Struggling to find a knowledge question to come out of my real life situation for my TOK presentation

[Liz111]

I have came up with multiple real life situations but have been struggling to come up with and effective knowledge question. My real life situation is assisted suicide, I want to talk about how people who are on their death bed and how doctors can not legally help them pass away with a painless death or a person who is sick that is laying in a hospital bed like a vegetable who wants to stop their suffering and just get it over with. I honestly have no clue what my knowledge question should be, it shouldn't include ethics and my TOK teacher would like it to be a to what extent question. I've tried all of the brainstorming and looking online how to generate one but i just am stuck on finding one. So, im asking for someone to help me one my way with finding one and to push me in the right direction to finding one, thanks. 

[So Young]

"how doctors can not legally help them pass away with a painless death or a person who is sick that is laying in a hospital bed like a vegetable who wants to stop their suffering and just get it over with"

Basically, there is this thing called 'Euthanasia' and it's basically "The practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering," In some countries, if people were really sick and they wanted to end their life, they could go to the doctors to get an injection, which will basically end their life. However, this not legal everywhere. You can talk about this in a very detailed way and make it your main TOK topic if you want. It basically is suicide. A friend of mine did a presentation on Euthanasia as practice and she did really good.

 

So by you saying the doctors can't help them pass way with a painless death is actually quite wrong, they can. Just not legal everywhere.

In some countries, doctors would recommend Euthanasia if you know that the patient will not have the chance of getting better, ETHICS as an area of knowledge comes really well with this topic, there are times where the patient disagrees with Euthanasia, but their relatives can make it happen to them if the doctor says they should and there is no way for the patient to survive.

 

I hope this helps, I made an account just to respond to you haha. I'm sorry I cant think of a KQ atm as my brain is dead since I just woke up!

Good Luck!

[Lewis981]

As the person above mentioned, this is called euthanasia. This deals greatly with ethics, so I am not sure why that is restricted but you may still be able to work around it. A knowledge question of this nature may sound something like:

"To what extent would the lack of consent in a patient being euthanized affect the legality of the procedure?"

I say consent as it becomes tough to talk about euthanasia without including ethics, so it may be helpful to move toward consent, as this is a huge argument against the practice.

[So Young]

I just remembered, any teachers that went for TOK training in certain countries, they have been told to tell their students to NOT focus on ETHICS in their presentations, because that is very subjective apparently. Therefore, the senior of TOK have told teachers that people who focus on ethics should not get high marks, and they should try their best to avoid it. 

 

Hope this helps, I mean you can add ethics, but don't make it the focus of your presentation. 

Edited May 12, 2016 by So Young

[IB_taking_over]

Ethics is a perfectly fine focus as long as you handle it correctly. Meaning that you focus on why people believe it's right or wrong. Instead of focusing on whether or not it's right or wrong. 

With ethics their is a strong tendency to focus on right/wrong due to the nature of the subject. (Most things with ethics are emotionally charged topics that student tend to have a strong opinion about. The strong opinions has the tendency to make seeing the other side more challenging.)

 

[kw0573]

On 5/12/2016 at 3:35 AM, So Young said:

I just remembered, any teachers that went for TOK training in certain countries, they have been told to tell their students to NOT focus on ETHICS in their presentations, because that is very subjective apparently. Therefore, the senior of TOK have told teachers that people who focus on ethics should not get high marks, and they should try their best to avoid it. 

Hope this helps, I mean you can add ethics, but don't make it the focus of your presentation. 

Background: Epistemology (the theory of knowledge) and ethics (the theory of righteousness) are two different branches of philosophy. Clearly, IB wants us to focus on theory of knowledge (ToK) so you can't exclusively talk about theory of righteousness. But ToK is a pillar for the other branches of philosophy because we have to know first how to obtain knowledge before applying the knowledge to make decisions. And any talks of ethics in a ToK presentation is largely the process of establishing ethical criteria. 

[MINDPADS]

See case studies with discussion and sample KQ (Knowledge Questions) for the year 2016.

http://mindpads.org/tok-theory-of-knowledge-final-presentation-case-studies-and-sample-kq-2016-17/

Importance of KQ and RLS :

KQ( Knowledge Question): The Soul of the Presentation

·      The KQ or the knowledge question earlier referred by IB as KI (Knowledge Issue) is the search tool to build the body of your TOK Presentation. The KQs are open ended and incisive, asking for thoughtful and critical examination of the topic.

·      Develop the TOK Presentation by connecting and weaving the threads of understanding the answers to your KQs.

·      A typical KQ explores a particular topic /theme in depth or combines examining any particular AOK with a WOK tool. We have formulated sample KQs for the TOK Presentations for you to work on.

RLS (Real Life Situation): The essential for TOK Presentation

Examples and Case Studies...

·      RLS or simply put incidents from reality serve as examples for explaining and justifying our claims/counterclaims in the TOK Presentation. They serve as anecdotal evidence for our arguments.

·      RLS also double up as the case studies for TOK Presentation topics. RLS need not be contentious in nature. Good choices of RLS involve different viewpoints and are significant to us as civilization. These will prompt and invoke interesting debate and discussion.

·      The RLS used in the TOK Presentation are normally picked from the current events of your IB Diploma years. The more we can connect the AOK and WOK to the RLS, the better it is!

 

Hope this helps.

Best.

Mindpads.org