serious, very serious. It is you. Why is it okay to bring a repa time to be afraid, or maybe just lica sword or battle-ax to school? ashamed. A great evil is spreading Anyone who brought a machine across Happy Valley. Believe it or gun or pistol would be dismissed not, its dark hand can now be seen immediately, or sent directly to jail. befouling our fair campus. Why have All I know is that if I see any more the leaders of our school let this go of them, I will be forced to skewer unopposed? Why has the President them with their own wooden sword. done nothing? Why UVSC? Why I don't like it, but someone must do it, and I for one have never hesitatGod, why? They have already become en- ed to defend my community. After trenched at the "Y;" we cannot let all, "it is better that one [elf] perish, UVSC share the same awful fate. then a whole [college] dwindle in It is time to take a stand, time to [this absurdity]." It is really in their stop this horrible menace before it best interest as well as ours. spreads any further. In the last few In addition to the aforementioned weeks I have seen an ever-increas- measures, I propose that we create a ing number of "them" around cam- new school amendment banishing all pus. appearances of this evil. This would This insidious group is known as include all the infractions listed the "Quill and the Sword." They can above, as well as: books by Robert be recognized by a few characteris- Jordan and Christopher Paolini, all tics. They can frequently be seen fantasy computer games, Mystery carrying wooden swords, often hol- Science Theatre and any associated stered through the belt loop of their movie soundtracks. jeans. Many of the bolder ones have been known to wear latex elf ears to school. Their females often wear dresses from the freaking Middle Ages. They can also be recognized by the two primary physical effects of this dark plague. These symptoms include an unusually high occurrence of acne and increasingly bad vision, often necessitating the use of glasses. At great personal risk I have infiltrated their organization. My preliminary research has given me some ideas how this infection is spread. They will start by harmlessly asking you to play a game of "Magic" or "Dungeons and Dragons." Maybe they will invite you over to watch Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter. This is how it begins. My earlyfindingsalso indicate one single antidote. As you may have already guessed, ridicule is the only remedy. Constant, unrelenting ridicule is the only weapon we have to stop them. I urge you to action... today, while there is still time! What will the world think if we let this embarrassing blight remain on the fine veneer of our campus? As for me, if I begin exhib- Matt Wright Outsmart "badguys" JR Harper Guest Writer Advertisers have never been strict adherents to English grammar, and often intentionally misshape phrases to make them catchier. You may be familiar with Pepsi's recent slogan, "Drink Pepsi, Everyday," a spin-off from an older "Toyota, everyday" slogan. Everyday, as one word , is synonymous with commonplace or ordinary. There is a similar phenomenon in our campus halls. Military recruiters sit behind a booth which reads, "Linguists Wanted. Outsmart Badguys!," as do their t-shirts. Intentional misspellings such as these have had a lot of success for many reasons. The linguist Geoffrey Nunberg identifies the uproar over Winston cigarettes on release of the jingle, "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should." It should say "good as a cigarette should." 'Nitpicky? Maybe, but they received a lot of negative publicity. As any advertiser knows, all publicity is good publicity. Winston furthered the campaign with: "What do you want, good grammar or good taste?" matched by other companies with slogans such as "Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch." The outrage of pedantic linguists could then put the offense on the front page. What then is the military's intent? Might makes right? Are they trying to say they are so desperately in need of linguists that they can scarcely manage a legible ad? However, the recruiters don't even seem to grasp that "Badguys" should be two words. My comments were met with perplexity. But I can't believe it was an unintentional error at the top; the grammar was ultimately deliberate. It makes an interesting lesson for the college campus: English class teaches the rules of the English language, because only then can we break them. |