Right to die

or Right to life

A WebQuest for Bachillerato (EUTHANASIA)

Designed by

Marina Alcantud Bermejo
Ana M. Lozano Sánchez

 

 

Introduction

Euthanasia is a complex and emotive subject. It has always been a very controversial topic since a lot of time ago, as it presents big moral problems. But nowadays it is more in our everyday life than ever, due to films as Million Dollar Baby and The sea inside. Real cases as Terry Schiavo or Ramón Sampedro cases are also known by everyone.

For this reason, in Netherlands and Belgium they have just legalized euthanasia and in your country they are now studying the legalization. The government of your country wants to consult some experts on this topic, some of them for legalization and some of them against. The experts should give a legal, a medical and a personal point of view for

 


The Task

Part 1

You are going to make groups of 6 people, one team of 3 for euthanasia, and one group of 3 against euthanasia.

In each group of 6 you should have two lawyers, two physicians and two members of the family of a terminal ill. One of them should be the team for euthanasia, and the other one, the team against.

Each group should give to the teacher two dossiers, one from the team pro, and another from the team against. Each dossier should have three opinions, one from the physician, other from the lawyer and the last from the terminal ill family member:

Physician:

From the medical point of view, you should research all the information you have found in the resources provided. You should write a report with all the important information you have found.

Lawyer:

You should talk about the legal point of view for the euthanasia, what could be considered as suicide, assisted suicide, or homicide.

Member of the family of a terminal ill:

You should make a research about some real cases which may be pro or against euthanasia (depending on your team), and write some reports on these cases.

Part 2

Each group should present their presentation of the dossier they have prepared. They must defend their opinion before a tribunal which should evaluate and think about the legalization in Iceland.

The presentation must have the research of the physician, the lawyer and the member of the family of the terminal ill. Pictures, Power Points presentations, graphics, or any material which may help to defend their points of view may be used.

The group with the best presentation will perform their debate in front of some other classes of the school.


The Process

1. Background activation

These exercises will activate your background knowledge. You should use the resources provided on this page.

Discuss on the opinions you have about euthanasia inside your group. (5 to 10 minutes)

-         Do you think it is legal?

-         Do you think it is moral or ethical?

-         What would you do personally if you were a terminal ill, or any member of your family was a terminal ill?

-         Should euthanasia be legalized?

-         Is it a murder?

Write down the most interesting opinions.

Surf in the web pages provided as General resources and classify them in pro euthanasia web pages or against euthanasia web pages.

2. Workshop (vocabulary lesson)

·        Try to find the definition of the following words in the Glossaries provided:

-        Active euthanasia

-        Passive euthanasia

-        Involuntary euthanasia

-        Voluntary euthanasia

-        Living Will

-        Palliative Care

-        Life Sustaining Treatment

-        Assisted Suicide

-        Physician Assisted Dying

 

·        Improve your knowledge about euthanasia with this quiz

 

 

3. Preparation for the task

1. Choose a group of 6 persons.

2.  Divide your group in 2 teams, one team pro euthanasia, and other team against.

3. Inside each team, you should have a physician, a lawyer and a member of the family of a terminal ill.

4. Each person should read the information provided in the resources and elaborate the report.

4. Complete the task

Now it’s time to start with your task.

1.    Once you have researched all the information, follow the steps provided in the web pages and write your own report.

2.    Now you have to create a report with all the reports of the group, once you have finished it, you will submit it to the teacher and you will have to elaborate a debate.

 

General Resources

Let´s talk properly about euthanasia

 

Glossaries

 

Against Team Resources

       Physician

·        http://www.nrlc.org/euthanasia/asisuid1.html

·        http://www.nrlc.org/euthanasia/asisuid2.html

·        http://www.nrlc.org/euthanasia/asisuid3.html

·        http://www.family.org/cforum/fosi/bioethics/facts/a0028033.cfm

       Lawyer

·        http://www.finalexit.org/worldlaws.html

·        http://www.globalchange.com/euthandt.htm

·        http://www.finalexit.org/worldlaws.html

·        http://www.family.org/cforum/fosi/bioethics/euthanasia/a0027997.cfm

  Terminal ill family member

 

·        http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=1337

·        http://www.hospicepatients.org/questionable-death.html

·        http://timworstall.typepad.com/timworstall/2005/02/argument_agains.html

 

Pro team resources

       Physician

       Lawyer

 

       Terminal ill family member

 


Evaluation

You will be evaluated as explained in the following table:

Parts of the task

First Part

1

Second Part

2

Final Result

3

Score

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dossier

 

Each report of the dossier will be evaluated separately. The beginning should be a general review with the main point to be developed in the rest of the report.

The main body of the report should follow the main points provided in the help activities in the preparation of the task. The language must be accurate and polite.

The reports should contain the most important information you found. It should be very well organized, the information given should be reliable, and it should be expound seriously.

 

You will have two marks from 0 to 10, one for your individual report, and another one for the dossier, its presentation and global impression.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Presentation

 

The order of the speakers during the presentation, the material used (Power Point, pictures, posters, etc.), and the performance in class will be evaluated.

The language, the fluency of speaking, and above all, the content of each individual presentation are very important. Also the links you use between a participation and the next one.

The presentation must be very persuasive; your account should be accurate, concise and original, so you can use any material.

 

You will have two marks from 0 to 10, one for your individual participation, and other for the whole group, given by the rest of the class.

The group with the highest score, adding the 4 marks from the dossier and presentation, will perform their debate in front of some other classes of the school.


Conclusion

After making your dossier, and preparing your presentation, you will have a wider knowledge, not just about euthanasia, but also about some problems that you may think are quite away from you, and they can be closer than you imagine.

In addition, you will also be able to have a firm opinion about a controversial topic, and defend it in front of the class. And the best of that, is that you may agree or not with the idea, but you have to make your best to defend it.


Credits & References

Thanks to Bernie Dodge, who invented WebQuest, and made a huge range of resources accessible for everyone.

Thanks to Isabel Pérez, who showed us the way to start with WebQuest.

Thanks to all the pages we have used as resources, as we would have made nothing without them.

Thanks to Nancy Velázquez and Elena Iliyichova, for their WebQuest on Euthanasia, which have given us some ideas.