The Ku Klux Klan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Ku Klux Klan - Essay Example Much of their activities included horse riding during the night while wearing costumes such as masks. As these innocent night expeditions continued, the society, especially former slaves, begun exhibiting fear since they did not know the real intentions of the group, which they thought was out to cause trouble for them (Parsons 814). Young people enjoy being in control and this has been noted as one of the major motivation factors behind gang formation and membership. It is therefore not a wonder to find that after realizing the effects they were having on the surrounding community, the group begun recruiting more people and expanding their territories to the neighboring towns thereby leading to the emergence of numerous factions, which did not have an agenda or any formal leadership to promote a unified course. The lack of leadership and direction especially after the expansion of the group necessitated the group members to come up with a strategy to exercise control over the operat ions of the group so as to facilitate harmony, which was necessary in strengthening the organization. As a result, a meeting was called in 1867, in which General Nathan Bedford Forrest was appointed as the commander (Parsons 817). Bedford was a former confederate soldier, who had a lot of experience owing to his involvement in the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. Although he never had formal military training, Bedford had natural talent in war planning and this impressed his superiors as well as his colleagues, and soon he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was given the role of training and recruiting new soldiers into the army. This means that with him on the helm, KKK was bound to reach great heights to become one of the most influential in the American society. Other members were elected as leaders of smaller groups in order to establish a chain of command similar to that of the army and which was to facilitate discipline and unity among the different factio ns (Artoletti 22). The American Civil War ended in 1865 and paved way for the reconstruction era. Among the policies, which were to be adopted in order to facilitate reconstruction of the country was to promote the rights of black people and former slaves by allowing them to vote and vie for various political offices (McVeigh 16). They were also to be allowed to compete with the white Americans in the job market. In general, all Americans were to be accorded equal rights and privileges irrespective of their color, ethnicity or religion. However, majority of the whites did not take this positively as they felt that this would have created a lot of competition for resources and job opportunities, which were scarce especially within localities where the Ku Klux Klan operated. KKK members were not happy with this and as a result, members started becoming suspicious towards the non-whites, whom they perceived as inferior. Indeed, KKK started approaching the blacks trying to convince them to give up their quest for political offices because they were better off living as second class citizens and that they stood to benefit more if they agreed to remain as slaves, which did not bear any fruits (McVeigh 21). Instead, the blacks continued to demand their rights through activism. A widespread hatred towards the blacks and former slaves especially in the south boosted the membership of KKK as it provided an informal avenue for the

Chalice Wine Essay Example for Free

Chalice Wine Essay Chalice Wine Group is a publicly traded company that, through numerous partnerships, owns and/or operates a number of vineyards and wine manufacturing companies in California’s Sonoma valley. Previously, they enjoyed a time of profitability. Yet in recent years, expansion has saw a decrease in their level of profitability, followed by a repeating period of net income losses. The goal of the case is to determine whether the operation of a small winery can be a profitable venture. Upon reading the Chalice Wine Case, the primary issue that I have identified, is that the management of the company has not crafted a clear and identifiable mission. †¢As currently structured, Chalice Wine Group is attempting to be a â€Å"vertically† integrated company. In this they are attempting to accomplish ever step in the wine business. They are making their own grapes, processing their own grapes, bottling, and lastly shipping them to various distribution outlets. This is fine, as long as they are able to create an extremely efficient model to do so. But unfortunately, as their results indicate, they are not efficient enough to make this current model work. There are a number of possible avenues that Chalice Wine Group needs to explore, among those are: -Why are they paying a price for grapes(from themselves! ) that is so in excess of the market rate? There are currently some transfer issues in place, management needs to explore these costs. -Pressing and manufacturing of the wine: The costs of the machinery involved, is extremely expensive. What is Chalice doing with their equipment during the time periods in which there is no production? How are they utilizing this excess capacity? They can either outsource this to another company, or utilize this capacity to process wine for others. -Shipping and distribution: Why are they handling this process themselves? This is easily something that should be handled outside. †¢Secondly, they wish to be a niche wine provider, by manufacturing a high quality, high cost product. The problem is that this statement essentially contradicts their company’s vertical structure. This is illustrated through examination of some of their shipping/bottling practices and part of their distribution chain. -They do not package and bottle their products according to the same quality standards. For example, they are using different quality bottles and boxes for different products. In this eyes of the consumer, this can be inferred as different levels of wine quality. -Next, the desire to be a small niche provider is a direct contradiction to the thought of distribution through food markets. This alone can allow the consumer to infer a mass marketed, broadly distributed product of lower quality. If they want to be a niche provider, they need to market and distribute themselves as such. Chalice Wine Group needs to decide what kind of company they want to be, and as such, needs to structure themselves in a way that will help best meet that mission and goal in the most efficient manner possible.

