My Sisters Keeper Essay Example for Free

My Sisters Keeper Essay My Sister’s Keeper is a movie about a young girl named Anna (Abigail Breslin) whose life was brought to be for a very important purpose. She was born into a loving family with two adoring parents that made the decision to have another child in the hopes of saving the life of older their daughter that has leukemia. Throughout the entire movie the family and therefore the audience is presented with love, laughter and many emotional moral issues. Just like in real life there are many ups and downs and obstacles to be overcome. Some of moral dilemmas the characters face include stem cell research, at what age can children start making life changing decisions life for themselves and euthanasia to an extent. Wikipedia defines stem cell controversy as â€Å"the ethical debate primarily concerning the creation, treatment, and destruction of human embryos incident to research involving embryonic stem cells†1. In this movie the creation of the human embryo was done by the parents and done so in the natural way. Although created from love, the results were still the same. From the time Anna was born she had gone through numerous and painful surgeries. In my opinion the surgeries were justified lifesaving and miraculous surgeries that provided the entire family with memories they can all cherish after Kate’s- Anna’s older sister (Sofia Vassilleva) passing. However as Kate got older and developed her own voice additional and perhaps unseen problems emerged. She was screaming to be heard about how she felt about the decisions made about her life and was being ignored. So she decided that Anna was old enough and strong enough to fight for her rights regardless of her age. The subject of what age a children can start making life altering choices fall upon two of the characters in this movie. We, the audience are lead to believe that Anna whom is eleven has decided that’s enough is enough- as she exclaims to an attorney that she’s trying to hire â€Å"I want to sue my parents for the right to my own body.† As the attorney, played by Alec Baldin read her medical history we get the sense that this all has gone too far. Something that was meant to be miraculous has somehow turned into something almost tortious and something that no parent in their right mind would put their child through. So therein lies the main debate of the move, Is Anna old enough and wise enough to make decisions about her own life and body. However later we discover it isn’t Anna who is seeking her independents, it’s her sister Kate. At 15, Kate has also spent the majority of her life in and out of surgery, as well as watching her family hurt from the pain that she’s experiencing. So she’s the one who is struggling to be heard since her parents are the ones able to make medical decisions for her and her sister. Kate has convinced her little sister Anna to no longer agree to any more surgeries to help prolong her life. This to many, including her mother (Cameron Diaz) is a form of suicide. There is such a fine line separating suicide from not accepting medical assistants to save your life. After my own life experiences I would have to agree that Kate has the right to choose when her life ends. I could only imagine, as we all could ONLY imagine not having been in that situation. I don’t honestly believe one would know how they would react until in that position themselves. There seem to be countless things to consider when considering ending your life. Mainly I would think it would be the loved ones you’re leaving behind. They will be the ones left her to face the pain of losing the person they love. In this movie the person that seems to struggle the most with the idea of loss is the person that seemed to fight the hardest, Sara, the mother. Thankfully they offer a light at the end of the tunnel. Although Kate is no longer alive her spirit seems to live. There is a new found sparkle that develops in her families eyes after time is allowed to heal some of their wounds. Leading the audience to believe that perhaps there is a peace that is brought when the suffering ends. This movie was nothing less than an emotional rollercoaster that left my mind spinning with questions for myself many hours after watching it. Although many people in class that felt a lot of anger towards the mother in the film, again I go back to no one would really know what they’d do until in that position. She was faced with an issue and dealt with it the best and only way she knew how- her way. In my opinion morality and ethics seem to come down to a lot of judgments and theories on what we’d do if that situation happened to us. As I’ve gotten older and with what I’ve experienced I believe that besides myself I only have one person to answer to and that’s my Lord and Savior and on the day I have to answer for what I’ve done, I truly believe if it was done with Him in my heart then I’ll have given the right answers.

