Eng 2D1
Literature Circles
Selection A
Sorry, Time’s Up
Abow, Keith. What Jack Kevorkian Didn’t Understand About Death
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/06/03/what-dr-jack-kevorkian-didnt-understand-aboutdeath/#ixzz2bM1U1YsM
Harren, Mia." Overpopulation Is a Myth." The Catholic Anchor (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 27 July
2013. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/29/overpopulation-is-a-myth-plenty-of-food-and-spaceexists
Harrsion, Harry. Make Room! Make Room! (excerpt) http://www.amazon.co.uk/MakeRoom-Penguin-Modern-Classics
Nolan, William. Logan’s Run (excerpt) http://staff.osuosl.org/~bkero/logansrun.pdf
Robinson, Spider. No Renewal
(http://missjagmohan.wikispaces.com/file/view/No+Renewal.pdf)
Scott, Duncan Campbell, The Forsaken (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-forsaken/)
Urbonas, Julijonas. "Euthanasia-coaster." Projects - Euthanasia-coaster. N.p., 2010. Web.
27 July 2013. http://www.julijonasurbonas.lt/p/euthanasia-coaster
.
Literature Circle Overview
Over the next few weeks, you will be working with a selection of fiction and non-fiction pieces-both poetry and prose-- based on a particular theme or topic. You will get a chance to read all
of the packages before you choose the one that interests you the most. Once everyone has
selected, you will be put in literature circles.
Literature circles should foster rich discussion about each piece. Your ideas and those of the
other members of the group will help you produce quality work.
Each member of the literature circle will submit the following pieces of writing:
3 Journals
2 Responses to Questions
1 Short Essay (Based on Seminar)
In addition, you literature circle group will give a seminar which will focus on the particular theme
presented in your package.
Suggestions and Reminders

Take rough notes to support the literature circle discussions and your responses to the
required activities.

Look ahead to see the expectations for each selection. It will help you and your group to
focus on the required tasks.

You cannot take the packages home. If you need to review any material, then copy the
web address and access it from home.

All written assignments must be submitted in MLA format.

Everyone must share the presentation time for the group seminar.

Although you are sharing ideas with other members of the group, all marks are
individual. You may choose the same activity as another member of your circle, but you
cannot submit an identical assignment.

Your teacher will be grading learning skills throughout the literature circle activities.

If you are absent for the literature circle sessions, you are expected to speak with the
members of the circle to find out what material was missed. You are still responsible for
you role in the literature circle.
Begin Reading:
The Forsaken
I
Once in the winter
Out on a lake
In the heart of the north-land,
Far from the Fort
And far from the hunters,
A Chippewa woman
With her sick baby,
Crouched in the last hours
Of a great storm.
Frozen and hungry,
She fished through the ice
With a line of the twisted
Bark of the cedar,
And a rabbit-bone hook
Polished and barbed;
Fished with the bare hook
All through the wild day,
Fished and caught nothing;
While the young chieftain
Tugged at her breasts,
Or slept in the lacings
Of the warm tikanagan.
All the lake-surface
Streamed with the hissing
Of millions of iceflakes
Hurled by the wind;
Behind her the round
Of a lonely island
Roared like a fire
With the voice of the storm
In the deeps of the cedars.
Valiant, unshaken,
She took of her own flesh,
Baited the fish-hook,
Drew in a gray-trout,
Drew in his fellows,
Heaped them beside her,
Dead in the snow.
Valiant, unshaken,
She faced the long distance,
Wolf-haunted and lonely,
Sure of her goal
And the life of her dear one:
Tramped for two days,
On the third in the morning,
Saw the strong bulk
Of the Fort by the river,
Saw the wood-smoke
Hand soft in the spruces,
Heard the keen yelp
Of the ravenous huskies
Fighting for whitefish:
Then she had rest.
II
Years and years after,
When she was old and withered,
When her son was an old man
And his children filled with vigour,
They came in their northern tour on the verge of winter,
To an island in a lonely lake.
There one night they camped, and on the morrow
Gathered their kettles and birch-bark
Their rabbit-skin robes and their mink-traps,
Launched their canoes and slunk away through the islands,
Left her alone forever,
Without a word of farewell,
Because she was old and useless,
Like a paddle broken and warped,
Or a pole that was splintered.
Then, without a sigh,
Valiant, unshaken,
She smoothed her dark locks under her kerchief,
Composed her shawl in state,
Then folded her hands ridged with sinews and corded with veins,
Folded them across her breasts spent with the nourishment of children,
Gazed at the sky past the tops of the cedars,
Saw two spangled nights arise out of the twilight,
Saw two days go by filled with the tranquil sunshine,
Saw, without pain, or dread, or even a moment of longing:
Then on the third great night there came thronging and thronging
Millions of snowflakes out of a windless cloud;
They covered her close with a beautiful crystal shroud,
Covered her deep and silent.
But in the frost of the dawn,
Up from the life below,
Rose a column of breath
Through a tiny cleft in the snow,
Fragile, delicately drawn,
Wavering with its own weakness,
In the wilderness a sign of the spirit,
Persisting still in the sight of the sun
Till day was done.
Then all light was gathered up by the hand of God and hid in His breast,
Then there was born a silence deeper than silence,
Then she had rest.
Duncan Campbell Scott
The Euthanasia Roller Coaster
Urbonas, Julijonas. "Euthanasia-coaster." Projects - Euthanasia-coaster. N.p., 2010. Web. 27
July 2013. <http://www.julijonasurbonas.lt/p/euthanasia-coaster/>.