Critical perspectives on management and leadership

Critical perspectives on management and leadership There is a difference between what theorists believe managers should do, what managers believe they should do and what managers actually end up doing (Grint, 1995). Applying critical theory to determine what is what and who has what. Critical Theory The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory is the longest and most famous traditions of Marxism. This tradition is often referred as critical theory- meaning a special kind of social philosophy from its inception in 1923 by Felix Weil (Seiler, 2004). The critical theory of society of the Frankfurt School continues to excite interest and controversy (Kellner, 2001). A theory is critical to the extent that it seeks human emancipation, to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them. A number of critical theories have emerged in connection with the many social movements that identify varied dimension of the domination of human beings in modern societies (Gutting, 2003). Thus, the term critical theory was used as the symbol of a philosophy which questions the effective order of political and social modernity through an order of immanent critique. It was mainly an attempt to regain a critical potential that had been overrun by recent intellectual, social, cultural, economic and technological trends. The term Critical theory has its origins in the 20th century Frankfurt School, and now is associated with scholars across a range of disciplines.   Its purpose of inquiry is to confront injustices in society (Clark, 2004).   Critical Theory has been deeply concerned with the fate of modernity, and has offered systematic and comprehensive theories of the trajectory of modernity. Critical theory began by putting Marxian political economy at the centre of analysis, and early critical theory was materialist and committed to socialism (Gingrich, 2000).   Critical theory has generally been committed to the idea of modernity and progress, while at the same time noting the ways that features of modernity can create problems for individuals and society (Kellner, 2000). This is much reflected on the 21st century, though there is progress in many things, but still issues like globalisation tends to pose important problems for the society.   According to Heilman (1998), being critical involves understanding the sets of historically contingent circumstances and contradictory power relationships that create the conditions in which we live.   Theory helps us to organize the world, to sort out the details, to make some coherent sense out of a kaleidoscope of sensations (Ayers, 1992). When theory is theorized, as stated by Heilman (1998), the imperatives of practice bring the theory down to the ground.   Phenomena are observed and experienced; this experience informs theory; and then the theory is further modified as a result of additional practice.   Rather like fiction writing, critical theorizing is a process of imagining and describing a non-real but possible world.   The critical theorists have deeply influenced contemporary social theory, communication theories, cultural theory and many more for a number of decades.   According to Clark (2004), Critical theorists are committed to understand the relationship between societal structures (such as economic and political) and ideological patterns of thought that constrain the human imagination and thus limit opportunities for confronting and changing unjust social systems.   Critical theorists emphasise that theory and research must serve emancipator interests, to create a world that satisfies the needs and powers of social actors (Sanghera, 2004).   According to critical theory, people are dominated by a false consciousness created and perpetuated by capitalism in order to preserve the hegemony of those in power (Meyer-Emerick, 2004).   Due to this cause, one can assume that it prevents people from freely pursuing their own interests.   This dissent is only dismissed if people begin to see the contradictions between the social construction of the world and their lived experience.   Critical Management Studies Critical management studies also known as CMS which is the known as the term that describes the a diverse group of people that has adopted the critical or questioning approaches to management, this term emerged of recent years. The report outline The above statement sets the mood for this report, as the report will be looking at how the critical management theory of yesterday applies to the modern western approaches of management today.   Another key aspect will be on trying to articulate the connections between the management perspectives of contemporary society in the critical theory.   