Evaluating Design Choice and Threats to Validity in a Essay

Evaluating Design Choice and Threats to Validity in a Quasi-Experimental Design - Essay Example The present author selected the choice of quasi experimental design with the rationale of avoiding the need to have two different sample sizes to work with because that would have been time consuming and defeated the overall time frame set for the researcher for the given academic research. With the quasi experimental design however, all that the researcher needed to do was to use a comparison group, without the need to employing the use of an experimental group: a situation that would have brought about the need for a posttest at the end of the given study (Cheng, 2009). The choice of quasi experimental design brought about two major types of validity, which were external validity and internal validity. With reference to external validity, it could be said that because quasi experimental designs deal with real-world scenarios, it is often easier to guarantee external validity because the results of the researcher are often evidently clear for public scrutiny. The absence of random sampling however inhibits the general internal validity of the quasi experimental design (Sanigorski et al., 2008). The author was therefore not in a better position to critically explain the validity that existed because the use of comparison groups defeated the idea of internal validity of the research. Sanigorski, A. M., Bell, A. C., Kremer, P. J., Cuttler, R., & Swinburn, B. A. (2008). Reducing unhealthy weight gain in children through community capacity-building: Results of a quasiexperimental intervention program, Be Active Eat Well. International Journal of Obesity, 32,

Physician Assisted Suicide Should Be Legalized Essay

Physician Assisted Suicide Should Be Legalized - Essay Example Under such circumstances, some of these patients would decide to die rather than continue to live under these conditions. At this stage, in order to ease their ongoing pain, few of the patients request assistance from their physicians (Blank & Bonnicksen, 1994). The patients who ask for such favours do not fall into simple diagnostic categories. The spectrum of patients who has been asking for this favour is very wide and the range of physicians’ response is equivalent to nothing when compared. Yet each request can be compelling and their ongoing life is miserable. Few of the examples include a person who is suffering from AIDS from eight years and as a result, has lost his sight and also losing his memory; a mother with seven children suffering from ovarian cancer, who can no longer eat and has bedsores on her abdomen (Blank, Bonnicksen, 1994). These are the sort of cases for which the physician assisted suicide must become legal. Supportive argument Physician assisted suicid e is part of Euthanasia. In 1985, the Dutch Government Commission has defined this as the deliberate act in which the patient’s life is terminated on the request of the patient by a physician. The same government defines physician-assisted suicide as the act in which the patient takes the lethal drugs her or himself. According to the Oregon Death with Dignity Act 1994, physician-assisted suicide is defined as â€Å"the prescription of a lethal dose of medication for a person with a terminal illness (Dees, Dassen, Dekkers & Weel, 2010). In 1994, the state of Oregon, USA, has legalized the physician-assisted suicide. In this year, 0.12 % of the annual death rate was recorded by this process. In Belgium, when physician-assisted suicide was legalized in 2002, 0.3 % of the annual deaths were labelled under its title (Lachman, 2010). The above discussed statistics show that physician assisted suicide has not affected the overall death rate of the states. It can also be concluded t hat the process was used only in the dire situation for deserving patients. Other than this, in Physician Assisted suicide: Compassionate Liberation or Murder, Lachman (2010) states that the legalization of assisted death has shown significant improvements in the level of communication between the patient and the physicians and in palliative care training for the physicians. In order to reduce the influence of assisted suicide in the wrong direction, certain implications can be used such as raising the retirement age; this will help the older people to remain active for a longer period of time. This will also help the older people to continue with their contribution to the society and a fewer number of people will suffer from the long period of decline before death. Other than this, a considerable time must be given to the patient between the oral and the written request. In case, it is seen that the patient can turn down his request by the help of psychological counselling, it must be provided to him/her. Most importantly, the patient who is opting for physician assisted suicide must be the resident of the state. Any case from outside the state must not be catered. Due to such implications, it will be made sure that the suicide assistance is given only to the deserving patients. Counter argument At first, assisted suicide seems to be a