“Euthanasia Coaster” is a hypothetic euthanasia machine in the form of a roller coaster,
engineered to humanely – with elegance and euphoria – take the life of a human being. Riding
the coaster’s track, the rider is subjected to a series of intensive motion elements that induce
various unique experiences: from euphoria to thrill, and from tunnel vision to loss of
consciousness, and, eventually, death. Thanks to the marriage of the advanced crossdisciplinary research in mechanical engineering, space medicine, fairground psychology and, of
course, gravity, the fatal journey is made pleasant, elegant and ritualistic. Celebrating the limits
of the human body but also the liberation from the horizontal life, this ‘kinetic sculpture’ is in fact
the ultimate roller coaster: John Allen, former president of the famed Philadelphia Toboggan
Company, once sad that “the ultimate roller coaster is built when you send out twenty-four
people and they all come back dead. This could be done, you know.”
Experience
Seated, harnessed with a health monitoring system, and strapped to the seat of a single-seat
coaster vehicle, you are slowly towed to the top of the drop-tower. It takes a while, as the ride is
about half a kilometre long! Hence, you have a few minutes to contemplate your decision and
your life in retrospect. You even find enough time to adapt to the height and get through a series
of imaginary fatal falls, while realising that the objects on the ground are getting smaller. Slow lift
is an important illusion that intensifies the perception of height. The slightest movement of the
car triggers drumming heartbeats and tests your decision… The top! If this test has not changed
your mind yet, then at this point you have no choice but to submit yourself to the very last fall.
Yet you still have a few minutes for the last words and goodbyes, or just enjoying the
exhilarating bird’s-eye view of the surroundings. You relax and press the FALL button. Whirrr…
swish – the ultimate surrender to gravity! No, you realize, in fact it is even greater than just
giving up, as in the blink of an eye you enter the heart-line, the whirling element of the coaster
track, where your heart stays roughly in line with the centre of the fall trajectory. In other words,
your body spins around the heart while you fall. Gravitational choreography! The scooting gust
of wind, goose bumps, suspension of breath, and vertigo — a set of experiences comprising a
sort of fairground anaesthesia — prepare you for the fatal part of the ride.
Now you are already falling at a speed close to the terminal velocity, when the force of air drag
becomes equal to the force of gravity, thus cancelling the acceleration. You feel your body as if
supported by an air pillow. Just after this point, the track smoothly straightens forward, entering
the first loop of the coaster, a continuously upward-sloping section of the track that eventually
results in a complete 360-degree circle, completely inverting the riders at the topmost part. The
centrifugal force drives the car upward, and you are literally pinned to the seat, your buttocks’
flesh is pressed against the ergonomic planes of the seat so hard that your whole body is
almost immobilised. The tissues of your face start drooping down — it looks like ageing
remarkably. Breathing requires more effort, as the ribs and the rest of the internal organs are
pulled down, which empties air from the lungs. But most probably you are already unconscious,
as this force rushes the blood to the lower extremities of the body, thereby causing oxygen
deficiency in the brain. It is exactly this cerebral suffocation, also known as cerebral hypoxia,
that is going to kill you. If you are still conscious, you are more resistant to the high g-forces
than the majority of people, but don’t worry: the loop is engineered in such a way that the force
will remain constant despite the changes in speed, thus ensuring that the painful level of
acceleration is not reached. And be assured, the second loop will definitely do its job. In the
meantime, if you are lucky, or, rather, g-force-resistant enough to be awake, your vision may
blur, lose colour (greyout) and peripheral sight (tunnel vision), or even disappear completely
(blackout), together with hearing. Eventually, this experience — accompanied with
disorientation, anxiety, confusion, and, most importantly, euphoria — is crowned with G-LOC (gforce induced loss of consciousness), during which the body is completely limp, and vivid
bizarre dreams occur, such as being in a maze and unable to get out, or floating in a white
space, not knowing who you are, why you are here, etc. Of course, you can tell the story only if
you survive, which is virtually impossible. But you might ignore this and suppose you have
survived. You would soon recover from G-LOC, remaining unconscious, and your body would
flail around in a chaotic fit that is called ‘funky chicken’ in aeromedical slang, as the neurons in
the brain – replenished with extra oxygenated blood pumped harder from the heart – begin firing
once again. This causes arms and legs to twitch uncontrollably. Finally, coming around,
although still confused and disoriented, unable to remember anything, you would regain your
memories in a few hours, and they would be one of the most memorable, with a peculiar
souvenir on your legs: little red pinpoints all over the skin as a result of blood leaks through the
blood vessels, a sort of gravitational measles.
The rest of the ride, six or five loops, proceeds with your body being numb, ensuring that the trip
ends your life. You die, or, more accurately put, your brain dies of complete oxygen deprivation,
a legal indicator of death in many jurisdictions. The biomonitoring suit double-checks if there is a
need for the second round, which is extremely unlikely, as the result is guaranteed by sevenfold repetition.
Make Room! Make Room!
Make Room! Make Room! was written in 1966. Paul Ehrlich, an American scientist, wrote
this introduction to the paperback version of the novel.
Introduction
One of the most ominous trends in a world replete with ominous trends is the accelerating
growth of urban populations. In part, this is directly due to the population explosion—people are
being born at a faster rate than they are dying. But population growth also contributes indirectly.
