Unit-3-A-Crime-of-Compassion.doc

Unit 3 A Crime of Compassion

I Teaching objectives
1. Understanding the various aspects related to the usage of words.
2. Cultivating a sense of appropriateness in style
3. Learning methods of dealing with the body paragraphs of a writing.

II Teaching time: six class periods
III Teaching Procedures
Step 1 library work
1 the Phil Donahue show: The Phil Donahue Show, also known as Donahue, is an American television talk show that ran for 26 years on national television. Its run was preceded by three years of local broadcast in Dayton, Ohio, and it was broadcast nationwide between 1967 and 1996.

2 code blue: Hospital emergency codes are used in hospitals worldwide to alert staff to various emergency situations. The use of codes is intended to convey essential information quickly and with a minimum of misunderstanding to staff.

Step 2 pre-reading questions

1 If you have ever witnessed the sufferings of a dying person, tell us the feelings that the scene evoked from you.

2 Do you think doctors and nurses should do everything within their means to try to save a terminally ill patient even when they know clearly all their efforts would mean nothing more than prolonging his suffering?

3 General Reading
I. Determine which of the following best states the purpose of the writing.
A. To recount her horrifying experience of caring for a terminally ill patient.
B. To make an appeal for a terminally ill patient's right to die.
C. To demand that nurses be given the right to issue a "no-code" order.
Key: B

Judge whether the following statements are true or false.
1 When Mac entered the hospital, he was apparently a normal person except for an enduring cough.
2 Despite his worsening condition, Mac still had a strong wish to live.
3 The medical community is divided on whether a patient's life should be extended as long as possible under all circumstances.
4 It can be inferred from the essay that doctors, not nurses, have the right to give a "no-code order".
5 In Maura's eyes, Huttmann was a murderer for not pushing the code blue button in time.
Key: 1. T 2. F 3. T 4. T 5. F

Step 3 Key Points of the Text
1 self-righteous adj: having a certainty, especially an unfounded one, that one is totally correct or superior
2 meddle in: interfere in
E.g. Young people today do not like their parents to meddle in their lives.
meddle with — touch or handle sth. without permission
E.g. You can use my room but you're not supposed to meddle with my stuffs, especially my computer.

3 to play God: to function as God, i.e. to decide when to terminate a person's life. Christians believe that only God has the right to decide when a person's life should end.
4 When Mac had wasted away to a 60-pound skeleton: When Mac had been reduced to a 60-pound skeleton
5 waste away : (of a person or a part of the body) become progressively weaker and more emaciated
E.g. She is dying of AIDS, visibly wasting away.

6 i.v. solutions: "i.v." is the abbreviation of "intravenous", meaning "within a vein", and "i.v. solutions" refers to the liquid substances infused directly into the vein of a patient for therapeutic purposes.

7 irrigate the big craters of bedsores: The verb "irrigate" normally means "to supply water to land or crops to help growth." In medicine, the word can be used to mean "to apply a continuous flow of water or medication to an organ or a wound."
8 suction the lung fluids that threatened to drown him: drain the excessive lung fluids that threaten his life
9 that seemed woven into the fabric of my uniform: that seemed to have become an element of the fabric of my uniform
10 weave sth. into : include sth. as an integral part or element (of a fabric); include an element in a story, an artistic work, etc.
E.g. Some golden threads are woven into the fabric.
Argumentative paragraphs are naturally woven into Huttmann's narration.
11 to be liable for negligence: to be held responsible for failing to perform my duty
12 be liable for : to be responsible for by law, to be legally answerable to
13 be liable to : be likely to do or to be something, likely to experience sth. (unpleasant)
E.g. Once you have contacted the credit card protection scheme, you are no longer liable for any loss that might occur.
He is suffering from hypertension and thus is liable to fall if he gets up too suddenly.
The low-lying areas are liable to floods during the rainy season.

14 when no amount of pain medication stilled his moaning and agony: when his pain was so acute that no matter how much pain-relieving medication was used, his suffering could not be eased
still vt. & vi.
E.g. He clapped his hands to still the agitated audience.
When night fell, the village which was boisterous with tourists in the daytime stilled.

15 I wondered about a spiritual judge.: I wondered if there was a spiritual judge (as against a legal judge), who would be supportive of my decision not to push the code blue button, thus to put an end to all this.
16 building character: developing his personal qualities (so that he could face up to the adversity better)
17 the blessed relief of coma: Coma refers to a state of deep unconsciousness that lasts for a prolonged period, caused especially by severe injury or illness. When in a coma, the patient is not conscious of any pain. That's why Huttmann thinks it is a blessed relief.

18 riddled me with guilt: filled me with a strong sense of guilt
The verb riddle here means "fill or permeate sb. or sth. esp. with sth. unpleasant or undesirable".
19 A clutch of panic banded my chest: I was so seized by panic that I felt simply suffocated
clutch n. — grasp
band v. — surround (an object) with sth. in the form of a strip or ring, typically for reinforcement or decoration (usu. be banded )
E.g. The doors to the warehouse are all banded with iron to make them stronger.

20 a waxen pallor slowly transformed his face from person to empty shell: the unhealthily pale color of his face indicated that he was sinking
21 the legal twilight zone: Twilight zone refers to a situation of confusion or uncertainty, which seems to exist between two different states or categories. Thus the legal twilight zone Huttmann says she entered here refers to the situation in which her action of pushing the button to call code blue can be deemed either legal or not legal.

22 a death-denying society: a society where its members are not given the right to dieUntil there is legislation making it a criminal act to code a patient who has requested the right to die ...: Until it becomes law that it is a criminal act to call a resuscitation team to save a patient who has voluntarily asked for the right to die ...

