Comments on Secondhand Smoke: Your 24/7 Seminar on Bioethics and the Importance of Being Human: Swiss Suicide Clinics Help Kill the Depressed! No...

If we own our bodies, why do people go into a 24-h...

2007-06-06T14:04:00.000-07:00

If we own our bodies, why do people go into a 24-hour observation room for self-mutilating? Why are people apprenhended and imprisoned for suicide attempts?

We own our bodies to a certain extent. We're still...

2007-06-06T08:09:00.000-07:00

We own our bodies to a certain extent. We're still not allowed to consume illegal drugs. I'm not sure but it's also probably not legal to dismember yourself for no good reason.

As a society we have decided that it is better for society that people not be allowed to take certain drugs, even though they own their bodies. It's also not good for society to allow people to kill themselves. Certainly it's not possible to stop the determined person from doing so but that doesn't mean it should be allowed or endorsed by society.

Mea culpa...

2007-06-06T07:42:00.000-07:00

Mea culpa...

And the buzzer sounds: No abortion talk on this po...

2007-06-05T21:24:00.000-07:00

And the buzzer sounds: No abortion talk on this post, please. Merci.

As you were...

we DO own our own bodiesExcept if you're unborn- t...

2007-06-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

we DO own our own bodies

Except if you're unborn- then your mother can poison, dismember and do just about anything to your body she pleases.

Gregory - I've got nothing against medical advance...

2007-06-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

Gregory - I've got nothing against medical advances. I was just pointing out that we CAN sell our bodies, and since you can only sell what you own, we DO own our own bodies.

So receiving remuneration for allowing some limite...

2007-06-05T08:18:00.000-07:00

So receiving remuneration for allowing some limited experiments to be done on your body makes you human chattel? -- Seems like sort of an extremist view. What do you have against advancements in medicine?

Wow. To some people, death is the answer to everyt...

2007-06-05T07:23:00.000-07:00

Wow. To some people, death is the answer to everything. It's like those peddlers that sell miracle concoctions in a bottle: Death cures all that ails you!

An analogy I commonly use in my policy classes is a cost benefit analysis of two programs to end homelessness.

Program A involves case management, transitional housing, drug and alcohol rehab if needed, mental health treatment if needed, job placement assistance and enrolling the individual in government subsidized health care/housing/nutrition programs. The cost of staff, supplies, etc: 2.6 billion dollars.

Program B involves rounding up all the homeless and shooting them execution style in the back of the head. Short and painless. We'd then bury them all together in a mass grave outside the city. The cost of hitmen, firearms and and gravediggers: $25,000

Mind you, both programs allieviate homelessness, although one is substantially cheaper and less labor-intensive. Which do we go with? Even the pro-abort, pro-euthanasia folks in my classes all tend to agree that mass killing of the homeless is not an acceptable solution.

But somehow I still can't get them to see that death is not an acceptable moral solution for any social problem. Depression, poverty, disability, terminal illness, "overpopulation", -these are all of the justifications for killing the born and the unborn.

Is killing people or allowing them to kill themselves not the ultimate cop-out for providing real solutions?

Yes we can, just not after we're dead. Last time ...

2007-06-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

Yes we can, just not after we're dead. Last time I checked, it's perfectly legal to become a paid guinea pig for pharmaceutical companies.

Uh, Tony. We aren't allowed to sell our bodies fo...

2007-06-03T21:26:00.000-07:00

Uh, Tony. We aren't allowed to sell our bodies for drug testing and medical experiments.

And another thing - if we don't 'own' our own bodi...

2007-06-03T20:20:00.000-07:00

And another thing - if we don't 'own' our own bodies, why are we allowed to sell our bodies for medical experiments and drug testing?

So? It's not like you can 'cure' every case of de...

2007-06-03T16:16:00.000-07:00

So? It's not like you can 'cure' every case of depression, is it?

Tony: The story is about the depressed, not those ...

2007-06-03T13:24:00.000-07:00

Tony: The story is about the depressed, not those who are sick and in pain.

Helping people die is more humane than experimenti...

2007-06-03T00:15:00.000-07:00

Helping people die is more humane than experimenting on them with pain-relief methods for years and years with no end in sight and no progress in sight.