For instance, as the total world population skyrockets, more and more pressure develops to
mechanize farming, and farm workers displaced by tractors and combines go to seek their
fortunes in the city. And, of course, many people just prefer to live in cities. The results of the
"population explosion" in cities are getting increasing publicity. Tokyo Bay is frantically being
filled with garbage in order to obtain land for expansion of a city already so crowded that there is
a two-year wait for middle class apartments. Calcutta today has hundreds of thousands of
people living homeless in its streets; yet it seems inevitable that Calcutta's population will
increase to 12 million by 1990, if the city grows only as fast as the rest of India. In the
underdeveloped countries, cities increased in size by 55 percent in the decade 1950-1960.
When the data for 1960-1970 are available, urban growth for that decade can be expected to
have been even more spectacular. The inability of those countries to care for their burgeoning
urban populations is easily seen in the spectacular slums associated with them.
Less visible are the high rates of unemployment and social unrest that follow such rapid
urbanization. The developed countries, with an overall rate of urban growth less than half that of
the poor nations, have also faced increasingly serious problems in their cities. These have been
especially intense in the United States, where the urban population has more than doubled in
the last half century, and the proportion of urban dwellers has changed from less than half of the
population to nearly three fourths. The problems of American cities, such as the degeneration of
city centers and uncontrolled growth and development at the periphery, have been the topic of
an enormous volume of literature. The cities themselves have been the target of numerous,
often unsuccessful programs of rehabilitation. Projection of even the mid-range future of urban
areas presents well nigh insuperable problems.
We can be reasonably sure of some things, however. For instance, the current pattern of urban
population growth won't continue much past the turn of the century. Demographer Kingsley
Davis has projected those growth trends, with startling results. If the post-1950 rates of urban
growth continue to 1984, half of the human race will be living in cities. By 2023 everyone would
live in an urban area, and by 2044 everyone would live in cities with a million or more
population. If by some negative miracle the trends continued that long, the largest "city" would
have a population of 1.4 billion souls, one of every 10 human beings. But the results of such
projections, while instructive, are also preposterous. We know things won’t work out that way as
far as the numbers living in cities are concerned. Moreover, we are completely ignorant of future
trends in urban living conditions. We must leave these to our imaginations—or better yet to the
talented imaginations of writers like Harry Harrison. Make Room! Make Room! presents a
gripping scenario of where current trends may be leading. Such scenarios are important tools in
helping us to think about the future, and in bringing home to people the possible consequences
of our collective behavior. When such a serious goal can be achieved through an engrossing
work of fiction we are doubly rewarded.
Thank you, Harry Harrison.
Paul R. Ehrlich
Harry Harrison
MAKE ROOM! MAKE ROOM!
basis for the movie "Soylent Green"
To
TODD and MOIRA
For your sakes, children,
I hope this proves to be a work of fiction.
PROLOGUE
In December, 1959, The President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, said: "This
government... will not... as long as I am here, have a positive political doctrine in its program
that has to do with this problem of birth control. That is not our business." It has not been the
business of any American government since that time. In 1950 the United States—with just 9.5
per cent of the world's population—was consuming 50 per cent of the world's raw materials.
This percentage keeps getting bigger and within fifteen years, at the present rate of growth, the
United States will be consuming over 83 per cent of the annual output of the earth's materials.
By the end of the century, should our population continue to increase at the same rate, this
country will need more than 100 per cent of the planet's resources to maintain our current living
standards. This is a mathematical impossibility—aside from the fact that there will be about
seven billion people on this earth at that time and—perhaps—they would like to have some of
the raw materials too. In which case, what will the world be like?
MONDAY, AUGUST 9, 1999
NEW YORK CITY—stolen from the trusting Indians by the wily Dutch, taken from the lawabiding Dutch by the warlike British, then wrested in turn from the peaceful British by the
revolutionary colonials. Its trees were burned decades ago, its hills leveled and the fresh ponds
drained and filled, while the crystal springs have been imprisoned underground and spill their
pure waters directly into the sewers. Reaching out urbanizing tentacles from its island home, the
city has become a megalopolis with four of its five boroughs blanketing half of one island over a
hundred miles long, engulfing another island, and sprawling up the Hudson River onto the
mainland of North America.
The fifth and original borough is Manhattan: a slab of primordial granite and metamorphic rock
bounded on all sides by water, squatting like a steel and stone spider in the midst of its web of
bridges, tunnels, tubes, cables and ferries. Unable to expand outward, Manhattan has writhed
upward, feeding on its own flesh as it tears down the old buildings to replace them with the new,
rising higher and still higher—yet never high enough, for there seems to be no limit to the
people crowding here. They press in from the outside and raise their families, and their children
and their children's children raise families, until this city is populated as no other city has ever
been in the history of the world.
On this hot day in August in the year 1999 there are—give or take a few thousand—thirty-five
Million people in the City of New York.
PART ONE
. . . (Harrison’s story begins here with an introduction of the protagonist)
Overpopulation is a Myth
Mia Harren
Harren, Mia. “Overpopulation Is a Myth." The Catholic Anchor (n.d.): n. pag. LifeNews.com.
Web. 27 July 2013
(Check out the videos on this website. What do you think?)
With the world population at around 6.8 billion last year,
food and living space are hardly a concern. In 1990, it was estimated that the world could feed
up to 35 billion people. Most sources estimate that the global population will level out at around
9.2 billion in 2050, and then start to decline.
Indian economist Raj Krishna estimates that India alone is capable of increasing crop yields to
the point of providing the entire world’s food supply.
Lack of food is not the problem but rather the need for more efficient distribution.
Another supposed problem is living space.
In 2003, the entire population of the world could fit inside the state of Arkansas. The world may
seem crowded, but it’s because humans cluster together for trade and companionship, not for
lack of room. Even so, there are those who insist that we will continue to breed exponentially,
causing a population explosion.