The focus will be on Karl Marx and Michael Foucault as critical theorists and how their perspectives affect the management and leadership in today modern western era. Marx argued that capitalism, like previous socioeconomic systems, would inevitably produce internal tensions which will lead to its destruction. Just as capitalism replaced feudalism, he believed socialism would, in its turn, replace capitalism, and lead to a stateless, classless society called pure communism; Marx economic relationship between managers and the workers. Whilst Foucault argued that patterns in disciplinary behaviour found in management practices. management and leadership Scientific management Scientific management (Taylor System) also known as Taylorism is a theory of management that analysis and manufactures workflows to improve employee (labour) productivity. The idea was developed by a Frederick Winslow Taylor between 1880 and 1890, and it was the first published monograph (written documents). Frederick Taylor believed that decisions based upon tradition and the rules of the thumb should be replaced by accurate procedures that are developed after a study of an individual at work. This means that there is a high level of managerial control over employee work practices. Scientific management is a distinction on the theme of efficiency; it developed in the 19th and 20th century were instance of large recurring theme in the human life of increasing efficiency, decreasing waste and using experiential methods to dictate what matters rather than accepting pre-existing ideas of what matters. Management today is the greatest use of scientific management is a form to contrast a new and improved way of doing business. Leadership Leadership is having the ability to give guidance to those that will follow. Those that follow will help to complete the mission. It is an immature science and the body of knowledge in the field has developed through a series of fits and starts. Leadership is a soft science, just as anthropology, sociology and psychology. It can not be proven exactly what it is. Leadership is an art; the skilful application of leadership behaviours beyond techniques is much the same as the skilful application of brushstrokes by a master painter. Leadership is both rational and emotional. It involves both sides of human experience. It includes actions and influences based on reason and logic as well those based on inspiration and passion. Leadership is a social process shared among all members of a group. (Yolk, 2002) Leadership also involves in political activity as in power activity; conversely, it is much more like transformational leadership. Political processes involve efforts by members of the organization to increase their power or protect existing power sources (Pfeiffer, 1981). Although the ultimate source of political power is usually authority, control over resources, or control over information, political power involves influence processes that transform and magnify the initial basis of power in unique ways Karl Marx A Marxists thought is based on this lifestyle, a science of logic called Dialectics. Thus, Marxism is both a theory and a practice. The theories of Marxism are based on a scientific method of thought called dialectal materialism.   Theory is based on a particular set of conditions that are always finite, and thus, any theory is necessarily limited. To test the validity of theory, Marxists rely on empirical evidence as the criteria of truth (Basgen, 2005). Marxism embraces modernity and Marxists argue that one of the main problems is that capitalism puts fetters on the progressive forces. The forces of capitalism are viewed as progressive in sweeping away the traditional, religious, backward, and feudal forms of society, spreading industrialisation and urbanisation across societies (Moody, 2003). Michel Foucault His studies challenged the influence of German political philosopher Karl Marx and Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Foucault offered new concepts that challenged peoples assumptions about prisons, the police, insurance, care of the mentally ill, gay rights, and welfare (Ron, 2000). The main influences on Foucaults thought were German philosophers Frederick Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger.   The connect.net website, describe Foucaults thought as explored the shifting patterns of power within a society and the ways in which power relates to the self. He investigated the changing rules governing the kind of claims that could be taken seriously as true or false at different times in history. critical analysis Marx critique of capitalisms Capitalism is the system that upholds the relationship between the owners of the means of production and workers. The former comprise the bourgeois class and the latter the proletariat Marxs critique of capitalism was that while this system had incredible power and potential to transform human society positively, in actual fact it resulted in exploitation and ultimately limited the possibility for further improvement (Powell, 2001). Moody (2003), describe this environment as workers were emancipated from traditional limits but became slaves of the new factory system, monopolisation resulted in limits on trade and further progress, and the state acted in the interests of the bourgeoisie rather than society as a whole. Commodity Fetishism Labour Power To be clear about is what the capitalist has bought. The worker has sold not his labour but his ability to work. This Marx calls his labour power. Also, as Marx defines, labour power is the abstraction of human labour into something that can be exchanged for money. In addition, capitalism can purchases labour power as a commodity. In other words, Labour power is a commodity governed by the same laws as other commodities. Its value is determined by the labour-time necessary for its production. Labour power is the ability of the worker to work. It is consumed by the capitalist in the actual labour-process. (R.Sewell and A.Woods) Marx explains, I use the term labour power or capacity for labour, to denote the aggregate of those bodily and mental capabilities