Final Blog post for Fall 2009!

This is my final post for the semester!

My theme this semester was “change” and eventually transformed itself into the topic of organ donation. The topic itself is a very personal one to me and my family. It had never crossed my mind before until my brother passed away in 2004 and we, his family, had to make the decision.


I believe that my own experience did help me to give me motivation to write my papers but at the same time I do feel it limited me in some ways. My reflection paper was probably the easiest for me to write in terms of subject and information gathering because it was my life. For my observation paper I felt that it limited me because I wasn’t sure or I didn’t understand how to connect the topic to my writing. My analysis paper was somewhat difficult to write because I felt there weren’t a lot of sources I could work with. For my argument paper I feel that the subject is a good one but I don’t feel that I’m creative enough to build my paper around the topic itself.

If I could change my topic I think I would like to change it to something like identity forming or culture differences in an immediate nuclear family. For instance, in my family I’m the first generation Mexican-American and my parents and I have different views and trouble communicating because I was brought up here in the United States and they are originally from Mexico. I think that would be a fun and interesting topic under the theme of “change” too.

I can see the finish line now.

In preparation for this final argumentative paper I wrote three other papers based on my overall theme for this semester.


My first paper was a reflection paper. I wrote my reflection paper on the night the brother passed away suddenly. It was something that changed by life not just because I lost a family member but because it opened up my eyes to the subject of organ donation. Without this incident I probably wouldn’t have even thought about the subject very much not to mention sign-up to be an organ donor myself. This paper was basically is the foundation for my argumentative paper.

(I chose this picture because I felt that it fit my theme of change and the new beginning I felt I had after my grieving process.)

The second paper was observation. In this paper I wrote about the things I was in my new job at an OB/GYN office. I observed the hardships faced everyday by ordinary people and the decision they have to make about their bodies and their future babies. It definitely is different from my topic of organ donation but none the less it will prepare me with the aspect of knowledge (making educated decision) and awareness that I want to incorporate into my last paper.

( I chose this picture because it shows the beauty of a new baby, something I get to see as a perk at my job.)

The most recent paper I wrote was my analysis paper. I wrote about organ donation itself and the factor that may or may not affect ones decision to be or not to be an organ donor. From this paper I was able to familiarize myself even more on the subject and it lead me to focus in on what I wanted to write about in my last paper. From my research I learned that there are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to organ donation. I also learned that many people aren’t even fully educated of the idea of organ donation and how the process works to become and organ donor.

(I chose this picture because it promotes awareness.)

I feel that from all essays I mentioned and the research I did for them I have been able to form a decent sized pool of information to write my argument paper.

Make-Up Post: Personal, Psychological and Physical Appeals

 Personal appeal is something that attracts you to an item, idea or person by what best fits your likes, ideas and needs. For my argument on organ donation I could use personal appeal with the notion that one favors organ donation based on past experiences. In my personal case I favor organ donation because my family has dealt with the issue when my brother past away. I have experienced the gratifying feeling of knowing someone or many people have another chance at life because they received a much needed organ. This idea could also fit psychological appeal.

Psychological appeal is something that attracts you by way of mental attraction. It is something that plays on an emotion and thought. People’s perception of organ donation is primarily psychologically based. They are either afraid of it and how their decision will affect their future health care if they get sick or they’re for it know that they will be helping someone after their death.

Physical appeal is something that attracts your attention by means of physical appearance or will benefit you physically. In the case of organ donation, one would favor it if they needed a new heart or any other organ to live.
Organ Donation - A New Day

Topic Proposal.

Below you will find my topic proposal for my analysis paper.

For this paper I would like to look at the controversial topic of organ donation. Organ donation is not a topic brought about in general conversation on a day to day basis. It is one that is usually brought about with the topic of death or plans for an ailing family member. Today it might also come up with license renewal since it is now a box you can check off on the renewal form.

There are obviously advantages of organ donation for those people that receive them because they are given a better quality of life; but what about the families of the donors? Are there any disadvantages? What are the issues that hold people back from deciding to donate their organs after they’ve past? Some religions are against any form of bodily mutilation and organ donation can be seen as such mutilation since someone is being cut open.

“Concern is expressed that there be no tampering with the body until there is a cessation of respiration, circulation, and heart beat (Judaism), until survivors have had a chance to launch the soul on a new journey (Shinto). To retrieve organs from a potential donor before the dying process is complete and the rituals enacted is seen by some to violate the proper respect for the dying person and possibly to bring misfortune to the surviving relatives” (Gillman 21).

Based on the OrganDonor.gov website there are about 104,673 people on the transplant waiting list (2009). I would like to explore the issues surrounding organ donation and what its advantages and disadvantages. Also, what may drive people to agree and what makes people disagree with organ donation.

Work Cited:

Gillman, J. "Religious Perspectives On Organ Donation." Critical Care Nursing Quarterly 22.3 Aspen Publication(1999): 19-29. MEDLINE with Full Text. EBSCO. Web. 26 Oct. 2009.

OrganDonor.gov. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 30 Oct. 2009. (Web). 2 Nov. 2009.

More Research

Today I did some more research and I found some potentially helpful sources for my argument paper. From the EBSCOhost through the SUNY CGCC website I found two articles that talk about the religious perspectives of organ donation.