Paul Ehrlich first introduced this idea in 1968 with his book, “The Population Bomb.” It
succeeded in scaring the masses, just as Thomas Malthus did, but these theories suffer under
the impression that humans are the only thing fluctuating.
“Population rose six-fold in the next 200 years. But this is an increase, not an explosion,
because it has been accompanied, and in large part made possible, by a productivity explosion,
a resource explosion, a food explosion, an information explosion, a communications explosion,
a science explosion, and a medical explosion,” wrote community development specialist Abid
Ullah Jan in an article published in 2003 called “Overpopulation: Myths, Facts, and Politics.”
Poverty, too, is not the effect of overpopulation, but rather the aftermath of poor leadership. In
Ethiopia, government officials are blamed for causing poverty by confiscating food and exporting
it to buy arms.
In Africa, economic problems are seen as a result of excessive government spending, taxes on
farmers, inflation, trade restrictions and too much government ownership.
Depopulation is more likely to cause economic distress than these other factors.
Consumers are the largest component of GDP. If you drop that, it drags down the whole
economy. Schools close for lack of students, neighborhoods are void of children, labor
shortages cramp productivity and the list goes on.
With fewer children we would be faced with an aging population causing generational warfare
on government spending. Social Security and Medicare are unsustainable unless each
generation of taxpaying workers is larger than the one before it. Fertility should be encouraged,
not seen as a crime.
The myth of overpopulation has been exposed as fertility rates continue to fall drastically, in
many cases below replacing rate. The lowest replacement rate is 2.1 children per woman, yet
many countries like Italy and Russia are closer to 1.69.
Even without so-called “population control,” fertility rates have dropped as women put off
marriage and children to pursue higher education.
Population control, often mislabeled as “reproductive rights,” today consists of sterilization,
contraception, abortion and open discouragement of fertility.
China’s notorious one-child policy which includes forced abortions and sterilizations will lead to
a collapsing culture as the population plummets.
The sad reality of sterilization is if a woman has a child, and gets sterilized afterwards, and her
child tragically dies young, she can never have another.
Not only are forced abortions a waste of human potential (which developing child could have
been the next Mozart or Einstein?), abortion drugs administered to women in foreign countries
also often cause serious complications. Medical posts in Africa or Peru are filled with
contraceptives and other population control related items, but they often lack basics needed for
overall health.
These options are wrong, not just morally, but logically and medically speaking. If the money
spent on population control were moved to child survival programs, imagine the positive results.
Instead of pushing so-called “safe sex” we should promote the Catholic Church’s teachings on
responsible parenthood. In this modern world, sex has become solely a source of pleasure, with
children as a side effect. Sex should be recognized for what it is — an act of life.
Natural family planning, in which couples are open to the miracle of new life, is the only form of
spacing of children acceptable to the church because it does not separate the two components
of the sexual act — union and procreation. Catholicism stresses heavily the importance of both
components being present.
Our faith calls us to be generous in welcoming children into this world.
Yes, our lifestyles need to change, but not in the way population control advocates prescribe.
The world’s problems cannot be defined by one false theory.
The myth of overpopulation needs to be dispelled. The proof is before our eyes.
. Logan’s
Run
By William Nolan
http://staff.osuosl.org/~bkero/logansrun.pdf
The seeds of the Little War were planted in a restless summer during the mid-1960s, with sit-ins
and student demonstrations as youth tested its strength. By the early 1970s over 75 per cent of
the people living on earth were under twenty-one years of age.
The population continued to climb—and with it the youth percentage.
In the 1980s the figure was 79.7 per cent.
In the 1990s, 82.4 per cent.
In the year 2000—critical mass.
Chapter 10 (He numbers his chapters in reverse order)
Her hair was matted, her face streaked and swollen. One knee oozed slow blood; she's cut it on
a steel abutment.
A stitching pain lived in her side.
She ran.
There was a high lovers' moon and the night was full of shapes. Shadows slid on shadows.
When had she crossed the river? Was it last night or the night before? Where was she now?
She didn't know.
Off to her right she could see an unending length of metal mesh beyond a stretch of dead
asphalt. Far out on the pavement sea was a cluster of teeter-swings. An industrial nursery; it
had to be Stoneham or Sunrise.
Perhaps her baby was there!
She veered to the left, away from the mesh, into the deep night-black between buildings.
Abruptly she found her passage blocked by a high board barrier. She turned. Maybe she could
double back over the river. If she could only rest.
Wait! She froze, remained motionless. There was someone in the shadows ahead. A silent
scream ripped at her throat.
Sandman!
Panic drove her heart against her chest in shuddering strokes. She spun about, clawed at the
blistered boards, her fingernails breaking as she sought a grip on the coarse wood. The fence
was too high. For an instant (a century?) she clung there, trying to will her muscles to lift her ohso-heavy body, but all the energy was gone. Something tore inside her, and she crumpled at the
base of the wood. Huddled into herself, she studied the char-black flower crystal centered in the
palm of her right hand. A few days ago it had been a warm blood-red—just as seven years
before it had been electric-blue, and seven years earlier, sun-yellow. A color for each seven
years of her life. Now she was twenty-one and her flower was dull black. Sleep black. Death
black. he figure moved calmly toward her, across the moon-pavement. She didn't look up. She
stared at her palm, because her future and her past were written there. All of her days and her
nights and her fears and her hopes.
Why had she believed in Sanctuary? Insane. Impossible. Why hadn't she been like all the
others who had accepted Sleep?
Now the dark figure, in black, stood over her, but she did not look up. She didn't beg because
begging was useless.
