Quote:
Originally Posted by OLD BOY
So much for individual rights, then. You would rather have someone pleading to be put out of their misery and being told they have to put up with it because you know better?
You need to ask which is the truly humane approach. We treat dogs better.
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There are few human rights that are absolute, because when one person exercises their rights, it always has an impact on someone else, in one way or another. Our own rights must always therefore be balanced against those of others. Nobody lives in isolation.
The ‘right’ to die (which does not exist in law, and in my view is extremely hard to define satisfactorily in any ethical system) would impinge on others if it did exist, because it would create a set of legal procedures and, eventually, societal assumptions, that the vast majority of other people would then have to consider, as they reach end-of-life. As the ‘right’ to die does not presently exist, there is no duty, or pressure, to consider it. Simply allowing the possibility of a ‘right’ to die affects everyone else, quite profoundly.
Appeals to ‘individual rights’ of this kind often ultimately fail because what is dressed up as personal freedom is often merely a selfish failure to consider how one’s own choices affect others. Thankfully we still have a legal and legislative system in this country that is willing to take such considerations seriously and not to rush to confer ‘rights’ on everyone at the insistence of a vocal minority.