Paper Instructions and Topics

Your paper should be typed, with double-spaced lines, so there is enough room for me to add comments on each page. You must keep an extra copy of your paper (either hard copy or on disc) in case I mislay your paper. Good spelling, grammar, and writing style are necessary for clear paper writing, and you will lose points if your paper is unclear. You should do some research beyond the course book, and your paper should include references and a bibliography. You can do research on the Internet, but you should also use at least one book too. The Dowling Library staff will do their very best to help you search for a book to help you write your paper, so do not be shy in asking for their help.

Extremely Important: Plagiarism: whenever you copy another text, it should be clearly marked, either in quotation marks or in separate paragraph on its own, with the left-hand margin indented.

You should give a page number for quotations from books or articles, or a precise URL if it from is a web page. If you include someone else’s writing in your own paper without acknowledging the author, it is plagiarism. (This is also true even if you copy your own work that you did in another course, at Dowling College or elsewhere.) If you are paraphrasing or summarizing someone else’s work, you need to make sure that you use your own words. If you are not sure what exactly counts as plagiarism, ask my advice. Generally, if you are in some doubt, it is best to play it safe and include a reference in your paper to explain where your ideas come from. Plagiarism is a serious problem in college these days, and I will take whatever steps I can to prevent it and detect it. If I am not sure whether your paper is your own work I will ask you to come in to answer some questions about what you wrote, to see if you understand it. If you get caught plagiarizing, you automatically fail the whole course.

If you want to write a paper on a topic of your own choice, this may be possible. You need to write out the question, in similar format to the ones below, along with a list of 5 journal articles or books that you plan to use in doing research on your topic. You should give me your question and reading list by Tuesday 23 March. I will either (a) accept your question as it is; (b) accept it on the condition that you make changes to it; or (c) reject your question because it has too many problems with it. Once accepted, anyone in the class will be allowed to use your question as a topic for his or her paper.

1. Should legislators in NY State pass a law permitting doctors to help their patients die if their patients request such help? If so, what restrictions should there be on this legal permission? Explain your reasoning fully, including a comparison of New York with recent developments in either Oregon, Michigan, or the Netherlands.
• This is a paper about legal issues, social policy, and ethics. You will need to discuss what the likely effects of passing such a law would be, and so it would be helpful to look at the two places where such laws are already in effect, Oregon and the Netherlands. The more up-to-date your paper the better, since new information is coming out practically every month. One of the main arguments against allowing physician assisted suicide is that it is a law that can be abused, and that people will be pressured into requesting suicide. You should discuss whether such an argument is especially plausible or implausible in New York--does NY have a good track record with people sticking to the letter and the spirit of the law, or are laws often abused in this state? You should also discuss whether this would be a popular law in NY--would people vote for it if it were put to a referendum?
 

Suggested Reading

Physician Assisted Suicide: Expanding the Debate (Reflective Bioethics), edited by Margaret P. Battin, Rosamond Rhodes, and Anita Silvers. Routledge, 1998.

Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide (For and Against), by Gerald Dworkin, R. G. Frey, Sissela Bok.  Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Freedom to Die: People, Politics, and the Right-To-Die Movement, by Derek Humphry, Mary Clement. St. Martin's Press, 1998.

Forced Exit: The Slippery Slope from Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder, by Wesley J. Smith.  Times Books, 1997.

Regulating How We Die: The Ethical, Medical, and Legal Issues Surrounding Physician-Assisted Suicide, edited by Linda L. Emanuel.  Harvard University Press, 1998.

2. In what ways is discussion of death awkward or even taboo in North America and especially Long Island? Is there any reason to think that people would be ultimately happier if they were more able to discuss death? Suggest some steps that can be taken that would help people on Long Island be able include talk of death more comfortably in their everyday lives.
• This is a paper mostly about sociology, psychology, and public education. You should discuss sociological studies of North America, and you should discuss how Long Island compares with the rest of the country. In talking about how it might be possible to make people more comfortable with death, you need to be both creative and practical in your suggestions. This part of the paper is very open-ended. For instance, you could discuss the education of children, adult education, or TV and radio
 

Suggested Reading

Lifting the Taboo: Women, Death and Dying, by Sally Cline.  New York University Press, 1997.

Profits of Death: An Insider Exposes the Death Care Industries, by Darryl J. Roberts.  Five Star Publications, 1997.

The American Way of Death Revisited, by Jessica Mitford.  Knopf, 1998.

Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Rituals, Second Edition, by Peter Metcalf, Richard Huntington.  Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Handbook for Mortals: Guidance for People Facing Serious Illness, by Joanne Lynn.  Oxford University Press, 1999.

3. Why do so many people resist becoming organ donors?  Do people have a strong emotional reaction to the idea of their bodies being cut up and parts used in other people's bodies? Would there be a large public opposition if the default assumption was changed so that it was assumed that you consent to your organs being used unless you sign the back of your driver's license?  Do you have any suggestions to reduce the terrible shortage of organs needed for transplants?
• This is a paper about medicine, social policy, and psychology. In evaluating this suggestion, you need to consider how urgent is the problem of getting organ donation, and whether this suggestion would make the situation a lot better. You also need to consider whether this would lead to many cases where people would have their organs used against their prior wishes, and whether this would be too high a price to pay for the benefits of this policy.  You should do some research into why people don't generally sign the back of their licenses, and consider how they could be best encouraged to do so, and discuss organ transplantation with their families.
 

Suggested Reading

Increasing the Supply of Transplant Organs: The Virtues of an Options Market (Medical Intelligence Unit).  R. G. Landes Co., 1995.

Psychiatric Aspects of Organ Transplantation by John Craven, Gary M. Rodin.  Oxford University Press, 1992.

First Cut: A Season in the Human Anatomy Lab, by Albert Howard Carter.  Picador USA, 1997.

Organ Donation and Transplantation: Psychological and Behavioral Factors edited by James Shanteau and Richard Jackson Harris.  American Psychological Association, 1990.

Organ Transplantation: Meanings and Realities, edited by Stuart J. Youngner, Renee C. Fox, Laurence J. O'Connell.  Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1996.

4. Why is the suicide rate different in different countries and in different parts of society? Discuss what would be the best ways for federal or local governments to reduce the suicide rate in North America.
• This is a paper about sociology, anthropology, and government intervention into social issues. You can talk about the comparison between different countries and also the different populations of society which are most at risk for suicide and suicide attempts. You might also want to discuss gender, since more women attempt suicide, but men are more successful at actually doing it (basically because they tend to shoot themselves). You also need to come up with some creative and practical suggestions for reducing the suicide rate (putting Prozac in the water supply is not practical). You might want to consider targeting populations at high risk for suicide, whether that is the terminally ill or gay teenagers.
 

Suggested Reading

Suicide and Attempted Suicide: Methods and Consequences, by Geo Stone.  Carroll & Graf, 1999.

Death by Denial: Studies of Suicide in Gay and Lesbian Teenagers, edited by Gary Remafedi. Alyson Publications, 1994.

No One Saw My Pain: Why Teens Kill Themselves, by Andrew E. Slaby and Lili Frank Garfinkel.  W. W. Norton, 1996.

Disease, Pain, and Suicidal Behavior by Elsebeth Stenager and Egon Stenager.  Haworth Press, 1998.

Making Sense of Suicide: An In-Depth Look at Why People Kill Themselves by David Lester.  Charles Press, 1997.

5. Is there any good reason to believe that humans can survive their bodily deaths? Discuss and critically evaluate what the best evidence you think there is for or against the possibility of life after death.
• This is a paper about science and the paranormal. (For X-Files fans: it is about the kind of discussions that Mulder and Scully have about evaluating the evidence available to them.) There are many reports of communication with the dead, near dear experiences, sightings of ghosts, vampires, zombies, and reincarnation. Yet these all remain controversial, to say the least. Why is it so difficult to settle this question scientifically? What would count as scientific proof of life after death? Have any convincing experiments to prove or disprove life after death? This is a very large area, so you will need to limit your discussion to the most interesting cases: there is no point trashing the weakest cases, because that does not prove anything.
 

Suggested Reading

What They Saw...at the Hour of Death: A New Look at Evidence for Life After Death, Third Edition, by Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson, Hastings House Publications, 1997.

The Truth in the Light: An Investigation of over 300 Near-Death Experiences by P. B. C. Fenwick.  Berkley Pub Group, 1997.

Lifecycles: Reincarnation and the Web of Life by Christopher M. Bache.  Paragon House, 1994.

The After Death Experience by Ian Wilson. Quill Press, 1990.

Reincarnation: A Critical Examination by Paul Edwards.  Prometheus, 1996.

Immortality, edited by Paul Edwards.  Prometheus, 1997.