Geoffrey of Monmouths Life of Merlin Essay -- Geoffrey Monmouth Life

Geoffrey of Monmouth's Life of Merlin Geoffrey of Monmouth’s â€Å"Life of Merlin† is a text that makes its readers struggle with finding criteria for madness. What does it even mean to be â€Å"mad?† Madness seems to define a person only when he or she does something to stray from the normality of any given group of people. Breaking societal norms often leaves people open to criticism and suspicion. In order to be sane and mentally healthy, one has to abide by all explicit and implicit rules of society. â€Å"Life of Merlin† is about a man that abandons feudal society, and all of its rules, in hopes of finding a better place to live. A better place to live, for him, is one that is purely good. Violent and deceitful people are ultimately the factors that drive him away, causing him to be termed as â€Å"mad.† I argue that Merlin is a character with extreme extra worldly perception. Many would think extra worldly perception to be a privilege, but this essay serves to contradict the positive effects that extra worldly perception can have. I will show why he is perceptive, rather than mad, as well as explain why this type of perception can be detrimental to one’s life. When a person has too much perception he can often live in a world of fear and discontent, one that is only curable by the restructuring of an entire society. To begin, Merlin’s reasons for leaving feudal society are too logical to call him â€Å"mad.† One place where logic can be heard is where Merlin says, â€Å"Surely a malignant fate cannot have been so vindictive as to take from me all these my companions, men such that many a king and many a distant kingdom have stood in fear of them till now† (55). What Merlin is addressing is the fact that someone is to blame fo... ...s left with after reading the text. While Merlin seems to have a good start towards creating a more peaceful society, it does not seem that it will prove to be completely peaceful. Of course anything is better to him than living in the city, and it only seems to get better when he is encountered with people much like himself. A text like â€Å"Life of Merlin† makes me question whether a peaceful society is within grasp. Even in current times, countries are at war and people lie to and cheat one another. Have we become more violent and deceptive with time? In order to create a peaceful environment, the idea of competition might have to be removed. Competition, one thing that is instinctive in all creatures, is a driving force of all human action. Merlin seems to strive towards the ideal, but it remains questionable as to whether or not his ideal is within grasp.

Persecution of Jews between the years 1933-39 Essay

By what stages and why did the Nazi Regime increase it’s persecution of Jews between the years 1933-39. Jewish people had been a traditional enemy for several hundred years before Hitler came to power and he made it quite clear in his book, ‘Mein Kampf,’ that he hated Jewish people. It should be no surprise that even before he rose to power he had already took steps to increase persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany in 1933-39. Before any of the momentous stages began, Hitler had displayed plenty of propaganda to advocate Nazi opinions of Jews, he realised that it wouldn’t be a good idea to persecute Jews to the highest level to begin with as he needed to be established as a great leader. Had he have began his stages with an event such as Kristallnacht the German people may not have accepted him as well as they did. Hitler began his stages with unorganised persecution, in 1933 he organised the April Boycotts which involved the boycotting of Jewish businesses, encouraging Aryan Germans to stay away from Jewish owned stores. The members of the Nazi party were eager to begin anti-Jewish measures so Hitler didn’t want to carry on denying them this. This stage kept the members happy for a short while and was also backed by churches; increasing its influential value. However the April Boycotts had to be kept fairly low key as Hitler did not want the public to resent him had they thought his measures were too much too soon; his suspicions were in fact correct, Hitler realised he didn’t have the public support he needed as despite the Boycotts the public seemed apathetic, they carried on shopping in Jewish stores; ignoring Hitler’s warning. Another factor controlling the force of the persecution was the fact that Hindenburg was still supreme to Hitler, he had already brought in the Hindenburg clause (whereby Jewish world war one veterans were exempt from the rule that Jews must be fired from certain professions) which hindered Hitler’s chance at early success. Hitler’s first attempt at unorganised persecution was supposed to last indefinitely, but in fact it only lasted a day. The Nazi regime’s next step in 1935 marked a new phase in their bid to increase the persecution of Jews. Following Hindenburg’s death in 1934, Hitler introduced The Nuremburg Laws in August 1935 which basically stripped the Jews of their civil rights. Hitler had realised that the intense propaganda had succeeded in winning the public over and therefore decided to take his persecution to the next stage. He completely disregarded the Hindenburg clause and referred to the Jews not as citizens but as ‘subjects’ of Germany. This step was to separate the Jews from the rest of the Germany nationality and could be seen as a result of the lack of progress made in the Nazi’s attempt to get Jews out of the country, statistics of Jews emigrating fell from 37000 to 23000 in 1934. However, in light of the Berlin summer Olympics in 1936, Hitler toned down the propaganda aimed at the persecution of Jews as he wanted tourists to see Germany as a pure country, free of people he though inferior such as Jews. The Nuremburg laws seemed to be as a result of Hitler feeling that he needed to start taking action that is easily recognisable as persecution; this however was nothing in comparison to his next step. On November 9th 1938, following the assassination of a German official in Paris by a young Jewish boy, the Nazi’s embarked on an orgy of violence, destroying Jewish Property in predominantly Jewish towns in Germany. This seemed the final straw for Hitler, before this he had not let member of the Nazi party display this type of organised persecution. The SS officers conducting the attacks broke the law, but Hitler let this go ahead as there was no popular outcry for it to stop, most resistance was very passive, probably Jew to the Nazi fear factor; no-one dear stand up to them. The intensity of Nazi officials complaining about a lack of action against the Jews encouraged this new wave of intimidation. To add insult to injury, the Jews were fined for the damage done to their towns and property; 1,000,000,000RM in total. 26,000 Jews were arrested and sent to work camps, Kristallnacht is thought to mark the beginning of the Holocaust. Hitler’s 4th and final stage was to eliminate Jews; they were not emigrating anymore (as much as they wanted to) simply because other countries could not take them. The measures taken previous to this stage were not enough to get rid of the Jews so Hitler decided to cram the Jews into small ghettos, so he could take complete control of them ready for when they were shipped off in freight trains to concentration camps. Hitler named this ‘the final solution of the Jewish question’ this stage seemed ooze a sense of desperation, nothing Hitler had done before had deterred the Jews enough for them to flee wherever they could. Once in concentration camps, had they not died of diseases such as Typhus, the Jews were systematically gassed in chambers, sometimes up to 2000 at a time. The name ‘final solution’ suggests that this really was the last straw for Hitler, he felt there was no other way to rid Germany of the Jews as although the first camp opened in 1933 (Dachau) they weren’t widely used until 1939, these camps could be seen as a precautionary measure. It is evident that Hitler had many ideas as to how to persecute Jews; he started with quite mild measures and gradually escalated things as a result of unresponsive behaviour from Jews. The pressure he was under from other Nazi party members in the early stages probably pushed him to cross the line into breaking the law to persecute Jews. The latter stages of these measures may not have happened had the Jews emigrated when they were encouraged to.

