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The parents in this case will have to account for their presumptuousness in assuming the role of God. They will be quite surprised, I imagine. We have no such authority and should never assume it over anyone else.
It's a crazy world in which our society argues against the torture of prisoners and yet condones it in our ill family members - in the name of a just and compassionate god.
I think this way of thinking is diminishing, but I don't understand it.
I often wonder if assisted suicide is morally different from artificial prolonging of life. Voth of them are interfering with the live cycle. If one is morally wrong I do not see how the other would not be. Likewise if one is morally right i do not see how the other would not be.
While I oppose suicide for any reason, I hope I acknowledge that is only my view and one I can not impose upon others
I do oppose any extraordinary measures to keep a person alive, unless there is a strong reason to believe the person will make a satisfactory recovery and return to an independent life,
Yet clearly as others have pointed out there is a chasm of difference in our views on this matter. While putting a human out of their misery is seen as immoral, prolonging that suffering in the same way in animals could have one convicted of animal cruelty. There is a disparity here which needs to be addressed in our moral and ethical discourse on the matter and I think our species needs to invest more time on resolving this issue around the table.
The issue for me is that this invention of a god with opinions on the matter... a god no one is able to substantiate the existence of in any way much less the users on this thread... that we somehow need to pander to; we cloud and obfuscate discourse on the subject. This heaping of the responsibility onto the "god" placeholder with the view of abdicating our own responsibility is abhorrant and is nothing more than an excuse for inaction where action is required.
We are here. We are now. We need to decide using honest mutual discourse how to deal with cases like this. Labeling this the purview of god and interference as being against gods plan is a cop out at best... and truly damaging at worst. We need discourse on this matter urgently in modern society as our abilities to prolong the suffering of such patients increases annually... and that discourse is not going to be helped by clouding it with fantastical unsubstantiated nonsense claims about the existence of some sky fairy who... even if real.... would likely want us to make the right choices using our own moral intuitions rather than abdicate them behind the excuse of not wanting to interfere with some imagined "plan" or "role" that said god has for us.
The parents in this case will have to account for their presumptuousness in assuming the role of God. They will be quite surprised, I imagine. We have no such authority and should never assume it over anyone else.
I assume the role of God all the time. I make value judgments, based on my sense of "the right thing" and they may have a ripple effect on other people's lives. If there turns out to be an afterlife, I will not be afraid to account for myself before an Almighty who knows my heart. I doubt that I would be "quite surprised".
IMO, no greater love has a parent for an adult child then to allow them to make the decision of prolonged pain and agony to suit the living, or to go gently to "sleep" on a morphine drip surrounded by their loved ones.
A state appeals court ruled Friday that Grace Sung Eun Lee’s parents can’t override the terminally ill woman’s right to die.
It wasn’t clear when she would decide to be taken off life support, but her lawyer, David Smith, says the court decision makes it clear that Lee is in control.
]I assume the role of God all the time.[/b] I make value judgments, based on my sense of "the right thing" and they may have a ripple effect on other people's lives. If there turns out to be an afterlife, I will not be afraid to account for myself before an Almighty who knows my heart. I doubt that I would be "quite surprised".
And this is the danger and deleterious effect of misguided religious belief . . . those who so profoundly misunderstand God that they think themselves qualified to act as if they are God . . . or act in place of God as if they have the authority to do so. The courts are correct in denying the parents any such authority or control over their daughter's life.
There is such a thing as rational suicide. Most people haven't even considered that someone can be not at all clinically depressed and yet wish their life to end in a way and under circumstances of their own choosing, rather than in more painful and less dignified ways.
My body and my life are mine to do with as I choose. Ethically speaking, because others love me and/or depend on me, rational suicide is not something to entertain without significant reason, typically, diagnosed certain death and/or open-ended physical and/or mental torment that I don't choose to deal with. However, the ethics are not for others to weigh for me, I have to do it for myself.
Some months ago a beloved pet of mine suffered from intervertebral disc disease, which rendered her paralyzed from the mid-back down and in excruciating pain, with a terrible prognosis for recovery and high likelihood of recurrence. With great sadness, we put her out of her misery. It was the humane and right thing to do, and to do otherwise would have been selfish and cruel. I simply want the same mercy for myself if I reach the clearing at the end of my path in a similar fashion.
The only thing distasteful and disturbing about rational suicide is that you're on your own if that's the way you want to go -- that you don't have the support and comfort of society and loved ones. Even loved ones who want to be present for you are taking great risks even being present for you death, as they may be accused of assisting you. That is shameful and needs to change.
The closest thing we have is Oregon's assisted suicide laws which require you to spend all kinds of time and energy you probably don't have, as a desperately ill person, to get the state's permission to end your own life under a doctor's care. These laws also only apply for people with diagnosed life expectancy of six months or less, and by the time you jump through rings of fire and eat little pieces of glass to get that permission your six months may well be about up anyway.
The right to die is a liberal ideas of hopelessness , and has the spiritual authority of the dark spirit of the false prophet and Christians must not engage in supporting this ideas ....See the world can go and kill itself , but Christians has the Lord Jesus where hope comes ....
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