Who Decides The Value of Your Life?
Sunday, March 5th, 2006The Government? The Christian God? Or, perhaps You decide the value of your own life.
In response to Adam Elijah’s post concerning "the continued devaluing of human life," I have one question for him: Why should your personal values provide the standard for whether my life has any value? I think I am the better judge of the merit of my life. If I suffer from depression and wish to terminate my life, so be it. Why do others who are motivated by factors like religion and "faith" - ideas that mean nothing to me- determine whether my life has any merit.
You see the 80-year-old Christian woman sitting in front of Fox News decides that God frowns upon terminating one’s life, so she does not support it. Good for her. Wonderful. She has the right to live in any way she deems fit. Why do her values and morals dictate how I have to live? I cannot think of a single more personal issue then one’s decision to terminate her own life.
Choosing to end your life because you do not wish to endure pain and suffering, of any kind, is not "devaluing human life." Someone suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, sitting in an assisted-living facility, eating mashed peas, unable to move or speak has a diminished value in her life. Putting an end to her life does not devalue it any further. Here is an idea. If you really place such a great value on someone else’s life, why not promote research that might yield productive advances in medical science so that people do not continue to suffer from terminal disease. One more way to preserve the value of human life: make healthcare available to everyone - this includes prescription drug coverage too.
Let’s all be intellectually honest with ourselves, shall we? No one can determine the value of your life, except you.
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