existing in a human being, which he exercises whenever he produces a use-value of any kindà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The value of labour power, like that of every other commodity, is determined by the labour time necessary for the production, and consequently for the reproduction as well, of this specific article as well. Capitalism Power As Campbell (1981:34) describes, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦as in slavery, where the producers themselves are owned by the slavery owners; in feudalism where the land is owned by the landlords; or in capitalism where machinery and factories (capital) are owned by capitalists. In capitalism, the machineries and factories is not the only thing owned by capitalists (or factory owners), also labours. For example, in a car making factory, all the machineries are fixed assets to the factory owner, machineries can not make profit for the factory owner if no one operates them, and so labourers who operate machineries are the main assets to the factory owners. In addition, labour power is a commodity (which is bought and sold on the labour market), (The Marxist critique of capitalism) because it has an exchange value. As Campbell (1981: 38) says all commodities labour power has an exchange value, its price (the wage), yet again like all commodities, it also has use value to the purchaser. The purchaser here is any capitalism or any factory owners. It continues one purchased, like any commodityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Labour power is owned therefore, like a machine, and is put to work (Campbell 1981:38) As the labour power is a commodity, so once it is purchases by factory owner, the owner has the power to either use it or exchange it to others. Also, in capitalism, once the owner purchases new labour power, he has the rights to make decision on how much he will pay to his new labourers, and how long the new labourers will work every week; also he can fire any of the labourers in his factory any time if he feels not satisfied with them. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ in a capitalist economy the vast majority of people have only their labour power to sell in order to gain income with which to purchase food, clothing, housing and other goods and services. The means of production are owned by the capitalist class and if they are unwilling to hire labour, or wish to reduce the numbers of workers they employ, this puts workers prosperity immediately at risk (Campbell 1981:111) Marxs argument was against capitalism, which he referred to as a stage at which every society must go through that can bring about the seed of its own destruction. He indicated that human essence was labour and physical effort needed in the production of the means of subsistence. Hence, some forms of production are needed for survival. The suggestion being that it is acceptable for oneself but not for others because some individuals may have all factors of production (capital, entrepreneurship, labour and land), while others may have nothing but just their own labour, which eventually will result in uneven distribution of wealth and income. Additionally, Marx argued that capitalism deprives the labour force of their creative fulfilment, and since they are portrayed to be the already planned part of the production process, they are unable to achieve self-actualisation. Exploitation and Alienation For Marx, this alienation works as a process, but it can be broken up into 3 different aspects for analysis. The first aspect of alienation under analysis is how workers are alienated from the product they produce. Under capitalism, the object the workers produce is surrendered for the wages they receive. The workers then loose any relation to the object they are producing because they are handing it over. This is of course is different from the system of self-sufficiency, where the workers have a much more direct relationship with the object that they produce. As the workers become more independent of their product, they transfer power to the employer. As mentioned with Marxs critique on the political economy, the more objects the worker produces, then the more power the employer possesses which will lead to a greater weakness to the workers. Therefore under this system, the workers are only competing to be exploited. This is a form of alienation, because the object that the worker produces becomes an alien entity to him, independent of his control and ultimately controls the worker. Another aspect of alienation that Marx examines is how the self becomes another alien entity to the worker. Under the mode of capitalism, the working conditions are established by the capitalists and not by the workers themselves. These conditions are established along the grounds of the capitalists drive for profits, rather than the workers need for self-fulfilment. Marx felt that self-fulfilment was a major aim of a person, and felt that under the system of capitalism, where your working conditions are created by your employer, it was impossible for the worker to gain this self-fulfilment. He also felt that the capitalist employers were victims of this problem too because if they didnt drive for profits, then they would be put out of business. The labour itself is described by Marx as exterior to the worker, that is, it does not belong to his essence. Therefore he does not confirm himself in his work, he denies himself, feels