PAS

from Sam:
a story about a doctor with ALS who will be able to partake of PAS

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/health/policy/in-ill-doctor-a-surprise-reflection-of-who-picks-assisted-suicide.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&

Value of Suffering

What value, if any, is there in suffering?

The Death of Ivan Ilych

(Emily will post some questions here)

Darwinian Theories

Pick a few to answer
* Can all animal behavior be explained in terms of instinct or simple learning? (As opposed to higher order, reflective thinking?
* Are humans naturally / innately aggressive like Konrad Lorenz claims?  Bobbie asks you to consider The Lord of the Flies, The Road, Walking Dead, among other books and films as you answer.
* How do you think language works?  Do you agree with Chomsky that there is an innate capacity to process language?
* Can the theory of evolution explain everything?  Kindness, altruism, culture?  What would E. O. Wilson say?
* Can belief in God/religion and evolution mutually exist?
* How does natural selection support (or not) the "gender division" and how does it compare to natural selection's contribution (or not) to racism?
* Can you think of an instance that supports Skinner's theory that behavior arises from natural selection?  An example from history?  From everyday life?

March Current Events

*new* 16March13  Young Mother Kills Herself and almost her son
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/15/nyregion/son-survives-cynthia-wachenheims-suicide-jump-in-harlem.html?pagewanted=2&src=recg


NYTimes: The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking
The Germans had vastly more work camps and ghettos than anyone knew. 
http://nyti.ms/XLPwR9

*posted 13Mar13* The Geography of Gun Deaths
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/01/the-geography-of-gun-deaths/69354/

Funeral practices

Cremation is less expensive
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/us/in-economic-downturn-survivors-turning-to-cremations-over-burials.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23

Advance Directives / Get Your S%$* Together

*newly posted* 13Mar13
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/october-21-2011/advance-directives/9748/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=pbs

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/opinion/taking-responsibility-for-death.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120331

Get Your S%$* Together
website for advance planning
http://getyourshittogether.org/

Interview
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/12/174014442/from-grief-comes-a-mission-to-make-estate-planning-less-daunting

Conversations Before Dying
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/april-27-2012/conversations-before-dying/10846/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=pbs

Email Reminders Help
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE90302O20130104?irpc=932 

Human Nature

The Minimally Conscious
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/magazine/can-ambien-wake-minimally-conscious.html?pagewanted=3&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha210

Unconscious biases and other research on human cognition
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/opinion/brooks-who-you-are.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212&_r=0

Science of Perception
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/clothes-and-self-perception.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120403

TED Talk about emotion, trust, & morality
http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_zak_trust_morality_and_oxytocin.html#.TrCSacxAccs.mailto

Chpt 10 Darwinism

This link is about God & science, so tangentially related.
http://life.salon.com/2011/10/02/how_science_and_faith_coexist/singleton/?mobile.html

Christopher Hitchens on cancer & mortality
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/books/christopher-hitchens-on-writing-mortality-and-cancer.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha28