Unit 5 Section A
I. Background Knowledge
The applied ethical issue of euthanasia, or mercy killing, concerns whether it is morally permissible for a third party, such as a physician, to end the life of a terminally ill patient who is in inten pain.
w32dasmThe euthanasia controversy is part of a larger issue concerning the right to die. Staunch defenders of personal liberty argue that all of us are morally entitled to end our lives when we e fit. Thus, according to the people, suicide is in principle morally permissible.
For health care workers, the issue of the right to die is most prominent when a patient in their care (1) is terminally ill, (2) is in inten pain, and (3) voluntarily choos to end his life to escape prolonged suffering. In the cas, there are veral theoretical options open to the health care worker. First, the worker can ignore the patient's request and care can continue as usual. Second, the worker can discontinue providing life-sustaining treatment to the patient, and thus allow him to die more quickly. This option is called passive euthanasia
since it brings on death through nonintervention. Third, the health care worker can provide the patient with the means of taking his own life, such as a lethal do of a drug. This practice is called assisted suicide, since it is the patient, and not technically the health care worker, who administers the drug. Finally, the health care worker can take active measures to end the patient's life, such as by directly administering a lethal do of a drug. This practice is called active euthanasia since the health care worker's action is the direct cau of the patient's death. Active euthanasia is the most controversial of the four options and is currently illegal in the United States. However, veral right to die organizations are lobbying for the laws against active euthanasia to change voluntary euthanasia: When the person who is killed has requested to be killed. Non-voluntary: When the person who is killed made no request and gave no connt involuntary euthanasia:
When the person who is killed made an expresd wish to the contrary assisted suicide: Someone provides an individual with the information, guidance, and means to take his or her own life with the intention that they will be ud for this purpo. When it is a doctor w
ho helps another person to kill themlves it is called "physician assisted suicide."
俄国农奴制改革 Euthanasia By Action: Intentionally causing a person's death by performing an action such as by giving a lethal injection. Euthanasia By Omission: Intentionally causing death by not providing necessary and ordinary (usual and customary) care or food and water
See more about Euthanasia at: lc/euthanasia/index.html
II. Text Analysis
Main Idea and Devices for Developing It
1.Main Idea of the text 昆大丽
The story deals with a doctor’s view of a terminally ill grandmother as a terrible-looking lady with graceful hands from the outt but a considerate lady with graceful heart and mind in the end.
2.Devices for Developing
1>. Double Clues (双线索法)
There are two clues running through the whole passage, one being explicit and another implicit. The explicit clue is the time quence, along which the author organized her experience with the dying patient. (Refer to Explicit clue) The implicit clue is the author’s emotional experience, which unnoticeably leads the reader into her emotional world. (Refer to Implicit clue)
.Explicit clue --- Time quence
Explicit clue — As a major device ud in narrative, the order of time is employed in this text like a thread to string all the events together: from “I have never en Mrs. Clark before.” to “Two days later, I read about Mrs. Clark in the newspaper.” A fact to be noted is that the progression of time is shown not only with time markers, but also with some other means.
Sentences with time markers:
1) I have never en Mrs. Clark before, but I know that tonight she will die. (Para. 1)
2) As I stand there , the smell hits my no. (Para. 2)
3) When I am finished, I pull a chair up beside the bed to face her…(Para. 6)土地的誓言
4) Some unknown interval of time pass before her eyes open again, only this time there is no respon in them. (Para. 8)
5) Two days later, I read about Mrs. Clark in the newspaper. (Para. 9)
Sentences without time markers:
1)I reach for the light switch, …, I return to bed…(Para. 2)
基坑监测方案2)新车多久保养一次I reach for the long, thin fingers…(Para. 4)
3)I bend clo to her…I put my finger over the end of the straw…We repeat the procedure. (Para. 4)
4)I go about providing for her needs. …I turn her on her side. …I remove the lid …I rub cream into the yellow skin … I notice that …(Para. 5)
5)…her shallow breathing stops, …I begin to cry quietly. …still holding her hand, I become aware that …(Para. 8)
.Implicit clue
美国野鸡大学 Following this clue unconsciously, the reader ems to experience the same shock and change in emotion as the author did. As a result, Mrs. Clark, a dying patient with terrible appearance, changes from someone we as well as the author understand first to someone we admire and prai in the end. In fact, the change in the author’s emotion undergoes three steps. Implicit clue --- Emotional experience
•Step 1: Mrs. Clark is a total stranger.
•I’ve never en Mrs. Clark before. (L. 1)
•…, I return to the bed to obrve the patient with an unemotional, medical eye. (L. 7)
•Then, the objective narration and description in Paras. 3, 4 and 5.
带方的字•I reach for the long, thin fingers that are lying on the chest. (L. 14)