miserable instead of happy, deploys no free physical and intellectual energy, but mortifies his body and ruins his mind (David McLellan 2000). Explain Marxs articulation of exploitation. The practice of mistreat of workers in an environment that is deliberately designed to maintain it, i.e. capitalism, Marxs conforming the workers alienated by/owners of the means of production to gain profits at the expense of the workers (e.g. managers forcing employees to undertake tasks outside their job description in order to cut costs and maximise profits) because people are alienated they conform to the demands of their employers in order to keep jobs safe. Foucault disciplinary Power Moves away from the economics of Marx. Looks at power and reconceptualises it. Management as a representation of power relations in society. Specific rules maintain, regulate and institutionalize practices in a work environment (office, factory, school, etc), Power- Disciplinary power the panopticon as a illustration of society, the middle tower is all seeing yet prisoners always obey without knowing for certain whether they are being monitored, by whom or by how many. The result is the creation of self-regulating, obedient and disciplined prisoners (at least in theory). Relate this form of disciplinary power to management. Power as the central driving force in a society within a group of people in a working environment. Manager doesnt create a system the manager merely plays along with the rules, thus maintaining the relations of dominance and dominated. Critical Analysis on Leadership Over the influence process of leadership, it needs power. (Northhouse, 2007). Leaders are usually described as wielders of power in the discussion of leadership because they are individuals who dominate others. Power is the capacity or potential to influence another party (Mint berg, 1983; Pfeiffer, 1981, 1992). It is talked as the basis of leadership according to many political theorists like Machiavelli through academic political scientists such as Marx in the twentieth century. People have power when they have the ability to affect others beliefs, attitudes, and courses of action. Ministers, teachers, doctors, and coaches are examples of individuals using power to effect change in people. In commercial, there are two major types of power, position power and personal power (Bass, 1960; Etienne, 1991): Position power refers the power a person derives from a particular rank in a formal organization system, for example, department heads have more power than clerical staff in position. It includes potential influence derived from legitimate authority, control over resources and rewards, control over punishments, control over information, and control over the physical work environment.   Personal power refers the power a leader derives from followers. It includes potential influence derived from task expertise and potential influence based on friendship and loyalty. Followers give leaders power when leaders act in ways that are important to them. Power is also inherent in a persons position in the organization. (Bass, 1960; Etienne, 1991) According to Northhouse (2007) the current dominant leadership paradigm is the transformation approaches which is a process that changes and transforms people. The elements at the heart of transformational leadership are: idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration. Critical Analysis on Scientific management The Marxist theory of capital sees labour as a cost of production resulting in the alienation of workers as the need for labour surfaces from the physical needs defined by the fundamental relationship between humans and their physical environment (Hatch, 1997, p.27).   Taylors ideas on scientific management (1990) have similar economic themes to Marx and Adam Smith.   By viewing management as a science, he broke down the managerial problem into stages of research, definition, analysis and implementation.   His principles were inherently based on the assumption that people put in as little effort as possible into their work and were soldiering on in order to earn money.   This shifted all the responsibility from the worker to the manager and scientific methods were used to determine the most efficient way of working.   After selecting the best person capable of performing the task, they were trained to work efficiently and their performance was strictly monitored.   In hin dsight, though this may have appeared to be a good generic strategy for the success of a firm, it heavily depended on whether the optimal method of producing could be found and whether or not the strategy was implemented correctly.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   conclusion

Nettles For Food and Medicine :: Botany

