Term+1+Assignment+4


 * 1) It may be argued that being able to tell lies occasionally is important to maintain a healthy relationship. However, that depends on what kinds of lies you say and how often you tell them. Therefore, this statement is rather vague. It is healthy in a relationship if you tell white lies. Firstly, what is a white lie? It is a lie that that does not have a side effect on anyone and is harmless. In a TV sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond, Raymond lies to Debra, telling her that the lemon chicken she cooks for him is great and that he really likes it to the extend that he wouldn’t mind having it for the rest of his life. Now that lie, is harmless, Debra was happy because Raymond apparently enjoyed her lemon chicken. However, after a period of a few years, Debra finds out that Raymond dislikes lemon chicken a lot and is hurt deeply. So, allow me to rephrase my statement, white lies are lies that appear to be harmless for a short period of time. The white lie that Raymond told Debra was indeed harmless in the first place, however, Debra was hurt a lot more when she found out Raymond had been lying all those years. She felt more hurt than she would have been if Raymond told her that he did not like lemon chicken in the first place. So white lies told occasionally is not going to keep a relationship healthy in the sense of a long-term relationship. Another example would be lies to escape responsibility. For example, when your wife asks you to sweep the floor, you lie; saying you couldn’t find the broom and dustpan. While in actual fact, you didn’t bother looking for it. This lies, if told occasionally will diminish the partner’s trust in you as a spouse and trust you less in the future. This sort of lie, similar to white lies is also useless in sustaining a healthy relationship. Hence, occasional lying in a relationship will not make it healthy, but put an end to it instead.


 * 1) It has been argued that being a student in our parent’s time is better as students nowadays have to face too much stress. However, what should also be considered is that the children in our parent’s time and the modern day children are facing two complete different types of stress. Children nowadays are facing a variety of different kinds of stresses, globalisation, heightened competitiveness and peer pressure whereas the children in our parent’s time have to be stressed over things like working to support the family during their teenage years due to the effects of world war 2, stressed about their empty stomach, etc. The true difference between the two generations of children is that modern day children can relieve their stress by means of technology and counselling whereas students in our parents time cant do anything to relieve them of their stress Even though we students face a lot of stress now, the stress our parents faced in the past were worse. Therefore, being a student in our time is actually better than being a student in our parent’s time.

3. It has been argued that organ trading should be allowed in Singapore, as nothing can be more important than saving a life. However, we will also have to consider the mistake other countries made by making organ trading legal. India once had a successful legal market in organ trading. They were successful because there was sufficient supply and organs were sold at low prices. This attracted many people around the world. While India was happily being one of the largest kidney transplant centres in the world, many crimes took place. For example, some patients were unaware that an organ was removed from them. Some of them also got scammed, only receiving half of the promised income. These ethical issues pushed the Indian government to ban organ trading. Singapore is such a small country. If organ trading were to be made legal, people from around the globe would flock to Singapore. As Singapore has a rather small population, there would be a higher demand than supply as the demand also comes from around the globe. Singapore would lose its name for having low crime rates and there will be conflict among the citizens. People would sell their organs to raise money and escape poverty or pay for their debts. If organ trading were to be made legal in Singapore, the rich will benefit at the expense of the poor. Because of the multitude of problems that arise from organ trading, Philippines also banned its once legal organ trade in 2008. I am sure that Singapore would also ban its organ trade once the problems I have presented occur. Organ trading would not benefit Singapore in anyway and it will ultimately put Singapore in harms way. Therefore organ trading should not be allowed in Singapore, although saving a life is important, nothing can be more important that the state of the entire nation.

laiyuen here after revision:18.5/30