Instead she remade the world.
She was not here, outlawed and condemned, shamed and terrified; she was in Sanctuary—on a
wide, wind-lazy meadow beside a cool stream of silver—a world in which time did not exist.
Then why was her hand scrabbling under her torn clothing for the vibroknife she'd hidden there?
Why the urgency to plunge the buzzing steel through breast and rib into her heart? Why?
She saw the Gun come up.
The homer!
She saw the moonlight dazzle off the dark-blue barrel.
The homer!
She saw the pale, tight-set face of the Sandman, and saw his eyes above the Gun, as his
fingers
whitened on the trigger.
The homer!
There was a soft explosion.
That was the last thing she heard.
And the last thing she felt was raw, blinding agony, as the homer struck, burned, ripped and
unraveled her.
********************************************************
Logan was tired, but the little man kept talking.
"You know how it is, citizen." he said "Nobody feels like he's done it all. All the traveling, all the
girls, all the living. I'm no different from anybody else. I'd like to live to be twenty-five, thirty…but
it just isn't going to happen. And I can accept that. I've got no regrets. None to linger on, I mean.
I've lived a good life. I've had my share and nobody can say that Sawyer is a whiner."
He was talking compulsively. As long as he talked he didn't have to think. Logan had seen a lot
of them on Last day, talking away the final hours.
"You know what I'm going to do?" asked the man, whose palm-flower was blinking red, then
black, then red. He didn't wait for a reply. He went on in a rapid voice, telling Logan exactly what
he was going to do.
Logan had changed to grays back in DS Headquarters, and he wondered if the man would be
talking to him if he were in his black tunic. No doubt he would Sawyer was obviously the type
who went through life unworried about Deep Sleep men and Guns. Which was proper. He was a
good citizen, and good citizens made a stable world.
"—and then I'm going over to the Castlemont Glasshouse and get myself three of the youngest,
prettiest girls in the stagroom. One will be blond. You know, with deep-blue eyes and blue-white
hair.
Then I'll get one with short black hair and one with golden-brown skin. Three beauties. I hear
they'll do anything for you when you're on Lastday."
The man looked at his palm. The flower bloomed red, then black, then red. "Did you ever
wonder if the Thinker makes mistakes, the same as people do? Because it doesn't seem like
I've turned twenty one.
It really doesn't. It seems I turned fourteen maybe five years ago. That would make me just
nineteen." He said this without conviction. "I remember the day, when my flower changed and I
was fourteen. I was in Japan, and it was the first time I'd visited Fujiyama. Wonderful mountain!
Inspiring!
Ever see it?"
Logan nodded. He'd seen it.
"I sure remember the day. Couldn't have been more than five years ago—maybe six. Do you
think the machine could make that kind of mistake?"
Logan didn't want to remember how many years had passed since he'd been fourteen. Of late
he had tried not to think about this. His flower was still a steady red, but…
"No," said Sawyer, answering his own question. "The machine wouldn't make that kind of a
mistake."
He was silent for a long moment; then, in a quiet voice, he said, "I suppose I'm scared." His
flower blinked red, black, red, black.
"Most people are," said Logan.
"But not this scared," said the man. He swallowed, raised a hand. "Don't get me wrong, citizen.
I'm no coward. I'm not going to run. I have my pride. The system is right, I know that. World can
only support so much life. Got to be a way to keep the population down…I've been loyal and I
won't change now."
The two sat quietly as the rumbling belt carried them up through the three mile complex.
At last the man spoke again: "Do you really believe that a homer is—is as terrible as they say it
is?
"Yes," said Logan. "I believe it."
"What gets me is the way it finds a runner. Once it's fired at him, I mean. The way it homes in on
the body heat. They say it burns out your whole nervous system. Every nerve in your body."
Logan didn't answer.
What Dr. Jack Kevorkian Didn't Understand About Death
By Dr. Keith Ablow
Published June 03, 2011
FoxNews.com
Jack Kevorkian, known as “Doctor Death” for assisting patients he deemed terminally ill to end
their lives, has died. Kevorkian claimed to have “assisted” in at least 130 suicides, beginning
in1990. He was charged with murder four times, being acquitted in three cases and having a
mistrial declared in another.
On March 26, 1999 Kevorkian was charged with second degree murder after administering a
lethal injection to ALS victim Thomas Youk, at Mr. Youk’s request. He was convicted and
sentenced to 10 to 25 years in jail, but paroled in 2007 after serving just 8 years.
Kevorkian brought the debate on euthanasia front and center in America and was willing to be
jailed to make his point. At a time when medical science was offering more and more ways to
extend life, but often not offering any improved quality of life, Kevorkian argued that an
individual should be able to actively decide to die.
Despite his passion and his willingness to use civil disobedience to change the way we view
suffering and death, there are many problems with Kevorkian’s view of the proper place of
euthanasia in the world.
First, it neglects the way in which his own psyche might have colored that view. Kevorkian was
utterly fascinated by death. His mother had fled and survived the Armenian death marches
organized by Muslim Turks during the early part of the 20th century.
He decided to become a pathologist. That means that he elected a medical specialty focused on
diseased tissues and ones from dead bodies. Pathology is a fascinating and important field, but,
when one adds to Kevorkian’s specialty interest the fact that he photographed the eyes of dying
patients while a pathology resident, one can legitimately wonder whether his interest in dying
bordered on unhealthy obsession.
A legitimate question remains whether Kevorkian was a dedicated, though misguided,
physician, or a serial killer taking refuge under the mantel of the profession. If a serial killer, he
was perhaps the most prolific in the history of the world.