Critically Asses, with Reference to William James, the...

In the book ‘the varieties of religious experience’, James concluded that religious experience testifies that â€Å"we can experience union with something larger than ourselves and in that union find our greatest peace†. He defined such experiences as â€Å"experiences of the divine† and believed that religious experience was at the heart of religion. For James, religious teachings, practices and attitudes are second hand religion, which later develop as individuals reflect on their common experience. It is the actual experiences that directly point to God. However this theory does little to prove religious experiences simply because many of his claims do not stand up to critical analysis. James looked at a variety of religious experiences,†¦show more content†¦Secondly, James believed that the religious experiences from the different faiths were similar. They were experiences of the same ultimate reality which is then interpreted into the ‘second hand’ religious structure of that person. A Christian might interpret an experience as the presence of the Holy Spirit, whereas a Hindu might interpret it differently. James also argued that despite the wide variety of religious experiences there is a common core to all of them, they will normally include similar elements, like the sense of being in the presence of a greater power or the recipient has relatively little control over the experience. Also includes an insight into â€Å"usually unseen dimensions of existence which are of intrinsic value and fundamental importance†. For some they may consist of a direct experience of the divine or may be a gradual realisation that there is more to life than the world around us and it often leads to a greater understanding of God. James claimed that this common core pointed to a single objective source of all religious experiences. In response, many critics claim that it is difficult to even define or interpret what a genuine religious experience is let alone decide if they have a common core. Many scholars claim a common core is simply not true and the sheer variety of religious experiences suggest they have a human rather than a divine origin. Critics further point out, that it isShow MoreRelatedExploring Corporate Strategy - Case164366 Words   |  658 Pagesstrategic issues of speciï ¬ c organisations in much greater depth – and often providing ‘solutions’ to some of the problems or difï ¬ culties identiï ¬ ed in the case. There are also over 33 classic cases on the Companion Website. These are a selection of cases from recent editions of the book which remain relevant for teaching. The case studies are intended to serve as a basis for class discussion and not as an illustration of either good or bad management practice. They are not intended to be a comprehensiveRead MoreMarketin g Management130471 Words   |  522 Pages Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Ethics in Marketing 4. Have you understood type questions 5. Summary 6. Exercises 7. References 1. INTRODUCTION: The apex body in United States of America for the Marketing functions, American Marketing Association (AMA) defines marketing as â€Å"Marketing consists of those activities involved in the flow of goods and services from the point of production to the point of consumption. The AMA has since amended its definition to read as: â€Å"Marketing is an organizational