Nettles For Food and Medicine Despite its nondescript appearance, the stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) has a knack for grabbing the attention of anyone passing by. Unfortunately, most people never notice nettles until they are viciously attacked with sharp, hot, itching stings. Consequently, most people familiar with nettles regard them as pesky and undesirable weeds. Few people today realize that nettles may actually be counted among nature's most useful plants. As is frequently the case with common names, the term nettle is often used for plants that aren't nettles at all. In the Midwest, the plant known as Red Dead-Nettle is actually a member of the Mint Family and the Horse Nettle (which is poisonous) is actually a Nightshade (Seymour, 1997). The true nettles belong to the Urticaceae, also known as the Nettle Family. The Nettle Family is found worldwide and consists of about 45 genera and 700-1000 species. Most of the species are tropical and herbaceous (Walters and Keil, 1996). Urtica dioica, the plant most often called by the name Stinging Nettle, is a dioecious perennial plant that stands about one meter tall. It has simple, opposite, toothed leaves (5-10cm long) with persistent stipules and, most importantly, stinging trichomes. The radially symmetrical flowers are arranged in axillary panicles, completely lack petals, and have 4 sepals and 4 stamens. The fruits are small, oval achenes (1-2mm long). In addition to growing from seed, the plants are able to spread rhizomatously (Radford, Ahles and Bell, 1968). The Stinging Nettle is actually not nearly as common in the U.S. as the closely related Wood Nettle (Laportea canadensis). The Wood Nettle is often mistaken for the Stinging Nettle by most people because the Wood Nettle also has stinging hairs. Laportea canadensis is not as tall as Urtica dioica, has larger leaves (up to 20cm) and minute stipules. The staminate flowers have 5 sepals and 5 stamens and are found in axillary panicles. The pistillate flowers have only 4 sepals and are found in either terminal or axillary panicles. The achene is crescent-shaped (Radford, Ahles and Bell, 1968). The wood nettle grows well in rich forests and may be particularly abundant along hiking trails near streams. Hikers are frequently dismayed to discover that when such trails aren't carefully maintained, nettles quickly begin to arch dangerously over the paths. There are several other species from the Nettle Family in the United States, but only 4 of the genera represented, Urtica, Hesperocnide, Laportea, and Urera, have the characteristic stinging trichomes.

Morals of Euthanasia

Dena Furey Euthanasia March 8, 2013 Euthanasia Euthanasia is the act of purposely making or helping someone die, instead of allowing nature to take its course. Basically, euthanasia means killing in the name of compassion. Often surrounded by heated arguments from both those in favor of and those against the practice, human euthanasia spurs the most conflict within political circles, differing cultural and religious attitudes, and the health care system. I will be defending Tom L. Beauchamp’s theory that euthanasia is ethically moral and sometimes permissible.Beauchamp’s theory states that if voluntary passive euthanasia is sometimes permissible, then voluntary active euthanasia is sometimes permissible. Voluntary passive euthanasia is when a patient refuses treatment, such as a do not resuscitate (DNR) order. Voluntary active euthanasia is when a patient requests treatment, such a lethal dose. Beauchamp has a negative and positive thesis to his theory. They are: * Nega tive thesis-you cannot condemn physician assisted suicide by merely invoking the position of letting die and killing. Positive thesis-physician assisted suicide is permissible when you’re not only not doing any harm but also have a valid authorization from the patient. The first part of Beauchamp’s thesis deals with the distinction between letting die and killing. Opposers of Beauchamp’s thesis state that voluntary passive euthanasia (DNR) is permissible because you are letting the patient die, whereas voluntary active euthanasia (lethal dose) is killing the patient. Beauchamp thinks there is a problem with the definition of letting die and killing and that we need to make a clear distinction between them.Beauchamp presents a few ways we might be able to make that distinction. They are as follows: * Intentions-an act is a killing if and only if it is an intended death, you can foresee the consequences of your actions. Beauchamp presents a challenge to this. A DN R can be seen as an intended killing because the health care practitioner can foresee the consequences, and it could be interpreted as killing the patient if they do not revive him. Another example could be a drunken driving case. When a person drives drunk they do not intend to kill someone, is that now not considered a killing.So, Beauchamp thinks this definition of killing is wrong. * Wrongfulness-an act is a killing if and only if it is a wrongful death. Beauchamp presents a challenge to this. A DNR is considered not wrongful, but a lethal dose is wrongful, but going against a patient’s wishes could be considered wrongful in the lethal dose case. What is considered wrongful, that is what we are trying to answer. So, our conclusion is in our question, it makes a circular argument. Beauchamp thinks this definition of killing is wrong. Causation-an act is a killing if and only if an agent as opposed to an underlying condition causes death. Beauchamp offers an example to show the problem with the causal theory. A policeman is hurt in the line of duty and placed on life support. A mafia guy who wants the policemen dead comes in and pulls the plug, which in turn causes the policeman to die. In this case, what the mafia guy did was not wrong because the policeman died of natural causes. It was the underlying condition that caused the policeman’s death, not the mafia guy.Is this acceptable? One opponent to Beauchamp, Bernard Gert, says he wants to hold onto the causal theory. He thinks the mafia guy did wrong because he did not have a valid refusal