Ethics-----Assisted Suicide Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Ethics-----Assisted Suicide - Essay Example Thus, the concept of assisted suicide when done with the purpose of hastening the inevitable where disease has already prepared the body for death should become a part of a the standard for care that is given to individuals who wish to avoid the pain of disease, the loss of mental facilities when dying, or to avoid the expense of an unnecessarily prolonged extension of a life that is already lost. The word suicide is defined as â€Å"the act of killing yourself† (Jeffers & Smith, 2007, p. 81). While this is a simple definition, it lacks the appropriate level of nuance in order to fully define the full reference to everything that it implies. Suicide is the act of taking one’s own life, but it is also an act that brings with it a series of cultural images that imply sin, socially adverse action, and culturally shameful action. In Western cultures, taking one’s own life is generally considered a sin and in the United States, it is an illegal act that has criminal consequences. This can be seen in the way that Cleave (2001) reflects her definition of suicide when she states that it is â€Å"the act of killing yourself, often while mentally unstable† (p, 146). This also becomes a part of the discussion in that it is assumed that in taking one’s life it is done under the influence of mental instability. Other terminology that can be used to describe the event of taking one’s life when placed in the position of having a disease that is going to take one’s life is to call the event voluntary euthanasia. This becomes a less volatile terminology that can be discussed on terms that do not suggest sin, mental instability, and can call into question policies of illegality. A definition of voluntary euthanasia is that it â€Å"takes place when a patient who is dying or who is in intolerable pain asks someone to help him or her to die to avoid any further suffering† (Cleave,

Entomology. insect. Sexual Selection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Entomology. insect. Sexual Selection - Essay Example The two point mandibles found in the male beetle are because of sexual selection. In the case of stag beetles, the males fight and the females choose the strongest. This ensures that the female choose and reproduce with males who posses their favourable characters. Sexual selection is only for male and that is why the male develop adaptive and non-adaptive features to attract the female. The male beetle genital morphology comprises of two outstanding and general models of morphological variation. This morphological variation includes swift evolutionary divergence both in shape and in complexity as well as poor relationship with body size as suggested by Simmons, Tomkins and Hunt (1999). The aspect of sexual selection causes these variations. Some of the variations are non-adaptive, for instance, the reduction of the scaling relationship between the genital size and the body size. The idea that evolution of new traits is followed by trade-offs is important in evolutionary studies. The weapons used by the male stag beetle in fighting can be physiologically expensive and are mostly trade offs with investment in other characters, like spermatogenic investment and wings. This investment into other weapons results in the evolution of mating strategies for the male beetles. For instance, the enlarged mandibles used for male-to-male competition. The male-male fight in sexua l selection accounts for the evolution of exaggerated traits used as weapons in male competition. The exaggerated characters can be responsible for the dispersal and ejaculatory strategies. The change of investment into other traits or weapons for competition can lead to evolutionary changes in life history characters. Since investment in exaggerated traits can cause trade-offs alongside other traits related to fitness, life history tactics are affected by evolution of sexually selected behaviour. During evolution, the males’ population