Year 12

it's brilliant, exciting, confusing, stressfull and SO MUCH FUN
and i'm gonna explain why
*ohhh godd why do we have to read all of this?!!*
why it's brilliant
--> everyone's so totally friendly and the people i never used to talk to, i get into conversations with
--> i feel superior with my black year 12 jumper. yet the kids on my bus still dont respect me
--> AND my subjects and teachers this year are rather awesome

why it's exciting
--> because it's my final year. i've gone through like 12 1/2 years of school...and i only have like 3 terms left until it's ALL OVER
--> i've completed my compulsory education (allmost)
--> it's YEAR 12

why it's confusing
--> a kid in the year below has decided to complicate my life and tell me he likes me. i dont like him back...but he's such a sweet kid and i can't just tell him that!!
--> half of my subjects haven't been explained to me properly... hmmm
--> i keep like... forgetting i'm in year 12...which isn't good... y'know like, omigosh i hate the year 10's! then i'll go... oops i meant year 11's... :S

why it's stressfull
--> i'm taking 5 subjects right? English Studies, Maths Studies, Media Studies, Art Studies and Photography. now, giving the exception of maths seeing as we have a great teacher, oh...and media...
well for english, art and photography. our due dates are ridiculous! the teachers forget that unlike them we dont sit around in the same subject everyday in every lesson! we can't just drop our other 4 and only concentrate on one subject!

why it's LOTS OF FUN
-->
because it is.

For my Year 12 English Studies

lets see who can guess what i'm on about....
hehe


English Studies, Victoria Gray, Year 12

Do you want to die? Do you know someone who’s been in a ‘vegetable’ or non-responsive state for what seems like a painful eternity? Don’t you think it would be kinder if this person was allowed to have their peace with the world?

Nobody wants to die. The prospect seems so frightening. However, if your quality of life was reduced to either nothing, or simple and continuous pain...wouldn’t death seem to be the better option? I believe so.

Oldies, The Elderly, Walking dictionary versions of Wikipedia, whatever you refer to them as, we all know who I’m talking about. The people who have ‘lived for ages’ and ‘know everything’. Over the past decade, the number of elderly people living to the age of 100 years has grown extremely fast. It could almost be said they’re invading. And soon the Guinness world book of records will have to heighten the record age to around 200 years.

I know one of these people. She’s 104 years old, and blames her success on the fact that she never had sugar in her tea. So go now and drink tea without sugar. I know you’ll wonder why you did it after. No matter what you might think after tasting that cup of tea, she still has her brain. She can function relatively well for a 104 year old, and doesn’t seem to be giving up on life too soon. She still remembers everyone’s name, that I love ice-skating, that I made her birthday card by hand for her 103^rd and every detail of her life over the past 104 years. She lived through both wars, and now has over 80 direct family members.

You could say that her quality of life is rather high. She has much to live for, and is loved by many. But when it comes for her time to die, when she can no longer think, feel, see or hear... do you think she will be allowed to die? Allowed her right from birth to leave this world behind? Unfortunately this would not be allowed. Due to the rejection of the act of Euthanasia by 90% of the worlds government, she is not allowed to die simply because it’s kinder. If she dies momentarily, they have the right not to resuscitate her, but not to let her go to save her becoming a vegetable.

Now, it’s not as simple as, the patient cannot ask for death themselves, therefore they cannot allow themselves to be Euthanized. No, even when the patient is in so much pain they request death, the doctors cannot help them. So the only option is to give the patient enough morphine so they can no longer complain about the pain, and the overdose on morphine slowly kills them anyway. Would it not be kinder to allow Euthanasia in certain circumstances? I’m not suggesting that because older people are rising in numbers we need to cut back on a few of them, no of course I’m not. I’m simply saying, that if it’s so serious that the patient is not going to be able to continue living consciously, and it’s a proven fact that there is no hope of them returning to conscious sanity... euthanasia should be permitted.

Now, I know first hand how hard It is as a family member to have to make the decision when the doctors ask, ‘if she doesn’t make it...would you like us to let her go?’ as I’ve had to answer that question once before. So I cannot imagine the emotional pain it would cause someone who would have to make the decision that would allow a member of their family to be euthanized. I see both sides of this story. Because even if Euthanasia was allowed, then someone has to make the decision to let that person go. Either a doctor or someone who has known the patient all of their life needs to decide that this person should no longer live.

If an elderly man aged ninety, who has lived a very healthy life for the majority of his existence, suddenly suffers a major stroke that leaves him brain dead to the world. And you could donate four hundred dollars towards research or equipment that would save his life, would you do it?

But what if there is a twenty year old woman in the room next door, recently engaged, also brain dead after a major accident, but in a way not similar to the man in the room beside her. And you were told that four hundred dollars would be enough to save her. But you can’t donate to both patients. And the four hundred dollars will not suffice for both of them as they need different equipment or treatment.

Who would you save?; The twenty year old woman with another sixty years ahead of her, her fiancée sitting beside her and wondering why this has happened. Or the ninety year old man, whose wife has already passed before him, but who has over ten grandchildren he hasn’t even had a chance to meet yet. Tough decision isn’t it.

Of course, if four hundred dollars could not save them, if both of these patients wanted to die, they can not be saved. The woman’s fiancée and man’s children begging the doctors put an end to the agony that is to watch them connected to so many machines and tubes. No response or sound comes from the patient, except the constant beeping of the heart monitor and whirring of the machine which breathes for them.

That does not change the fact that these patients must continue their existence as it is, with no understanding or conscious thought as to what is happening. Because Euthanasia is not allowed, in some countries is even considered as murder, and the families and loved ones will have to watch the patients suffer as they slowly die, because the doctors have to try to keep them alive.

Victoria Gray

you all totally enjoyed reading my essay
it was 990 words...but was supposed to be 500
hehe
go me