of treatment from the policeman, such as a DNR. Beauchamp offers an answer to Gert showing how the causal theory is still a wrong definition of killing and letting die. It was not really the letting die of the policeman that was important to Gert; it was the refusal of valid authorization to pull the plug which made it a killing.So, if what Gert thinks is pivotal is what the patient wants, then why is a le thal dose request by the patient considered a killing and not a letting die. Beauchamp thinks the causal theory does not work. The conclusion to all these theories is that even if you can make a distinction between letting die and killing it still will not make a difference morally. The positive part of Beauchamp’s thesis states that physician assisted suicide is permissible when you’re not only not doing any harm but also have a valid authorization from the patient.Let’s establish what a valid authorization is. Beauchamp says a valid authorization is a request from someone with the authority to make a decision and it needs to be done freely and autonomous. I feel as though in the case of a lethal dose a little more needs to be added to the valid authorization. I think it should also include that the diagnosis given be terminal, the decision should not be made at the time of the diagnosis but after thinking everything over and it should be an enduring, voluntary , and competent informed decision, not co-erced in any way.The patient’s suffering should be unbearable, that there is no way of making that suffering bearable that is acceptable to the patient, and the physician’s judgments as to the diagnosis and prognosis were confirmed after consultation with another physician. Beauchamp’s position on the moral ethics of a lethal dose say that 1) we should abandon the letting die and killing distinction, 2) when it is wrong to cause death, what makes it wrong?. 3) The answer to that question is unjustified harm. For instance in the mafia example, the mafia guy did wrong because he did unjustified harm and did not act in the will of the patient.In conclusion, when voluntary active euthanasia would do no harm and there is a valid authorization, it is not wrong. There are, however, some well-known objections to human euthanasia. The oath a health care practitioner takes in one objection. I feel as though the oath needs to be ch anged to reflect modern society and medical practice. The world has changed since the oath was first written, as have ethical codes of conduct. Another objection is the slippery slope argument. People think that once the government steps in and starts killing its citizens, a dangerous precedent has been set.The concern is that a society that allows voluntary euthanasia will gradually change its attitudes to include non-voluntary euthanasia and involuntary euthanasia. Although this does present the need for more regulation and control of euthanasia, history has clearly demonstrated that any law or system can be abused. Also, what reason is there to believe that someone’s support for voluntary euthanasia be psychologically driven to practice non-voluntary euthanasia. Palliative care has been a favored alternative to euthanasia but thus still presents the issue of quality of life.When choosing palliative care over physician assisted suicide I think it would be important to ask w hether life will be enjoyed and not simply tolerable. To get the best palliative care requires trial and error with some suffering in the process. Even high quality palliative care comes with side effects such as nausea, loss of awareness because of drowsiness, and so on. Where voluntary euthanasia is not tolerated, giving large doses of opioids to relieve pain in the knowledge that this will also end life is tolerable.In situations where palliative care can only guarantee a life that is tolerable, I think euthanasia is a legitimate option. Opponents to euthanasia state that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person. Every person has these rights; however, if a person has the right to life, then they should have the right to die. Everyone should have the same control in choosing the way they die as they do in which they live. It is unfair to decide whether one should live with pain and agony, knowing full well that they have a terminal illness from which there is no known recovery.In the past, the doctor was a person who was a friend. Now a doctor is a stranger who combats diseases, but she is not always your friend. What will never change is their struggle against death. However, they’re job is not only to prevent death but to improve they’re patient’s quality of life. Many times there is nothing a doctor can do to prevent a patient from dying if the patient has a terminal disease; all she can do is wait for death to arrive. I think and believe that it is everyone’s right to determine the amount of suffering they can endure in their lifetime.It should not be up to fellow society members to decide what they must endure because of differing viewpoints on who is responsible for their life. I do not tell anyone how to live, so do not tell me how to die. Death could be a choice that you might not make, but a choice that someone else can have. Dena Furey Euthanasia March 8, 2013 Bibliography Page Beauchamp, Tom L. à ¢â‚¬Å"Justifying Physician-Assisted Suicide†, Ethics in Practice. 3rd ed. Ed. Hugh LaFollette. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. , 2007. 72-79. Print.

