Upon reading the StarTribune I found an article entitled “Brainwaves”. The problem I see with this article is an ethical one. I was strongly bothered by the fact that the article mentioned how people could decide whether or not they wanted to live or die with the new technology of brain scans that they had because they could measure brain activity.
Dear Editor, after reading the article entitled “Brainwaves” an issue involving ethics arose in my mind. It was mentioned that people in a coma can now be understood and their decision to live or die can be respected. The question that arises in my mind is, who truly has the power to intentionally take another human beings life? How is this justified? A person cannot just walk into a hospital and say “Kill me, I want to die,” and then have someone actually do it! I think doctors truly need to reconsider their decisions upon hearing this because they do not want to betray a line of ethics, and I believe many families could be negatively impacted upon hearing a loved ones request to die and their attempt to decide whether or not the patient is in fact in any mental state to effectively make that decision.
This is an interesting issue. Who has the right to take life? And this letter is a good start in raising the question of ethics. Maybe you should question whether the brainwaves have already been used and if they have how does it work and how much can people trust it? Just develop the question about ethics a little bit and i think you shoud be fine.
ReplyDeleteGood Luck.
I agree with Abla. It would probably help to really address the issue of how measuring brainwaves allows doctors to pull the plug. Perhaps question the data. How do we really know for certain that the measurement of certain brainwaves means someone is an effective mental state? I think that someone in a vegetative state is different from one someone walking into a hospital asking for death. Maybe talk about the hospital's stance on such ethical issues? Do they even take ethics in to account? Or is it just measure the brainwaves - pull the plug.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a good start, but could be elaborate a little bit more. Good luck!