🚀 go-pugleaf

d-moss@adfa.oz.au (David Moss) writes:

>> Hindus and Islam all consider
>>>euthanasia wrong, you do not have to be religious to oppose it.
>>No, but it helps.

>_Any_ form of education regarding humanity, values and morality helps.

Humane means, among other things, "inflicting the minimum of pain",
benevolent and civilized. Plainly VE is humane. As to values and
morality, people on both sides of this debate have developed those
things: the trouble is that their values and morals are opposed.
Investigating this distinction, instead of claiming an exclusive
on morality, is the only way we're going to move this debate forward.

I think that we have some common ground. We agree that life is a sacred
thing, desirably protected by the law. But we come to grief in our
approaches to the definition of life.

As I understand it, David's side hold that metabolism is life: so long
as you're breathing, you're living. Folk on my side generally seem to
feel that it's only freedom of choice that is life: the ability to decide
what you're going to do for yourself. 

Naturally we see the morality of VE in these terms. David sees VE as
destroying someone's life, by terminating their metabolism, where I see
VE as protecting someone's life, by giving them the ability to make
rational decisions about it. We can't have our cake and eat it, so
how can we resolve this? 

Plainly dialectic won't cut it. We've both ranted until we're blue in
the fingers. But it needn't be this way. There is a moral principle that
can be held in higher esteem than life, by either of our definitions.
The fundamental principle of civilization, etiquette, love, good
sportsmanship and communication - not to mention Star Trek's prime
directive and the Internet's kill-files. The one thing that can resolve
all our pointless and perpetual struggles over morality, religion, sex,
politics and which side of the egg to open.

Tolerance.

What does tolerance mean here? It means letting the other fellow do what
the other fellow wants to do, so long as it doesn't stop you and yours
doing what you and yours want to do. Plainly the highest morality is to
refrain from imposing your beliefs on others who do not share them.  I
think this is the real moral question here - not pro or anti VE, but pro
or anti Tolerance.

>>Indeed. But the so called 'moral' reasons for opposing *voluntary*
>>euthanasia don't stand up to scrutiny - nor do any of the others
>>you mention.

>Like Buddhism above I suppose. 

Speaking as a taoist, I regard Buddhism as a great foolishness. But
speaking as a tolerant man, I respect anyone's choice to follow Buddhism
all their lives, and will do what I can to assist them in their
endeavour. Same goes for anyone's adherence to any faith. To disrespect
the beliefs of others, that's what I see as the root of immorality.

>Enacting a law which legalises deliberate homicide under certain
>conditions is a fundemental change to the fabric of society. It is a
>huge step to take. 

Deliberate homicide has been legal under many circumstances in our
society, including warfare, execution and self-defence. Obviously our
society is nowhere near a perfect one, but, so far as it is worthwhile,
it is a tolerant one. Shouldn't we expect that perfecting society's
tolerance will go a long way towards perfecting its fabric?

>Further changes are much simpler, merely a widening
>of the conditions under which killing can take place. The removal of
>the vital first bastion (all deliberate killing is illegal) affects
>_everyone_. 

Now we seem to have left the issue of morality, and rejoined the old
debate about convenience. Certainly legislating for VE is thoroughly
inconvenient, but the alternative is still worse: the
institutionalization of the torture of defenceless innocents.  Such
torture can only degrade the quality of life for _everyone_, and it is
only a tiny step from the torture of the dying to the torture of the
living. If you're going to repeat your slippery slope fallacy, you must
explain why it does not apply in this way too.

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