The Advanced Medical Directive (AMD) is a legal document whereby you sign to inform your doctor that you do not want any extraordinary life-sustaining treatment to be used to prolong your life in the event of becoming terminally ill and unconscious. “Terminally ill” is defined as an incurable condition caused by injury or disease where there is no reasonable prospect of a temporary of permanent recovery where death would be imminent regardless of use of extraordinary life-sustaining treatment, which refers to any medical procedure or measure, and would serve one sole purpose: postponing the moment of death of the patient.
Euthanasia is different from the Advanced Medical Directive. Euthanasia, also known as mercy killing, is the deliberate ending of life of a person suffering an illness by unnatural mean while Advanced Medical Directive are instructions to your doctor not to prolong your life with extraordinary life-sustaining treatment where there is no hope for recover from an imminent death. Under section 17 of the AMD Act explicitly states that it is against euthanasia and nothing in the Act shall condone, authorize or approve abetment or suicide, mercy killing or euthanasia.
Making an AMD is a voluntary decision. New advances in medical knowledge and technology create new choices for both patients and health care providers. Some of these raise new ethical and legal issues. One issue is that even though modern medical technology can prolong life in terminal illness it can only be used to delay the dying process. In such situations, further medical intervention is ineffective. The terminally ill person, who are unable to express their wishes at that time, may want to be spared from further suffering and be allowed to die naturally.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
National Service problem
National Service. The two words that many male youths and teenagers hate the most because it will mean the loss of their freedom. National Service is a very nice term for the compulsory conscription in Singapore for all male Singaporean citizens and second-generation permanent residents upon age of 18. They have to serve a two-year period as Full Time National Servicemen in either the SAF or the SPF or the SCDF. In the event of the breakout of war in Singapore, these National Servicemen will form the bulk of the defending forces under the SAF. On annual basis, National Servicemen will go through high key or low key training until they reach the age of 40 or 50 depending on rank. These National Servicemen contribute directly to the security and defense of Singapore.
People have been forced to cancel their attachments and music studies in Harvard to attend NS. Some of these, such as music scholarships at Harvard, are one-in-a-lifetime golden opportunity. However, they are not able to carry on and continue their studies and development of their talents and they have been forced to stop just to attend NS, a waste of time in many people’s eyes. A classic example would be pianist Melvyn Tan. A suggestion to deal with this problem is to allow them to finish their studies first, not just some, but all those who receive golden opportunities, although they must sign a law-binding contract to drive them to come back after their studies for National Service.
Furthermore, there are some reservists who were denied jobs due to their National Service commitments. There are even more Singaporeans who are dissatisfied with foreigners who do not have to serve National Service but they get to enjoy the fruits of Singapore’s economic success. These foreigners can use the Singaporean’s time serving National Service to increase their own educational standards and getting better jobs at an earlier time.
It is true that if we, the citizens of Singapore, don’t protect our own country, no one else will. However, must it be truly compulsory? As president George Bush of the United States of America said: No President can easily commit our sons and daughters to war. They are the Nation's finest. Ours is an all-volunteer force, magnificently trained, highly motivated. The troops know why they're there. This was taken from Declaration of War on Iraq by Bush. Troops protecting the nation must be highly motivated, which is not the case when they are forced to go for National Service. If conscripted, they most likely will hate it and easiest to run away or surrender when it comes to a fight because they do not have much motivation. Troops without motivation will not protect their own country to the best of their ability.
Therefore, I think that National Service should be served by people with very high motivations and everyone else, except that the training should not be too vigorous. That way, more people will have a better impression of the National Service and they will join with high motivations.
People have been forced to cancel their attachments and music studies in Harvard to attend NS. Some of these, such as music scholarships at Harvard, are one-in-a-lifetime golden opportunity. However, they are not able to carry on and continue their studies and development of their talents and they have been forced to stop just to attend NS, a waste of time in many people’s eyes. A classic example would be pianist Melvyn Tan. A suggestion to deal with this problem is to allow them to finish their studies first, not just some, but all those who receive golden opportunities, although they must sign a law-binding contract to drive them to come back after their studies for National Service.
Furthermore, there are some reservists who were denied jobs due to their National Service commitments. There are even more Singaporeans who are dissatisfied with foreigners who do not have to serve National Service but they get to enjoy the fruits of Singapore’s economic success. These foreigners can use the Singaporean’s time serving National Service to increase their own educational standards and getting better jobs at an earlier time.
It is true that if we, the citizens of Singapore, don’t protect our own country, no one else will. However, must it be truly compulsory? As president George Bush of the United States of America said: No President can easily commit our sons and daughters to war. They are the Nation's finest. Ours is an all-volunteer force, magnificently trained, highly motivated. The troops know why they're there. This was taken from Declaration of War on Iraq by Bush. Troops protecting the nation must be highly motivated, which is not the case when they are forced to go for National Service. If conscripted, they most likely will hate it and easiest to run away or surrender when it comes to a fight because they do not have much motivation. Troops without motivation will not protect their own country to the best of their ability.
Therefore, I think that National Service should be served by people with very high motivations and everyone else, except that the training should not be too vigorous. That way, more people will have a better impression of the National Service and they will join with high motivations.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