Second, Kevorkian didn’t merely champion the rights of dying patients to refuse treatment, he
argued for physician-assisted suicide. In so doing, he suggested that the medical profession
should abandon its sole focus on combating illness and extending life and make physicians
available to also actively end life. He did not account for the fact that incorporating that
dichotomy of motivations within a healing profession could easily diminish the zealousness and
purity of spirit with which doctors would fight to prolong life in the elderly and terminally ill, even
if no assisted suicide were requested.
Kevorkian also neglected the fact that opening the door to physician-assisted suicide would inevitably
lead to a slippery slope in which forces in society would argue about what really constituted a good and
worthwhile life, and when it was better to embrace death.
As a medical reporter years ago, I visited Amsterdam, where physician-assisted suicide was legal. More
than one doctor told me that they would certainly consider assisting in the suicide of an amputee if that
person felt life was unbearable without four limbs. “If you were a swimmer and you loved swimming, and
now your right arm is gone, and you no longer want to live if you can’t swim, I am your man,” one doctor
told me over dinner.
Why would we not focus our efforts on conquering chronic pain and curing illness and battling to find
reserves of self-esteem even in human beings who assert they have no will to live? Why would we not
resolutely and universally help them to see that the next minute or hour or day could be one in which they
shared a thought that changed a person’s life, or showed courage in the face of adversity that served as
an example that would last that person’s life entire.
Can you imagine a psychiatrist advising a patient that her desire to commit suicide was rational and that
he would offer her a referral to a physician to administer her a lethal injection? That is the world Jack
Kevorkian wanted to see.
If Jack Kevorkian (and notice that I do not in this article use “Dr.” in front of his name, ever) did not intuit
that the slippery slope would certainly manifest itself in America (were assisted suicide widely available)
then he was either naïve or bloodthirsty. We really can’t know which. What we do know is that he was
willing to kill, again and again, even though it was against the law.
Kevorkian also neglected the fact that once assisted suicide law were legislated, there would certainly be
those who would seek to expand it beyond the defined parameters of those who were terminally ill (as
evidenced by the Amsterdam experience). How about those with unbearable migraine headaches? How
about those who are blind? How about those sentenced to penal institutions for 30 years or longer? How
about those with mental retardation who are competent to make decisions, but wish not to live with their
disabilities? How about the poor?
Kevorkian didn’t envision the millions of misguided families who would be encouraged to wonder,
tragically, why a loved one wasn’t electing what would be widely available physician-assisted suicide?
Why was their elderly father spending so much money on assisted living or nursing care or medical care
when he could decide so easily to die painlessly—and with the blessing of the medical establishment and
the government?
Once a society begins to legislate death, human life becomes less valuable. It is like arithmetic. It just
happens. It is inevitable.
The German government’s embrace of euthanasia before the Holocaust was no accident.
Kevorkian seemingly didn’t understand that anyone in America or anywhere else can take his or her life
painlessly if that person is utterly determined to do so. Sadly, information is available in books and on the
Internet about how to bring about one’s own demise with certainty. No one really needed Kevorkian’s help
to leave the earth before God took that person.
In sum, Kevorkian’s passing is the passing of a singular threat to our civilized way of thinking and our
embrace of the value of human life.
Procedure
A. Readings and Literature Circle Meetings
1. Ensure you have read all the selections in this package.
2. Write point form notes on each of the pieces in this package. Write about the feelings,
thoughts, and ideas you experienced as you read each piece. Use specific references from the
text to support your view. For each selection, you need to be prepared to share at least 2
observations (with supporting details) and one discussion question.
3. Share your responses with the group. Your teacher will give you more specific instructions
for the actual literature circle meetings. Discuss and debate. As you listen to the opinions of the
other group members, you may return to your notes and make any revisions you deem
necessary.
B. Journal Responses
Choose three of the texts from this package and write a formal journal response for each (see
the rubric at the end of this package for more details). You may find that the ideas from the
group helped you form an opinion or changed your feeling entirely. That’s just fine. This is a
time for you to reflect on these issues before you continue working on the rest of the package.
Submit these three journals in good copy. You cannot use these three selections for the next
activities.
C. Questions
1. You must choose two texts to complete questions for. You cannot choose the same
texts you chose for your journal submissions. Each response should be around 500 words
(approximately 2 pages typed, double-spaced). Use specific references from the text for
support. Use parenthetical referencing, please.
2. Take turns discussing your choices and responses with members of the group. Use their
ideas to help create a meaningful response. Everyone in the circle needs to help each other.
3. Once everyone has rough drafts of the two responses, exchange papers and perform a peer
edit.
4. Submit your two responses in good copy.
Questions
1. No Renewal
Gotta love irony.
Continue the story. I know it’s difficult to top the ending to this one because it ends so
beautifully, but try . . . Be consistent with the original elements of this short story. Aim for 2
typed, double-spaced pages.
Knowledge
/10
Thinking /10
Communication /10
Application
/10
2. The Forsaken
You may have discovered that different cultures have various views on the topic of euthanasia.
There are several ethical and moral principles to be considered. The Forsaken deals with an
historical perspective of the Chippewa.
Research another culture’s historical perspective on the practice of euthanasia. Describe their
view and then compare this belief with the one depicted in “The Forsaken.”
Knowledge
/10
Thinking /10
Communication /10
Application
/10
3. Euthanasia Roller Coaster
a) Did the author of this article support the idea of the euthanasia roller coaster, or did the writer
consider it an immoral and diabolical piece of machinery? Find at least five pieces of evidence
to support your answer. Ensure you thoroughly explain how each piece of evidence supports
your claim.
b) Many people claim that the inventor of the euthanasia roller coaster is a monster who
devalues human life. Do you agree? Explain. Use specific references from the article to
support your answer.
