Ethics

Today in Ethics class, we began talking about our next case study, which will end with a big final presentation. This case study will be on a bioethical issue chosen by each individual group. We are responsible for researching and finding an issue on our own. I am working on this case study with Dee and Aileen (the same people I worked with last time). Our group decided to stay together for this final case study because we felt that we really worked well together on the last one. We cooperated well and each person was able to contribute valuable ideas. The only things we have to improve on this time are our presenting skills. We plan to practice for this presentation more than we did for the last one. For this case study, each of us will have to compile a binder containing all of our research and reflections. Having each person do his or her own binder will force everyone to do work, instead of just having the best students do all of the work for the group. The binders will show who works hard and who depends on others to do the work. Making the binder does not seem difficult, but it does require plenty of work. Meeting the stated requirements for the binder will only earn a B, so in order to get an A, we will have to do more than the project requires.
Our group got off to a good start today. We went to the library to research issues that we could use for our case study. At first, we were planning to do physician assisted suicide, but another group had already thought of that, so we decided to find something that was different, but also interesting. We looked through the Encyclopedia of Bioethical Issues and were able to find several possible issues, but none of them seemed very interesting to any of us. Aileen suggested that we do homosexuality, but when we asked Mrs. Brodie about the topic, she told us that it would be difficult to link it to biology. She suggested that we do hermaphrodites instead. Hermaphrodites are people who are born with both male and female sexual organs. Parents must choose whether their child will be male or female. This decision is risky and sometimes the wrong choice is made. It is evident when the wrong choice is made because the child displays characteristics of the opposite sex. We decided that our question should ask something like, "Should the doctors or parents decide what gender the baby should be?" Tomorrow we will be able to do more research and revise the question we will be basing our case study on.

Wednesday night was one of the most stressful and hectic nights of my life. First, there was senior project presentations. That was extremely stressful, but at least it went well. Next, I was on my way home from presentations when an employee at my parents' gas station called and said that the computer had stopped working. No one could pump gas and they were using a calculator to add up items that people wanted to purchase. My dad and I were still driving when he received the call on his cell phone, so instead of going all the way home, we stopped at the station to try to figure out what was wrong. When we got there, we saw that the computer was completely frozen. We couldn't do anything, so we called the company responsible for fixing problems like these. They didn't help at all, so we had to send in a service request to Shell and wait for a repair man to come. Meanwhile, we set the pumps on manual operation, which meant that anyone who came to the pump could start pumping. I spent the next hour outside - wearing the same clothes I had presented my senior project in -pumping gas for anyone who needed it. Also, during all of this, a group of local guys drove in and started a word fight with my dad. It started because one of the guys was urinating near a storage shed on the side of the gas station. Believe it or not, many people do it, and everytime it happens, my dad gets extremely angry and yells at them. My dad yelled at the guy, but then the guy's friends started yelling back. I don't want to repeat what they said, because it was really nasty. I was afraid the situation would escalate from a word fight to a fist fight, so I stood nearby, ready to help my dad if he needed it. I go to taekwondo classes across the street from the gas station, and I saw that the light was still on, so I knew I could yell for help if I needed it. Thankfully, I didn't. We called the police and took the license plate number from the truck. The guys knew the police were coming, so they jumped in the truck and drove off. One guy sat in the back, yelling expletives as they drove away. This type of thing happens more often than it should, and it makes me upset because my parents work hard every day, only to have inconsiderate people like this come and harass them.
The story doesn't end there. When the repair man came, he was reeking of alcohol. We didn't say anything because we were desperately in need of help, and he was the only help we could get. He took the computer apart and told us we had lost everything that was saved on it. He reconfigured it and re-programmed the gas prices, but forgot to send the price out to the gas pumps. We thought he had gotten everything up and working again, but we did not know that the prices at the pumps were 40 cents lower than they were supposed to be. We sold gas for that entire night, losing 40 cents for each gallon that was pumped. This was a tremendous loss, considering that we only make a 1-2 cent profit for each gallon we sell. My mom discovered the problem the next morning while she was sweeping outside. She probably almost had a heart attack. I did not get home on Wednesday night. Tuesday morning had just begun when I was finally able to collapse on my bed. I was so tired that I skipped dinner and homework. I had just had one of the most stressful nights of my life, and all I wanted was SLEEP!

Test post.