In preparing for this discussion please also consider the following additional facts:

In Australia, the Northern Territory became the first state in the world to legalize voluntary active euthanasia under the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act of 1995. However, in 1997 their Federal Parliament overturned this legislation.

In the Netherlands, euthanasia has been legalized by the Dutch Parliament since 2001.

In 2002, Belgium also legalized physician-assisted suicide.

In the U.S., Oregon residents passed the Death with Dignity Act legalizing physician-assisted suicide in 1994.

  • Do you think people have a right to die if they are in great pain and diagnosed with a terminal illness?
  • What is the difference between euthanasia and physician assisted suicide?
  • Should euthanasia be legal or illegal?
  • Should physician-assisted suicide be legal or illegal?

When talking about obesity many will say that obesity is primarily genetic and the majority of those who obese cannot help it. However others argue that if the high levels of obesity were primarily caused by genetics then this should be a problem that has always existed. Yet as stated in the above article just 30 years ago there was a much smaller percentage of people who were obese.

  • What is your perspective on the cause of obesity for the large majority of those who are facing this problem?
  • Whether you believe that the primary cause of obesity is genetics or lifestyle what has happened in our society since 1980 that has resulted in
    doubled or tripled rates of obesity in adults and children?
  • What can be done in your own community to turn the obesity trend around? What kind of program might you create in this effort to bring health back
    to our society?
  • What advice would you give to a friend coping with a weight issue to help them bring about long term change?
  • Should high schools be able to dispense contraceptives to students? Why or why not?
  • What cognitive and emotional developmental issues are at play when tweens and teens make the decision to have sex?
  • Should school address these issues if they are going to give our contraceptives? If so how should they do this?
  • What role should parents play in sex education, including pregnancy and HIV?
  • Support your answer with a solution to the societal problem.