Extending euthanasia to minors

[Faith No More]

I was using murder without invoking positivism, but I wasn't very clear. My apologies. I'd define murder as "unjust taking of life" rather than "unlawful" because morality is independent of a government.

Fair enough. Just remember what you'd personally define a word as is irrelevant.

Suicide harms the self by causing death, harms others by permanently severing relationships, and is offensive to God by rejecting the life he gave. Truly, the desire to commit suicide is due to a disordered thought process stemming from the general "It'd be better if I were not alive". This includes physical pain, emotional pain, and the feeling that the elderly get if their kids tell them they are a burden to the family.

Sure, it harms the self, but you must demonstrate that that harm is greater than the harm caused by living out an existence full of pain in which the person is simply waiting for death.

Some suicide can be due to a disordered thought process, but some suicide, such as making the choice to die rather than suffer, can be well thought out and completely rational. When that is true, who are we to deny a person that right?

Unless selfishness is a virtue, this is a great thing to choose. If I had some strange disease that caused me to be in great pain, I would not choose death because the experimental therapy done to be could help the next person to get this strange disease. It is good. To choose death is not good. I would prosecute a doctor for assisting the suicide. The patient who desires suicide gets a psych doctor.

This is not about what you would do. What this is about is why you feel people should be obligated to do as you would, which you have failed to demonstrate.

And I think the fact that you think anyone that desires suicide should get a psych doctor is telling. Choosing not to live out your final days in immense pain is not an irrational decision.

The person denying the value doesn't make the value go away. The value is objective.

You see, here is where your argument most fails in my eyes, and I think your religious views are influencing your argument, even thought you claim they don't. The value on life is conditional. It is conditional upon the fact that the amount of suffering experienced does not severely outweigh the pleasure. It is conditional upon the fact that the person experiencing that life has determined it worthwhile, and only he/she can make that determination.

What is death? Is it not destruction? I will not facilitate their own destruction nor sit back and let others do it.

Okay, I will concede that death is a form of destruction, however, I believe your usage of the word is to simply laden your argument with emotion.