This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »
TiffAching · 26-30, F
Depends on the context. For pets, absolutely. For people, it gets more complicated.
On the one hand, I’m all for bodily autonomy, and that has to include the right to die on one’s own terms. But on the other hand, particularly for people with disabilities/mental illness/etc., the matter of choice and pressure and prejudice comes up. Lots of disabled people have to hear abled folks tell them how poor their (the disabled’s) quality of life is or “must” be, to the point where there is literally a mainstream school of ethics [i]right now[/i] that says parents could murder their disabled children at birth and it would be a net good for the world.
You grow up with [i]that[/i] kind of messaging, with [i]those[/i] points of view, hearing respected academics saying you are a net loss, a net drain, and that the world would be better off if mom and dad had stomped on your skull right as you came into this world, and suddenly the concept of choice and autonomy for euthanasia starts to look a whole lot more like coercion, eugenics, and very passive-aggressive murder.
Ultimately, I have to come down on the side of free will, but that is predicated upon people not being treated like disposable waste from the moment they’re born.
On the one hand, I’m all for bodily autonomy, and that has to include the right to die on one’s own terms. But on the other hand, particularly for people with disabilities/mental illness/etc., the matter of choice and pressure and prejudice comes up. Lots of disabled people have to hear abled folks tell them how poor their (the disabled’s) quality of life is or “must” be, to the point where there is literally a mainstream school of ethics [i]right now[/i] that says parents could murder their disabled children at birth and it would be a net good for the world.
You grow up with [i]that[/i] kind of messaging, with [i]those[/i] points of view, hearing respected academics saying you are a net loss, a net drain, and that the world would be better off if mom and dad had stomped on your skull right as you came into this world, and suddenly the concept of choice and autonomy for euthanasia starts to look a whole lot more like coercion, eugenics, and very passive-aggressive murder.
Ultimately, I have to come down on the side of free will, but that is predicated upon people not being treated like disposable waste from the moment they’re born.