Bioethics
Please write a paper based on my thesis.
My Thesis
Physician-Assisted Death should be federally recognized, legalized, and modeled closely after Oregons Death with Dignity Act as it provides terminally ill patients with the opportunity to ethically stop the pain they are in without them having to suffer through denial of medical care.
Comments. on my thesis
you have a great topic. I like the way you are utilizing the Death with Dignity Act. One way to strengthen your thesis would be to introduce an objection to it. The job would be to make the problem you need to solve hard, and then show how your argument can overcome it. Keep up the good work. I look forward to reading your paper!
Stage 2 consists of the Final paper (150 points). Your final paper should address the comments I make on your topic paper. The word limit for your final paper is 1500 words. There is no penalty for writing less than the word limit, but 3 points will be deducted if the word limit is exceeded. You are guaranteed to not receive an A on a paper that is a page long or less unless you are a philosophical genius. I will provide more details about each assignment as the deadlines approach.
Paper Outline Template
INSTRUCTIONS
I.Introduction
a.This section sets up the problem you want to address. You could give an anecdotal story from the text to set up the dilemma. Another approach could be something as simple as: “[inset topic] involves several contentious moral debates. One of which I address in this paper.”
b.The next part of your intro should state your thesis. Set up your thesis by clearly saying what you will argue. In philosophical writing, it is common to state it this way: “In this paper, I will argue X.”
c.Follow your thesis with a brief outline of how you tackle the problem in each section.
i.An example, “This paper is split into three sections. The first addresses questions about patient autonomy. The second… I conclude with a discussion about…
II.Section I –
a.I suggest interacting with a philosophic position discussed in the beginning of the course. i.e. Does Kant’s position agree with you? How might virtue theory respond? Is it Utilitarian? You can use this section to set up the problem you want to address.
III.Section II –
a.This section can be used to unpack your main argument. *
IV.Section III – An Objection
a.A simple enough task. Find a strong objection, your textbook includes many to different sides of an issue. Avoid a broad objection such as “Doctors should decide” or “Catholic Christians say…” Find a particular position that seems to oppose or cause problems for your own position. Make the problem difficult, and then answer the objection. You could again turn to one of the philosophic positions at the beginning of the semester and see if one of them disagrees with you.
V.Conclusion
a.Do not use your conclusion to make new claims. Simply restate your thesis, and how you defended it. You can raise potential other applications of your thesis and directions it could go, but I should be able to see what your paper accomplished if I were to skip to the conclusion.
(1)A few resources. See the section in the course page: “How to Write Your Paper.” Additionally, Jim Pryor’s website has some helpful guidelines that I refer to in my own writing: http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/writing.html. Feel free to use other resources than the textbook. If you are going to cite someone: (1) do so in a way that I can find the resource and gives them credit, (2) do so with the aim to represent their position well. It is also okay to just use the text book. For other resources, look at the reference at the end of the chapters. The library also has considerable resources. You can narrow your search to Peer Reviewed sources. For philosophy papers, we use PhilPapers or PhilIndex. Make sure your source is credible: avoid blog posts, op-eds, and videos. I look forward to reading your paper!
*A helpful resource for this section is “They Say/I Say” Templates. They come from a helpful little book on academic writing that has been around for many years. You can find the templates with a simple google search. Many colleges around the country have put several of them into useful handouts.