A time to live, and a time to die...
Oregon State's "right to die" law has been upheld by the Supreme Court. This means that any state can implement the same legislation: any terminally ill patient has the right to request and recieve assisted suicide from a certified doctor who they are in the care of. What does this mean for America? What does this mean for us as people? This one very, very grey area, especially for me. I believe suicide is wrong, except in circumstances to save another life or lives (yes, anyone who doesn't die from taking the grenade or bullets is commiting suicide. If they don't die, they are lucky/fated/had divine intervention). I also believe that suicide without saving others is literally the greatest sin against God (no, I'm not Catholic): you are denying God's plan for you, God's purpose, and you are in a final act of defiance saying God is wrong while you are right. But despite these beliefs, I, and any other person, has no true right to impose as law that that choice be taken away from someone. Even abused, free will and choice are God's greatest gifts to man. But should someone just be able to say "make the pain stop" and end it? Even terminal patients have time. Even terminal patients have LIVES. There is no justification for cutting a life short like that...but there is no justification to stop someone from making that choice. To me, this is like the death penalty. Even a man as deranged as Hitler, as murderous to his own people as Stalin, as bloodthirsty as serial-killers, mass-murderes...they can be contained. They can be given enough consecutive life sentances without parole that they will never see the light of day. There are ways to ensure that they cannot be pardoned. There are ways to ensure they have no influence or contact with the outside world. Isn't that actually more fitting punishment? Is killing to prevent killing truly anything more than a delusional argument for murder? Is there ever true justification for death? And yet that is what war is...mass murder against mass murder, each side saying kill or be killed. I have no doubt that in a kill or be killed situation, I would pull that trigger, push that button, or use that blade. But I would never forget it, and I would never stop believing and trying for a peaceful way. Why is man such pernicious creature? What do the rest of you think about these issues, religiously, politically, personally? Am I the only one who thinks the way I do, am I just part of some minority who sees the idiocy and senselessness?