I have no particular opinion on killing minks, most of whom are bred for the purpose. If one leaves them to their fate, it is likely enough they will suffer from disease, debilitation, or violence on the way to death anyway. I doubt that many minks die a comfortable death in their beds, as it were.
I have a brother with cerebral palsy. He is profoundly disabled, confined to a wheelchair, with spastic limbs. He became ill after birth, and suffered oxygen deprivation due to a bad flu when he was an infant. He is of normal intelligence. And he likes being alive, despite deprivation, indignity, and periodic pain caused by problems with his hips. All I ask is that you not impose your beliefs about life and death on those not in a position to speak for themselves, such as the unborn. You are rarely, if ever, in a position to know if their life will not be worth living.
As far as denying someone an exit from suffering goes, well, most of them, if they are serious, are capable of killing themselves. If they cannot bring themselves to do it, they should not drag anyone else into it. In the rare instances where they could not do it without aid, it seems to me that society has a right to discourage the practice, lest people be pressured by their families to die, or lest euthanasia be used as a cover for murder, but I think that assisted suicide should be treated more leniently than ordinary murder. |
