Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bela_ghoulashi who wrote (4555)	2/3/2001 11:10:25 AM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 82486

I don't see how helping Mother Nature out judiciously can be inherently wrong. First, let me clarify my use of the word "wrong" in case it matters to your question. Because stuff is so complicated, we use shorthand when we talk or post so our ideas aren't communicated with precision. For the record, I don't think it's ever "right" to kill a fetus. I just think that it's often less wrong than the alternative, so I say "not wrong" but what I mean is acceptably wrong because that's preferable to a greater wrong. FWIW. If a bill was introduced into Congress to make such an act legal, would you support it? No. I'm sure you're looking for more than that so I'll keep the discussion going by ruminating a bit. Humans pass through many milestones from conception to death including viability, birth, and the age of reason. Notice that I consider death the last milestone, not another stop on the way to an afterlife. Death, to me, means the permanent end to consciousness although that's not the legal definition. Birth has a legal definition, too. The rest of the milestones don't have legal standing as far as I know. We all fear death to some extent. It's unknown. It could be painful. We worry about those we leave behind. And some of us are fearful of what might come after. If I were to be killed in such a way that I didn't know what hit me, as the saying goes, I would argue that it's of no consequence to me. It's of consequence to those I leave behind, but not to me. I wouldn't know that I'm dead. Or that I've been wronged. The incident ceases upon my death to be about me. It's of consequence only to my loved ones and, in a broad sense, to society in general because of what it tells them about the fragility of their lives and the character of their society, but not to me. If I'm killed in a way that I have to suffer the fear of knowing it's going to happen or suffer the physical pain of the killing process, then it is of consequence to me, albeit briefly. An infant doesn't have a clue. It doesn't know enough to anticipate its death or fear it. So if the death is painless, I would say that it's of no consequence to the infant just as it's of no consequence to the fetus. Sure, all the potential of the infant's life is lost, but the infant doesn't know that. That only matters to those left behind. For infants, that's a very small number of people. If that very small number of people were to decide that it was less wrong to end that infant's life than to let it suffer with no hope of ending the suffering but death, I wouldn't have any problem with them acting on it. Actually, I would prefer that they did. What is important here is not the clueless infant but what this dilemma says about us and our society. I'd like to see more compassion and less rigidity about preserving life unduly. I'd like to see honored the wishes of people who want to end their suffering and have the capacity to make that decision. I'd like to see more compassion for those who have not yet achieved the capacity to make that decision. On a slightly different point, I recall hearing a story about the death of an infant. I don't remember the details. What I remember is that the mother, the infant, and a number of other people were trying to get away from some bad guys, soldiers, I think. They were hiding as the bad guys approached and the baby started to cry. The mother pressed the child to her to suppress the sound. The bottom line was that the people escaped detection but the infant died. I sure wouldn't prosecute the mother. Karen