Step 4 Questions
1 There seems to be a contradiction in the title "A Crime of Compassion". What is it?
Key: There are various kinds of crimes, but criminals can be anything but compassionate. It is hardly possible to associate compassion with any crime and being compassionate with a criminal.

2 Huttmann begins her essay with a metaphor. Locate it and then explain it. (para. 3)
Key: The first sentence of para. 3: It was the Phil Donahue show where the guest is a fatted calf and the audience a 200-strong flock of vultures hungering to pick at the bones. Huttmann likens herself (the guest of the talk show) to a fatted calf, and the audience to a flock of more than 200 vultures hungering to pick at the bones. With the metaphor she intends to tell the reader that the way she handled the case of Mac was strongly disapproved of by the general public, and that the concept of mercy killing was unacceptable to them.

4 Where in the essay can we find descriptions of Mac's condition when he was being treated? Why do you think Huttmann is being so specific and detailed? (paras. 6 & 7)
Key: Mostly in para. 6, and the latter part of para. 7. She gives such detailed and specific descriptions of Mac's condition to make vivid to the reader the horrifying sufferings Mac had to endure, ultimately to support her argument that a patient in such condition should be given the right to die if he should so request.

5 Was it a difficult decision for Huttmann to make not to push the button in time?
Key: Obviously it was, as she relates in para. 15 "Nothing I've ever done in my 47 years has taken so much effort as it took not to press that code button."

6 Where does Huttmann state her thesis? (para. 18)
Key: In the last paragraph: Until there is legislation making it a criminal act to code a patient who has requested the right to die, we will all of us risk the same fate as Mac. For whatever reason, we developed the means to prolong life, and now we are forced to use it. We do not have the right to die.

Step 5 Organization and Development/ Argumentative Narration
1 What Is Argumentative Narration?
If an essay is basically an argumentative one and the chief means used for argumentation is narration, it is called argumentative narration.

2 Text Analysis
Huttmann begins the essay with the incident that the TV audience lodged strong accusations against her for murdering a patient she was supposed to care for. But her response does not follow immediately.
She withholds her response to the accusation until the last paragraph, where the audience's accusation of her is mentioned again, and her argument is presented.
Most of the essay is devoted to the narration of the painful dying process of a terminally ill cancer patient, which she witnessed. Based on the narrated incident her argument seems only a natural conclusion.

3 Boy paragraphs
(1) Purpose of Body Paragraphs
The ideas, facts, details, and examples enclosed in the body paragraphs are designed to support and develop the central point stated in the opening. The body paragraphs in an essay may vary in number depending on the subject matter and the purpose for writing. While the body paragraphs relate directly to the thesis statement in the opening, each paragraph has its own main idea to highlight and information to support that main idea.

(2) Strategies of Writing Body Paragraphs
Essays employ a number of rhetorical strategies, each of which describes a particular form of development or arrangement of ideas. Only rarely is any one of these strategies employed alone. Instead, they are almost always used in a combination suited to the subject matter — often along with one or another of the primary modes of discourse as well.
Remember, the aim of an essay is invariably a clear presentation or explanation of ideas. You may base your choice of a strategy or strategies upon several factors: your writing purpose, the central point of your essay, your intended audience, and your viewpoint as a writer.

(3 )Example
An essay of multiple paragraphs makes it possible for you to decide flexibly how to apply and blend strategies when you write an essay. For example, suppose you wanted to compare life in a large city with that in a small town. In only a single paragraph, you would have to focus on a few major similarities and differences and cover these briefly.
However, in an essay, you might even devote an entire body paragraph to similarities and another, differences. You might even devote a third to another strategy — drawing an analogy, for instance, or relating an anecdote.

(4) Guidelines for Choosing Body Paragraph Strategies
When you write an essay, you can combine strategies to suit your purpose, content and audience. Use the following guidelines to choose a strategy or combination of strategies wisely.l
A Consider your writing purpose.
B Certain strategies are especially appropriate for accomplishing particular purposes. For example, for informative or persuasive essays, facts and examples can support your ideas and a compare/contrast or cause/effect strategy can help explain them. For a descriptive essay, you will want to use description, perhaps in combination with analogy.l
C Consider the complexity of your ideas and information and the knowledge level of your audience.
D Examples and definitions help to clarify difficult content. Classification, too, can make complicated content easier to follow. An analogy can be helpful as long as the analogy is clear and sound.l
E Stay focused on your central point.
Strategies should help to convey the central point of an essay without distracting readers. For example, narration can effectively reveal aspects of someone's personality, if you choose a relevant story or anecdote. However if the central point of your essay is how kindhearted your cousin is, then, stories or anecdotes should reflect this trait. An anecdote that deals with, say, your cousin's love of music will blur the focus of your essay at this point.l
F Put yourself in the reader's place.
If you are not sure whether the strategy or strategies you have chosen are the "best" to use, try to view your content as a reader rather than as a writer. Suppose, for example, you are planning an essay to persuade readers that college courses should be graded on a pass/fail basis. What approach would be most likely to convince a reader? Facts and examples? An analogy? Some other strategy? Viewing matters from the reader's vantage point may help you choose your approach.l
G Be flexible.
Make your writing richer and more expressive by experimenting with different strategies and different combinations of strategies. For example, in an informative essay about how exercise improves muscle tone even in elderly people, you might use narration to tell about a specific elderly person's improved strength after beginning an exercise program.

Step 6 Practice : classroom discussion
1 What aspects do we need to consider when we are confronted with a terminally ill person who is willing to end his life ?
2 What are the ethical problems concerning euthanasis?

Step 7 Homework
1. Based on Text I, write a passage on “Should Euthanasis be Allowed”.
2. Write a précis of Text II.