toldailytopic: Assisted suicide. Is it wrong?

[Nathon Detroit]

The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for December 3rd, 2010 10:56 AM

toldailytopic: Assisted suicide. Is it wrong?

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[Nydhogg]

No.

You own your life. You can end it. And, if you physically can't, you can delegate that action.


When you believe in self-ownership, most moral issues become quite clear-cut.

 

[El DLo]

For me, this is an interesting issue. For starters, I think any person should have the right to end their own life. If someone doesn't have control over that, then they don't have control over anything.

That said, what assisted suicide entails should be very strict. For example, pulling the trigger because the person can't do it should not be classified as assisted suicide, or any other actions in which that person is directly killing another person.

What's my reasoning for this? Suicide is the single biggest decision a person can make, solely because it's their last decision. If someone is set on suicide, then nothing can stop them, and therefore they SHOULD be able to commit the actions themselves. If they are at a point where they would be unable to finalize the action themselves, then in my opinion they haven't settled on their decision enough to be qualified to make that decision.

So what should be allowed? I think doctors should be allowed to prescribe life-ending medication to someone who has given much thought to this decision and can prove that they are in a state of mind where they are capable of making the decision, and I think that should be the extent of it.

 

[Lighthouse]

Yes, it's wrong. No one owns their own life. We were bought at a price. And even those who reject that and refuse the exchange are wrong to kill themselves, because they are wrong for rejecting the price that was paid.

 

[Nydhogg]

I am not chattel.

 

[Lighthouse]

I am not chattel.

But someone did give His life for you, so you could trade up, at no cost to yourself.

 

[Nydhogg]

I was never for sale. Technically, things that are not for sale can't be bought.

 

[Cracked]

Have you ever seen the post apocalyptic/dystopic movie The Road?


:banana:POSSIBLE SPOILERK:





In the movie, the father and son end up in a house owned by cannibals - particularly nasty ones who keep people in a dark basement cell, cutting off parts to eat (and keeping them alive) because they can't keep the meat fresh. The cannibals return and there doesn't look like there is any escape. The father has just 2 bullets (if I remember correctly). When he believes all is lost, he tells the boy to close his eyes and levels the gun at his head at very close range. The father had prepared the boy for such an occasion, because of the dark and viscous nature of the world they found themselves in.

This is a far fetched situation, but the idea of saving your child from a horrific tortuous death is not. If the father had killed the child, would've it been wrong?

Possibly the choice here was between to evils. For many of us in this situation, the choice would not be so black and white.

EDIT: I guess this isn't a perfect fit - we don't know if the boy has really chosen to die. However, we do know that the father and son discussed it as a possibility and what they would do in such a situation.

 

[Nathon Detroit]

Euthanasia and abortion devalue human life. When we devalue human life we open ourselves up to all types of moral decay.

When life is no longer valued.... nothing is valued.

 

[Granite]

We should be able to go out on our terms. Anyone who prolongs the suffering of another out of some misplaced sense of "mercy" is extending a cruel mercy indeed.

 

[bybee]

The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for December 3rd, 2010 10:56 AM

toldailytopic: Assisted suicide. Is it wrong?

Yes


Take the topic above and run with it! Slice it, dice it, give us your general thoughts about it. Everyday there will be a new TOL Topic of the Day.
If you want to make suggestions for the Topic of the Day send a Tweet to @toldailytopic or @theologyonline or send it to us via Facebook.

 

[bybee]

We should be able to go out on our terms. Anyone who prolongs the suffering of another out of some misplaced sense of "mercy" is extending a cruel mercy indeed.

However, to ask someone to murder me is an outrageous request on my part, especially if it is a loved one.
He/she must then live the rest of his/her life with the burden of such an act resting heavily upon his/her soul.

 

[Granite]

However, to ask someone to murder me is an outrageous request on my part, especially if it is a loved one.
He/she must then live the rest of his/her life with the burden of such an act resting heavily upon his/her soul.

Only if you consider it murder (and of course, if they agree). If not, you're choosing to leave of your own volition and don't have your agony unnecessarily prolonged.

 

[Sherman]

Euthanasia and abortion devalue human life. When we devalue human life we open ourselves up to all types of moral decay.

When life is no longer valued.... nothing is valued.

Knight is right.

Just look at our culture. Life isn't valued anymore by many. We have school shootings. Property is not respected anymore. Kid have such a low value of themselves that they engage in escapist activities--Drugs and self injury. This self injury culture is called 'Emo'.

 

[Granite]

Knight is right.

Just look at our culture. Life isn't valued anymore by many. We have school shootings. Property is not respected anymore. Kid have such a low value of themselves that they engage in escapist activities--Drugs and self injury. This self injury culture is called 'Emo'.

Yeeeeeeeah, well, the emo kids I've known and know would tend to disagree...

Self-injury can strike at any age. And it's nothing new. Just saying.

 

[Sherman]

How come I never heard of it or seen it when I was kid? I went to public school. Now it is all over. About 50 percent of my son's classmates were 'emo'.

 

[Granite]

How come I never heard of it or seen it when I was kid? I went to public school. Now it is all over. About 50 percent of my son's classmates were 'emo'.

Self-injury is not new, Kett. The whole "emo" subculture might be but cutting, burning, and the like wasn't their innovation.

 

[aSeattleConserv]

No.

You own your life. You can end it. And, if you physically can't, you can delegate that action.


When you believe in self-ownership, most moral issues become quite clear-cut.

Newman would be proud.

 

[Nick M]

It is murder. It is the intentional shedding of innocent blood.

 

[aSeattleConserv]

This topic has much sentimental value for me, as it was an assisted suicide thread that I first replied to upon joining TOL.

I vividly remember the warm welcoming that I received from one of TOL's kind and tolerant atheists (herein known as "the atheist").

While there have been so many kind posts by the atheist, I'm thinking that his intial reply was something like "I hope you die of AIDS you moron!"

Sigh, the memories.