Knowledge
/10
Thinking /10
Communication /10
Application
/10
4. Make Room! Make Room!
Read the prologue carefully. The writer is setting you up for a great beginning. If you were
going to write this novel, how would you begin? Use the information presented in the prologue
to help you create the setting, mood, and plot. Now, what about character?
Write a two-page (typed, double-spaced) beginning to Part One. In you beginning, you must
include the following narrative elements:

Character(s)

Dialogue

Description of Setting

Introduction of Conflict

Mood
Pay close attention to sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
(Have a look at the beginning of Soylent Green, the film based on this novel. You can find clips
on YouTube. Or, have a peek at the most climactic scene where the hero discovers how
exactly the government has gone about feeding the masses...Wowza)
Knowledge
/10
Thinking /10
Communication /10
Application
/10
5. “Overpopulation is A Myth”
This essay was written by a high school student. It was included here to refute the more
dystopian views of the future. Read the essay carefully. Does her argument seem credible? If
so, why? If not, why not? Look not only at what she writes, but where the paper was originally
published. You may have to do a few minutes research on some of the works and people she
cites in her paper before you attempt to answer this question. Also, have a look at the website.
There are some interesting videos and a number of posts, which provide some thoughtful
commentary on overpopulation.
Write anecdotal comments where you evaluate Knowledge, Thinking, Communication, and
Application (see rubrics below for help). Use specific references from this essay for support.
Aim for one paragraph per category. As you write these comments, ensure that you address
criteria specific to that category. Give the paper Level grade. The grade you give should be
justified by the comments.
Knowledge
/10
Thinking /10
Communication /10
Application
/10
6. Logan’s Run
This novel--turned into a sci-fi thriller feature film in 1976-- shows a world where the government
has absolute control over human life, a world where it is one’s duty to die at 21. In order to
accept this, one must have been subjected to government propaganda from an early age.
Research the key elements in Logan’s Run by looking at plot summaries and/or film clips.
(These are on youtube) Create a pamphlet or poster --you can use software-- which shows how
the government can manipulate its citizens into believing that euthanasia is a patriotic duty.
Provide a few paragraphs which help explain your artistic creation.
Knowledge
/10
Thinking /10
Communication /10
Application
/10
7. Dr. Kevorkian
a) Dr. Keith Ablow uses rhetorical/literary devices to imply that Dr. Kevorkian is a criminal.
Identify three rhetorical devices in this editorial and explain the effectiveness of each.
b) Find one news story that would pose a rebuttal to this editorial. Give a summary of the story.
(For example, last year many of you looked at the story of Roger Latimer, the man who ended
the life of his disabled daughter . . . no, you cannot use this new story. I just wanted you to have
an example)
c) Show how the writer in the news story you chose uses rhetorical/literary devices to create
empathy for those who choose euthanasia. You must have a works cited page for this.
Knowledge
/10
Thinking /10
Communication /10
Application
/10
___________________________________________________________________________
D. The Seminar
Divide the group so that each member has one of the following roles:
The Manager:
With the assistance of the group, you will oversee how the seminar is organized. What’s the
thesis or controlling idea? What should the hook be? How do we prove or argue the thesis?
How should the middle sections be organized? Who is responsible for each section? How
should it end? What is the universal application?
You need to submit a 1 page point form outline of your seminar before your group presents.
The Creator:
With the assistance of the group, you are the one who sees how this can be presented so it is
an audio/visual masterpiece. You should be familiar with presentation software. You need to
see the big picture. You need to see how each person’s part contributes to the whole
presentation. Your technical skill will pull everyone’s idea together.
The Connector:
You see connections: text to text, text to self, text to world. You often find yourself saying, “Hey,
this reminds me of . . .” Your job is to think how other pieces of non -fiction or fictional
literature, poetry, film, or personal experience connects to your thesis. This person will probably
be responsible for the hook and/ or close. This person should be a reader of all types of
literature and media, including daily news reports.
The Researcher:
You enjoy searching databases, journals, and magazines in order to delve deeper into a
particular topic. You will work closely with the connector and help the group with their research
on this topic. You are responsible for writing the Works Cited page.
Everyone: No matter what your role, your group must pull the individual parts together to
create a group seminar of 12-15 minutes. Everyone must have equal presentation time .
Consult the rubric to ensure all requirements have been met.
Suggested Steps
Organize your seminar using key-hole structure.
First:
Creating the thesis.
1) How did your group feel about the topics presented in “Sorry, Time’s Up?”
2) Your thesis may be the answer to all or one of these questions When is euthanasia
acceptable? Is it ever anyone’s duty to die? Is euthanasia a threat to human morality and the
value of human life?
3) Write a thesis statement. Your thesis will guide your presentation.
Second:
1) How will you build the seminar? What should go in the introduction? What is the hook? How
will the introduction lead to thesis?
2) What are your supporting arguments for the thesis? This will be the body of your seminar.
How are you going to order these? (Chronological? In order of importance?)
3) How about the conclusion? Remember the three parts: restate thesis, summarize
arguments, and end with a universal application. End with a bang, not a whimper, please.
Third:
Begin the preparation. Ensure you work as a group. Support each other. Assign duties. Write
the outline. Prepare the script. Rehearse. Ensure everything is in working order including
props/technology for audio/visual aids.
Fourth:
Presentation Day.
