Plato/Aristotle

Comments, questions, observations?

Current Events Mar/Apr

*new*  20Apr11
The Obama administration wants legislation requiring training for doctors who prescribe powerful painkillers. http://nyti.ms/gY8E8k --> relevant to control of drugs and treating pain especially in end of life situations.

this is exactly why we're in this class
http://letters.mobile.salon.com/mwt/feature/2011/04/05/shark_teeth_from_a_dying_man_open2011/view/index3.html?show=all


Short essay about how things can represent a dead person.
http://mobile.salon.com/mwt/feature/2011/03/23/my_fathers_stuff_in_the_garage_open2011/index.html

Frontline video The Suicide Tourist

http://video.pbs.org/video/1430431984?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=PBS

Japan

14Mar11 An op-ed about Japan's "Day of Disaster"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/opinion/14iht-edmakihara14.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=suicide%20on%20campus&st=cse

Please post other stories, information, and reflections.

Maps & Graphics
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/13/world/asia/satellite-photos-japan-before-and-after-tsunami.html

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/flash/newsgraphics/2011/0311-japan-earthquake-map/index.html?hp

How to Help
http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html 

Euthanasia, Physician-Assisted Suicide

You can start this thread by commenting on whether or not you think PAS should be a legal option for those who would choose it.  Explain your reasoning.

Suicide

There is lots to discuss regarding suicide, so let's make a separate post for physician-assisted suicide.  In the meantime, here's the link to a video about suicides on college campuses, which we'll watch in class on Thursday 17 March.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2007/10/10/magazine/1194817120290/suicide-on-campus.html?scp=1&sq=suicide%20on%20campus&st=cse

Descartes

Is Descartes right?  Are we just thinking things?  Or is there more to us?  Explain.

The Diving Bell & The Butterfly

Class,
Please comment further on the film.  Does it make you reconsider anything?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401383/

FYI:  A more extended essay about the story and the difference between the book and the film.
http://www.salon.com/entertainment/feature/2008/02/23/diving_bell

Chaplains

Was it helpful/interesting to have the chaplains come to class?  Anything else you'd like to have asked them?