RE: Do we own our own lives? A discussion on the morality of suicide and voluntary slavery.
December 12, 2012 at 1:50 pm
(December 11, 2012 at 5:51 pm)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote: Perhaps. If that were the case, I would argue that another's discomfort does not rationally give them right of dominion over that which does not belong to them. Of course, simultaneously, I recognize that I would not wish for people to kill themselves and would intervene.
Yep, I'm an irrational hypocrite. So?
Well, I think that's where most of the difficulty lies with this issue. Our intellect and our emotions are in direct conflict on deciding how this issue should be treated.
And don't worry about being a hypocrite. I used to be so bitter that I was being prevented from killing myself, because people wanted me to stick around. When I found out a friend of mine was trying to OD, however, I didn't hesitate to take action and save his life. It tore me up inside that I was so hypocritical, but I eventually realized that no matter how much I would have tried to rationalize him having ownership of his own life, I would intervene every time.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