Global Variables in Ruby

Global Variables in Ruby Global Variables are variables that may be accessed from anywhere in the program regardless of scope. Theyre denoted by beginning with a $ (dollar sign) character. However, the use of global variables is often considered un-Ruby, and you will rarely see them. Defining Global Variables Global variables are defined and used like any other variable. To define them, simply assign a value to them and begin using them. But, as their name suggests, assigning to global variables from any point in the program has global implications. The following program demonstrates this. The method will modify a global variable, and that will affect how the second method runs. $speed 10 def accelerate $speed 100 end def pass_speed_trap if $speed 65 # Give the program a speeding ticket end end accelerate pass_speed_trap Unpopular So why is this un-Ruby and why dont you see global variables very often? Put simply, it breaks encapsulation. If any one class or method can modify the state of the global variables at will with no interface layer, any other classes or methods that rely on that global variable may behave in an unexpected and undesirable manner. Further, such interactions can be very difficult to debug. What modified that global variable and when? Youll be looking through quite a lot of code to find what did it, and that could have been avoided by not breaking the rules of encapsulation. But thats not to say that global variables are never used in Ruby. There are a number of special global variables with single-character names (a-la Perl) that can be used throughout your program. They represent the state of the program itself, and do things like modify the record and field separators for all gets methods. Global Variables $0 - This variable, denoted by $0 (thats a zero), holds the name of the top-level script being executed. In other words, the script file that was run from the command line, not the script file that holds the currently executing code. So, if script1.rb was run from the command line, it would hold script1.rb. If this script requires script2.rb, $0 in that script file would also be script1.rb. The name $0 mirrors the naming convention used in UNIX shell scripting for the same purpose.$* - The command-line arguments in an array denoted by $* (dollar sign and asterisk). For example, if you were to run ./script.rb arg1 arg2, then $* would be equivalent to %w{ arg1 arg2 }. This is equivalent to the special ARGV array and has a less descriptive name, so it is rarely used.$$ - The interpreters process ID, denoted by $$ (two dollar signs). Knowing ones own process ID is often useful in daemon programs (which run in the background, unattached from any terminal) or system services. However, this gets a bit more complicated when threads are involved, so be wary of using it blindly. $/ and $\ - These are the input and output record separators. When you read objects using gets and print them using puts, it uses these to know when a complete record has been read, or what to print between multiple records. By default, these should be the newline character. But since these affect the behavior of all IO objects, theyre rarely used, if at all. You may see them in smaller scripts where breaking the encapsulation rules is not an issue.$? - The exit status of the last child process executed. Of all the variables listed here, this is probably the most useful. The reason for this is simple: you cant get the exit status of child processes by their return value from the system method, only true or false. If you must know the actual return value of the child process, you need to use this special global variable. Again, the name of this variable is taken from the UNIX shells.$_ - The last string read by gets. This variable may be a point of confusion for those coming to Ruby f rom Perl. In Perl, the $_ variable means something similar, but totally different. In Perl, $_ holds the value of the last statement and in Ruby it holds the string returned by the previous gets invocation. Their usage is similar, but what they really hold is very different. You dont often see this variable either (come to think of it, you rarely see any of these variables), but you may see them in very short Ruby programs that process text. In short, youll rarely see global variables. Theyre often bad form (and un-Ruby) and only really useful in very small scripts, where the full implication of their use can be fully appreciated. There are a few special global variables that can be used, but for the most part, they arent used. You dont really need to know all that much about global variables to understand most Ruby programs, but you should at least know that theyre there.