The first article I chose because I feel that it will give a lot of supporting facts about religions opposing the choice to donate organs. For example there is a section of the article that describes an African American family that belongs to African Methodist Episcopal Church and says:

“…the family is very reluctant to donate the kidneys of a family member who has suffered whole brain death from a recent trauma. For, on the great “getting-up morning,” this family does not want to go to “the pearly gates” without organs; they want “to go to Jesus whole.”10(p:145) They believe that it is wrong to remove organs from the body of their son and brother because he will need them for the afterlife (Gillman 22).”

My second article choice is an article of legislative support for organ donation. I believe that it will help me write my paper because it has a lot of information about organ donation from when it started to the current system. My only concern is that it is an undergraduate essay but I think that it will have some good starting points and references for me to stem from.

Work Cited

Clemmons, Allison. "Organ Transplantation: Is the Best Approach a Legalized Market or Altruism?." JOURNAL OF HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT 54.4 (2009): 231-240. Academic Search Alumni Edition. EBSCO. Web. 26 Oct. 2009.

Gillman, J "Religious perspectives on organ donation." Critical Care Nursing Quarterly 22.3 (1999): 19-29. MEDLINE with Full Text. EBSCO. Web. 26 Oct. 2009.

Image Cited

"Donate Life Pass It on License Plates." Organ Donation Albany: The Center for Donation & Transplantation. Web. 26 Oct 2009. .

A look at research.

Tonight I logged on to Academic OneFile and Academic Search Complete to find how many hits I would get for my theme (change) and my specific concept for my argument paper (organ donation).


For my theme I had a total hit of 372,479 for academic journals, 249,843 for magazines, 1,791 for books and 170,009 for newspapers.

I found that when I searched for my specific concept of organ donation I had a more concentrated number. For academic journals there were 866 hits, magazines 228, books 1, and newspapers 74.

From these numbers I believe that I have a sufficient amount of research options to gather information. I took a look at some of the resources that came up in my search and I believe I will be able to obtain really good supporting information for my argumentative paper on organ donation. The topic is very controversial as is so there should be some strong resources to gather from.

As for my analytical paper, I believe this will be my hardest on. I have to go through my sources to determine which direction I want to take to. The theme being so broad seems to be my challenge.
Also:
I was inspired to search for another source tonight. After my brother passed away my family was interviewed by the Times Union. I searched the archives on their website and found the link to the article they did on my family. The only information they wrote wrong, but not by any fault of their own, was when they wrote that I sent letters to the recipients, as I wrote I never did send them.
Times Union Article.

Change, from another person's perspective.

This post comes late because my beloved laptop crashed on me over the weekend. I lost everything from the past 6 years; unfortunately I had no backup.


Well my task for this past week was to interview someone on their personal views on “Change,” which is my theme.  I chose to interview a co-worker of mine. Sarah C. I explained to her a little bit about the assignment and then I asked her “How do you feel about change and what is your first thought when you think about the word itself.”

Sarah’s response: “Personally I hate change. It doesn’t make me feel right at all. Once you get comfortable with something why would you want it to change?”

Obviously I agree with her from the aspect of my story. I had my brother with me for 18 years and why would I want that to change. Obviously something like death was inevitable so I felt like I had to ask something to offset our points of view a little bit.

My next question was “Well what if you were in a bad point in your life? Wouldn’t you want that to change?”

Sarah’s response: “Well if you put it like that then yes I like change. If I’m going through a rough patch with my husband of course I would like it to change. Correction I would like him to change.” She added that with a smile on her face.

Conclusion:
Like I stated in my paper, change is a very broad subject. You can take it into many different directions. Change can be good or bad. I believe it’s just natural to want good change in your life. People learn and grow from change. I believe that even when something bad or even tragic happens in your life you initial feel pain and look at the bad parts of it. I did but after a while I learned how to bounce back from the pain and look at the good in what change can bring. It almost goes hand and hand, good comes with the bad.

Pictures

I wanted to take the time to give credit to the origins of my blog pictures.
My header picture I chose because I thought the messages was pretty awesome.  Change can be good and bad but without it there would be no room for growth.  I found it through the Yahoo image search but it can be found at (http://www.flickr.com/photos/shareitnow/1844937070/).

My side bar photo I also found from the Yahoo image search and it can be found on multiple different websites. One of them is (http://www.flickr.com/photos/microabi/3748831524/). I chose this picture because I thought it was a good statment; "CHANGE YOUR LIFE" seemed to fit with my theme of change on a really personal level. Again, I think without change there can be no growth.

Blog for Change

Blog for Change

Today is my first blog post ever. This is kind of exciting and scary at the same time.

I have created this blog as part of a class assignment to explore an overall theme for the semester. My plan of action is to explain our assignments as we go.

Tonight’s focus: Choosing a theme and our first paper.

I was playing with a few ideas religion, culture, immigration, family and health care but I think my best choice would be the theme of change.

 Change is such a broad theme but it has a lot of potential, it's perfect. Really all of my other theme ideas could fit into this one, giving me a lot of room to play around with.

Our first paper is about reflection. We have to write a paper reflecting on an event or series of event from our past. The only hard part that I see is actually choosing a time in my history to write about. Really I have a whole basket full of moments in the past to choose from but it's actually choosing to write about just one that's the hardest.