Euthanasia and suicide: a medical and social discourse

Annotation. The problem of suicide and euthanasia has been particularly updated with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a strong explosion of suicide, because medicine was not ready for it, and the man was too weak in front of its pressure. The article considers the issue of euthanasia and suicide based on philosophical messages from the position of a doctor, which today goes beyond medicine and medical ethics and becomes one of the important aspects of society. Medicine has achieved success in the continuation of human life, but it is unable to ensure the quality of life of those who are forced to continue it. In these circumstances, the admission of suicide or euthanasia pursues the refusal of the subject to achieve an adequate quality of life; an end to suffering for those who find their lives unacceptable. The reasoning that banned suicide: no one should harm or destroy the basic virtues of human nature; deliberate suicide is an attempt to harm a person or destroy human life; no one should kill himself. The criterion may be that suicide should not take place when it is committed at the request of the subject when he devalues his own life. According to supporters of euthanasia, in the conditions of the progress of modern science, many come to the erroneous opinion that medicine can have total control over human life and death. But people have the right to determine the end of their lives while using the achievements of medicine, as well as the right to demand an extension of life with the help of the same medicine. They believe that in the era of a civilized state, the right to die with medical help should be as natural as the right to receive medical care. At the same time, the patient cannot demand death as a solution to the problem, even if all means of relieving him from suffering have been exhausted. In defense of his claims, he turns to the principle of beneficence. The task of medicine is to alleviate the suffering of the patient. But if physician-assisted suicide and active euthanasia become part of health care, theoretical and practical medicine will be deprived of advances in palliative and supportive therapies. Lack of adequate palliative care is a medical, ethical, psychological, and social problem that needs to be addressed before resorting to such radical methods as legalizing euthanasia.

Self Similar Adiabatic Strong Explosion in a Medium Gravitationally Free Falling to a Point Mass

We develop a generalisation to the classical Sedov Taylor explosion where the medium free falls to a point mass at the centre of the explosion. To verify our analytic results, we compare them to a suite of numerical simulations. We find that there exists a critical energy below which, instead of propagating outward the shock stalls and collapses under gravity. Furthermore, we find that the value of the critical energy threshold decreases when the adiabatic index increases and material is more evenly distributed within the shocked region. We apply this model to the problem of a shock bounce in core collapse supernova, in which the proto neutron star serves as the point mass. The relation between the threshold energy and the distribution of mass in the shock might help explain how turbulence prevents shock stalling and recession in a core collapse supernova explosion.

Monte Carlo simulations of fast Newtonian and mildly relativistic shock breakout from a stellar wind

ABSTRACT Strong explosion of a compact star surrounded by a thick stellar wind drives a fast (>0.1c) radiation mediated shock (RMS) that propagates in the wind, and ultimately breaks out gradually once photons start escaping from the shock transition layer. In exceptionally strong or aspherical explosions, the shock velocity may even be relativistic. The properties of the breakout signal depend on the dynamics and structure of the shock during the breakout phase. Here we present, for the first time, spectra and light curves of the breakout emission of fast Newtonian and mildly relativistic shocks, that were calculated using self-consistent Monte Carlo simulations of finite RMS with radiative losses. We find a strong dependence of the νFν peak on shock velocity, ranging from ∼1 keV for vs/c = 0.1 to ∼100 keV for vs/c = 0.5, with a shift to lower energies as losses increase. For all cases studied the spectrum below the peak exhibits a nearly flat component (Fν ∼ ν0) that extends down to the break frequency below which absorption becomes important. This implies much bright optical/ultraviolet emission than hitherto expected. The computed light curves show a gradual rise over tens to hundreds of seconds for representative conditions. The application to SN 2008D/XRT 080109 and the detectability limits are also discussed. We predict a detection rate of about one per year with eROSITA.

Shock Waves in Laser-Induced Plasmas

The production of a plasma by a pulsed laser beam in solids, liquids or gas is often associated with the generation of a strong shock wave, which can be studied and interpreted in the framework of the theory of strong explosion. In this review, we will briefly present a theoretical interpretation of the physical mechanisms of laser-generated shock waves. After that, we will discuss how the study of the dynamics of the laser-induced shock wave can be used for obtaining useful information about the laser–target interaction (for example, the energy delivered by the laser on the target material) or on the physical properties of the target itself (hardness). Finally, we will focus the discussion on how the laser-induced shock wave can be exploited in analytical applications of Laser-Induced Plasmas as, for example, in Double-Pulse Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy experiments.

Electric charging of eruptive clouds from Shiveluch Volcano caused by different types of explosions

The number of explosive eruptions at Shiveluch Volcano has significantly increased over the past years, which requires close volcanic monitoring using all available techniques. In order to implement a new monitoring technique into integrated methods of volcano monitoring, the authors analyze response to the intensity of the vertical component in the atmospheric electrical field (EZ AEF) during the movement of ash clouds. Two eruptions of different intensity that occurred December 16, 2016 and June 14, 2017 at Shiveluch were selected for study. We used a combination of satellite, seismic, and infrasound data to select signals in the EZ AEF field. Signals with negative polarity that accompanied ashfalls in the EZ AEF dynamics were registered for both eruptions within the closest area (< 50 km). In the former case, the ash cloud was “dry” and thus it caused aerial-electrical structure of the negatively charged cloud. In the latter case, a strong explosion sent into the atmosphere the large volume of ash and volcanic gases (98% in form of vapour) that resulted in the formation of a dipolar aerial-electrical structure caused by eolian differentiation within the closest area. At the distance of more than 100 km we registered a positive-going signal that is attributive to the aerial-electrical structure of the positively charged type of the cloud.

Electric charging of eruptive clouds from Shiveluch Volcano caused by different types of explosions

The number of explosive eruptions at Shiveluch Volcano has significantly increased over the past years, which requires close volcanic monitoring using all available techniques. In order to implement a new monitoring technique into integrated methods of volcano monitoring, the authors analyze response to the intensity of the vertical component in the atmospheric electrical field (EZ AEF) during the movement of ash clouds. Two eruptions of different intensity that occurred December 16, 2016 and June 14, 2017 at Shiveluch were selected for study. We used a combination of satellite, seismic, and infrasound data to select signals in the EZ AEF field. Signals with negative polarity that accompanied ashfalls in the EZ AEF dynamics were registered for both eruptions within the closest area (< 50 km). In the former case, the ash cloud was “dry” and thus it caused aerial-electrical structure of the negatively charged cloud. In the latter case, a strong explosion sent into the atmosphere the large volume of ash and volcanic gases (98% in form of vapour) that resulted in the formation of a dipolar aerial-electrical structure caused by eolian differentiation within the closest area. At the distance of more than 100 km we registered a positive-going signal that is attributive to the aerial-electrical structure of the positively charged type of the cloud.

Investigation into mechanisms of deflagration-to-detonation using Direct Numerical Simulations

Detonation, a combustion phenomenon is a supersonic combustion wave which plays critical role in the theory and application of combustion. This work presents numerical investigation into indirect initiation of detonation using direct numerical simulations (DNS). The Adaptive Mesh Refinement in object–oriented C++ (AMROC) tool for parallel computations is applied in DNS. The combustion reactions take place in a shock tube and an enclosure with a tube respectively and are controlled by detailed chemical kinetics. The database produced by DNS accurately simulates the process of transition of deflagration to detonation (DDT), and investigates the influence of overpressure and kinetics on flame propagations during combustion processes. The numerical simulations showed the influence of pressure and kinetics to the transition of slow and fast flames and DDT during flame propagations. When the reaction rate is fast, DDT is achieved, but when slow, DDT will not occur and therefore, there will be no detonation and consequently no strong explosion. Exploring the influence of free radical H on flame propagation showed that the concentration of the reacting species decreased with flame speed increase for each propagation. Hence, the heat generated was very fast with a greater chance of DDT beingtriggered because flame speed increased.