Apoptosis - Short Essay

This case surrounds the controversy brought about by the Arizona state legislature defunding life-saving organ transplant operations. In 1987, the Arizona state legislature voted to eliminate funding for most organ transplants for the indigent through the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS). At the same time of this decision, the legislature voted to extend health coverage to pregnant women and children in a “notch group.” The public controversy began when Dianna Brown died after being denied coverage for a liver transplant that would have saved her life. After her death, there was wide spread

What is the name of the process by which cancer cells break off of tumors and spread to other parts of the body?

In “Active and Passive Euthanasia” Rachels demonstrates the similarities between passive and active euthanasia. He claims that if one is permissible, than the other must also be accessible to a patient who prefers that particular fate. Rachels spends the majority of the article arguing against the recommendations of the AMA. The AMA proposes that active euthanasia contradicts what the medical profession stands for. The AMA thinks that ending a person’s life is ethically wrong, yet believes that a competent patient has a right to choose passive euthanasia, meaning to refuse treatment in this case. Rachels makes four claims arguing against that AMA statement.

It should be legal for patients suffering painful, incurable diseases to choose to have a physician assisted death. People die every day in the United States of long term illness, often while suffering massive amounts of pain and with extended hospital stays. According to the American Cancer Society in 2015 approximately sixteen hundred people died every day from cancer. Of those sixteen hundred people dying from cancer eighty percent died in the hospital, which can cost up to $10,000.00 to maintain a person in the Intensive Care Unit. Everyone may not opt to have a physician assisted death, but the choice should be there. Basic human rights are reason enough to legalize physician assisted death, however, by far not the only reason.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, “There are currently more than 1.3 million terminally ill patients in the United States waiting for the day that they will succumb to death.” Some are bed ridden, some are constantly consumed with systemic pain, some have no strength or desire to get out of bed and so they wait. They wait because they live in a state that says they do not have the right to die. Those who are healthy argue that it is immoral, ungodly and unethical for a medical doctor to practice physician assisted death. Government should not prohibit when and how terminally ill patients end their lives, they should regulate it.

For example, cellular swelling occurs due to cellular hypoxia, which damages the sodium-potassium membrane pump; as well as fatty change it can impair cellular function and damage the cell ability of adequately metabolize fat. Both situations are reversible when the causes are eliminated. In contrast, irreversible cell injury is the cell death with continuing damage, the injury becomes irreversible, which the cell cannot recover and dies. There are two types of cell death necrosis and apoptosis. When damage to membranes is severe, enzymes leak out of lysosomes, enter the cytoplasm, and digest the cell, resulting in necrosis ( McCance & Huether, 2014). Necrosis is the major pathway of cell death in many commonly encountered injuries, for example resulting from ischemia, exposure to toxins, various infections, and

Proliferative phase occurs within a few days of injury in which cells that were involved in the battle need to tend to their wounds and the regenerate to restore itself to its formal glory as best as possible. The body’s way of restoring itself is through use of angiogenesis, granulation tissue formation, wound contraction and epithelialization. This combination acts of getting new blood vessels to the damage area, aid in the formation of cells to fill in the area which leads to scar tissue, allow the skin to flexible in the repair process and finally resurface the wound with new epithelial

I believe the average American’s view of death and the dying process has slowly changed throughout time. The slow change in our population’s view of death can partially be contributed to the negative view the media often casts on death and the dying process, as well as the lack of the connection many American’s have with their aging family members. In the past, family was often present during the aging and dying process. However, families are often nuclear units currently, and are not as involved as they once were. Rather than having a personal experience with death and the dying process and truly having a personal view, many individual’s views regarding death are often influenced by the negative portrayal in the media.

The above-mentioned types of Euthanasia can be further divided into two more major parts: Active and Passive Euthanasia. The hastening of the death of a person by active procedures such as deliberately overdosing on a medicine is known as Active Euthanasia. On the other hand, Passive Euthanasia is when death to a patient is brought by an omission. It is when the treatment necessary for the continuance of life is brought to an end. For example, ventilators or life support

body to attack its own tissues (Brassington et al, 1998). None of those possibilities have

For years people have been looking for a cure for the devastating disease of cancer. Cancer is the third highest killer in the US with over 2,500,000 victims per year. Oncologists and scientists around the country are researching all forms of cancer in an effort to understand, treat, and ultimately defeat this disease. Already there have been numerous advances in the field, such as chemotherapy and gene therapy. One advance has been the use of a cell process known as apoptosis. By harnessing this normal cell process, scientists hope to have found an effective way to combat cancer.

In the article, "Mitosis Can Drive Cell Cannibalism Through Entosis", Joanne Durgen (et al.) suggests that cell division may cause living cells to engulf each other by invading another living cell. Although the word "cannibalism" sounds terrible, cell-eating-cell is very descriptive of what happens in this process and is shown that it may be beneficial in limiting tumor growth. Briefing over where entosis is found and what it does, what proteins regulate the entosis process, and possible beneficial characteristics in human cancer and chemotherapy in this article may give a better understanding of this microscopic process.

1.)     Explain how the answers to the self-inventories in the text concerning facts, attitudes, beliefs and feelings about death reflect our societal understanding or lack of understanding of death. I think that the self- inventory question reflected on both our understanding and lack of understanding about death related topics. Some of the answers to the questions on the inventory I knew without look at the answers, but some of the answers actually surprised me. The question about the death certificate was one of the questions that actually surprised me. I assumed before I did the inventory that every death certificate had a specific cause of death that was given on the certificate. Another answer that

A teacher I once had in high school would often talk about her father who lived in hospice care. Her father suffered from dementia and had been for years. She would often talk about how on his “good” days he would plead her husband to put a pillow on his head and suffocate him, to take him out of his misery. If it was legal, her husband would have willingly helped her father and put him out of his misery, however in the state of North Carolina, physician-assisted suicide is illegal. Luckily, her father passed away this year and is finally free of pain and suffering. However, if physician-assisted suicide was legal, her father would not have had to suffer as long as he did.

Euthanasia, which is also referred to as mercy killing, is the act of ending someone’s life either passively or actively, usually for the purpose of relieving pain and suffering. “All forms of euthanasia require an intention to accelerate death in order to benefit patients experiencing a poor quality of life” (Sayers, 2005). It is a highly controversial subject that often leaves a person with mixed emotions and beliefs. Opinions regarding this topic hinge on the health and mental state of the victim as well as method of death. It raises legal issues as well as the issue of morals and ethics. Euthanasia is divided into two different categories, passive euthanasia and active euthanasia. “There are unavoidable uncertainties in both active and