Journal Rubric
Knowledge
/10
Thinking
/10
Communication
/10
Application
/10
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Limited knowledge of
content, literary devices/
stylistic elements, bias
“Seems like you’re
struggling with this. Let’s
review the key ideas.”
Limited supporting details
for each point.
Superior organizational
skills. Insightful critical
questions.
“I need more examples to
support your ideas. I’m
having trouble
understanding your ideas.
Don’t take everything the
author says at face value”
Several mechanical errors.
Limited paragraph
development Poor
sentence structure. Major
issues with MLA format.
“Did you proofread this?
You need to state,
illustrate, explain.”
Some knowledge of
content, literary devices/
stylistic elements, bias
“Might need to review
things like literary devices
or bias.”
Some supporting details
for each point.
Superior organizational
skills. Insightful critical
questions.
“I need a few more
examples to support your
ideas. It was a bit
confusing. I need you to
think a little more
critically.”
A number of mechanical
errors. Some paragraph
development Mostly
accurate sentence
structure. Some correct
use of MLA format.
“You might have a few
comma splices or run-ons,
but overall I can
understand your ideas.
Remember to state,
illustrate, explain.”
Some use of knowledge of
content and literary
devices to draw
conclusions and make
connections
“You didn’t specifically
mention terms/ideas
discussed in class but you
did make some
connections.”
Good knowledge of
content, literary devices/
stylistic elements, bias
“Great work! You might
have one or two little
things to improve on.”
Good supporting details
for each point.
Superior organizational
skills. Insightful critical
questions.
“Your journal doesn’t
leave me with many
questions, and I can see
you’re questioning what
you read.”
Excellent knowledge of
content, literary devices/
stylistic elements, bias
“It’s like you’re an expert
on this!”
A few mechanical errors.
Good paragraph
development Accurate
sentence structure. Good
use of MLA format
“Good proofreading, but
you missed a couple
things. Good use of state
illustrate, explain.”
Virtually no mechanical
errors. Excellent
paragraph development
Sophisticated sentence
structure. Excellent use of
MLA format
“Great job proofreading
and using the state,
illustrate, explain model.”
Good use of knowledge of
content and literary
devices to draw
conclusions and make
connections
“You mentioned a few
terms/ideas discussed in
class and applied them to
what you’re reading. You
raised some interesting
issues and made
connections to other
things you’ve read or
seen.”
Excellent use of knowledge
of content and literary
devices to draw
conclusions and make
connections
“Wow! You specifically
mentioned a number of
terms/ideas discussed in
class. You’ve gone above
and beyond in terms of
making connections and
using literary devices. You
raised some intriguing
issues.”
Limited use of knowledge
of content and literary
devices to draw
conclusions and make
connections
“No mention of any
terms/ideas studied in
class. Your response is a
bit simplistic. Dig a little
deeper.”
Excellent supporting
details for each point.
Superior organizational
skills. Insightful critical
questions.
“Your journal doesn’t
leave me with any
questions, and I can see
you’re really questioning
what you read.”
Seminar Rubric
Knowledge
/25
Thinking
/25
Communication
/25
Application
/25
Level 1
Demonstrates limited
understanding of
subject.
Thesis unclear or may
be absent.
Details demonstrate
limited or incomplete
understanding of texts
read.
Level 2
Demonstrates some
understanding of
subject.
Seminar contains a
thesis.
Details demonstrate
some understanding
of texts read.
Level 3
Demonstrates good
understanding of
subject.
Seminar contains an
arguable thesis.
Attempts to go
beyond the obvious to
demonstrate deep
understanding of texts
read.
Presentation seems
unrehearsed and
poorly organized.
(Multiple issues with
props, delays, pacing)
Limited use of details
from the text to
support thesis. Details
may be irrelevant or
absent.
Presenters are
sometimes difficult to
hear, make limited
eye contact. Some
“ums, uhs” or nervous
giggles. Need notes.
Audio/visual elements
absent or do not
enhance presentation.
Presentation shows
some evidence of
rehearsal and some
organization. (May
have issues with one
or more: props,
delays, pacing)
Some use of details
from the text to
support thesis.
Presenters attempt to
speak clearly, attempt
to make eye contact,
speak with some
expression. Some
“ums, uhs” or nervous
giggles. May need
notes.
Audio/visual elements
somewhat enhance
presentation.
Some ability to make
connections between
different texts read
and explain the
differences and
similarities between
them.
Presentation shows
evidence of rehearsal
and is well organized.
(eg/ props ready,
minimal delays, good
timing and pacing)
Good use of details
from the text to
support thesis.
Limited ability to
make connections
between different
texts read and explain
the differences and
similarities between
them.
Level 4
Demonstrates
excellent
understanding of
subject.
Seminar contains a
clear, arguable thesis.
Goes beyond the
obvious to
demonstrate deep
understanding of texts
read.
Presentation is highly
polished is very well
organized (eg/ props
ready, no delays,
excellent timing and
pacing)
Excellent use of
details from the text
to support thesis.
Presenters speak
clearly, attempt to
make eye contact,
speak with
expression. Very few
“ums, uhs” or nervous
giggles.
Audio/visual elements
enhance presentation.
Presenters speak
loudly and clearly, at a
comfortable pace,
make eye contact,
speak with expression
and enthusiasm. Very
few “ums, uhs” or
nervous giggles.
Audio/visual elements
enhance presentation.
Good ability to make
connections between
different texts read
and explain the
differences and
similarities between
them.
Excellent ability to
make connections
between different
texts read and explain
the differences and
similarities between
them.