RE: Right to Die
May 3, 2016 at 8:03 am
(This post was last modified: May 3, 2016 at 1:17 pm by Edwardo Piet.)
(May 2, 2016 at 4:37 pm)Alasdair Ham Wrote: I attempted suicide and I am glad it failed. But if the option had been available I would have wanted to go to a medical center to die. I am glad the option was not available.
So this is why I absolutely think soundness of mind is a prerequisite. I believed no one loved and cared about me even when they did, it was a temporary highly depressive state of mind that I recovered from. To those who support the right to die for any reason: that means if a medical center would have been available they would have supported my decision to go there, despite the fact I absolutely did not have a sound mind and despite the fact that not only was my depressive state temporary and rather psychotic and delusional (but harmless to anyone else other than myself): it did not represent the whole of who I am.
If tomorrow I randomly for no reason felt super suicidal and wanted to die, I hope that my decision to want to die would not be taken seriously. It would not represent me and so in a very relevant sense it would not be me
As far as I am concerned, that would be like allowing someone else to choose for me to die. Who we are is not simply our whims in a particular moment, we're more than that: soundness of mind is relevant. Please don't ever take me or my decisions seriously when I'm highly psychotic.
As far as I am concerned "the right to die for any reason" is just another form of absolutism, and hasn't been fully thought through. The same goes for those who think no one has the right to die for any reason. I lie somewhere in the middle. The whole problem with this is it's not a simple all or nothing thing.