I like the right to be born versus aspect because you tied togethor two groups that are at odd but you used a logical value statement you have a right to die if and only if you have a right to be born. awesome logic i dont agree but i like the trap you set for my disagreement.

He did you know that old valet of his holiness the dahli Lahma went and asked him if he could have permission to die because he was old and tired
year after year the dahli refused, until he trained his successor, finally he granted him permission. they had a party and at the end he sat in the lotus position and died.
And you know what it is legal to die, it isnt legal to assist or to fail at it.lol

MJ,

Thanks for commenting.

In rereading my story I didn’t think that I was advocating one way or the other the right to life issue. I did ask the question if a right to die exists, does a right to life also exist. I pointed out that there is strong disagreement. But I gave no conclusion

Now if you want we can examine that question and see if we can find areas of agreement. I can promise you, I won’t engage in any name calling, and I will be respectful, but examining ones beliefs in detail can sometimes become uncomfortable.

Is this something you would care to do? No, is an acceptable answer.

No
I am a big jazz fan and jazz doesnt say the chords as much as they imply them i am sorry i thought you were implying a set of chords. i loved these by the way i thought they were awesome.

Not a prob.

I like your new picture.

Not a prob.

I like your new picture.

Ugh, I can’t sequel this because I don’t believe in an all-knowing and loving God. I might have to write a parallel-to-this-story sequel of your previous entry.

I argue that the definition of a natural right is something that every person can expect based on the laws of the Universe. Death is (currently) inescapable for every person, and therefore death is a natural right. So we stand as opposites, I argue that the universality of death makes it a right. Now, choosing one’s death isn’t a natural right, as demonstrated by your examples, but I argue that it should be a legal right. I believe in Free Will and a natural right to death, therefore I feel that one should be able to choose their death. There is current legal semi-support for this idea in the legality of living wills, which give a person the ability to choose death over a vegetative state.

Note that I’m not arguing that accidents shouldn’t exist, and I stated before that a right to death implies that murder is illegal.

Science,

But of course you can sequel this.

A question for you.

Rights by their very nature are things that may voluntarily be exercised or not. If not voluntary then they are compulsory and no longer rights. You might as well speak about a “right to have time pass” or a “right to increase in entropy” or a “right to decay”. You can no more refuse to do these things than you can command the sun not to shine.

You stated in your previous comments, “now choosing one’s death isn’t a natural right, as demonstrated by your examples, but I argue that it should be a legal right.” You also stated in your story “The right to death”, last sentence first paragraph, “Therefore, everybody has a natural right to death”. You also stated, “In my mind, it means that everybody is entitled to chose their own death.”

Does this mean that you have changed your mind regarding a natural right to death? You now seem to be against the proposition you were in favor of before.

You may say that you are in favor of people having a legal right to end their lives if they so chose. But this does not necessarily make it a natural right.

dang now i agree with duckie. I think where it gets gray is the question of what is a natural right?

Bingo!!

Give that man a cigar, or a non cancer causing alternative treat of his desire.

Natural rights are universal. Legal rights are not. And that is the crux of the matter.

Yeah, the semantics of this are tricky, and honestly I don’t think I can fully relate my ideas, though I try, I try.

No, I’m not reversing my position. I was actually trying to clarify it. I consider natural rights to be like laws of physics (the actual ones, not the ones we write to describe them… & I’m assuming they are immutable), they literally cannot be taken away. I consider death to be a natural right. Everybody gets one, no matter who you are. That means just that. Everybody dies.

The right to choose your own death is NOT a natural right, it would have to be a legal right granted to people. Entitlements are granted, so I was trying to say the same thing before, everybody should be granted the legal right to choose their own death should they desire to.

So to recap, death itself is a natural right, but the right to choose your own death is not; I just would like to see it become a legal right based upon my perceived natural right to death and Free Will.

If I seem to be… oh a bit argumentative about this, I apologize. It is certainly not my intention to be disagreeable. And frankly one could with justice say that a site dedicated to the writing of fiction is not the forum to discuss such subjects.

At times I can be a bit of a gadfly and try to cause people to examine themselves and their beliefs. The saying “Know what you believe, and why you believe it” can encompass some of the most fun conversations I’ve had in recent years.

I am curious of one thing though. In describing the laws of physics you stated you were making reference to “the actual ones, not the ones we write to describe them”.

I am not certain how to differentiate between the two. If I describe a natural law, such as the property of the brightness of light diminishing over distance, I make reference to the inverse square law. Can you give me an example of an actual law of physics as differentiated from one we write to describe it?

i just think everyone dies.
Whether or not Death is a right seems to be rather pointless, as we are all gonna die at some point.
Well, those are my thoughts.
Wheres my penny?

Inflation has caused the payment to increase to three cents. However the combination of federal, state, county and local taxes, as well as fees has resulted in a combined tax penalty of 5 cents. Please remit your payment of 2 cents in the enclosed envelope.

You know it’s weird that in England, we say Pence not cents,
but we still say “Thats my two cents”

Maybe in England, they’re really saying “That’s my two sense?”

For an example, I use Newton’s Law of Gravitation, which is good, but not perfect. It’s just a formula we use that approximates the reality. But it’s still pretty good, so it can be used for some applications without needing the extra precision and accuracy of Einstein’s Law of Gravitation, which takes into account the apparent fact that the force of gravity propagates at light speed, which is apparent because Einstein’s Law predicts the orbit of Mercury, which Newton’s Law does not do correctly… this was one of the key pieces of evidence in getting Einstein’s Law accepted. Even so, Einstein’s Law may not be 100% correct and certainly it runs into trouble on the quantum scale and dealing with singularities.

Interesting writing, and interesting comments.

I always find it interesting that when you’re young, fit and healthy, and most able to choose any number of ways to die, you generally choose not to. Only when you’re old, decrepit, paralysed or unable to kill yourself do you suddenly find yourself wishing you could.

Perhaps we should say that, since in general people have the ability to end their own lives at any point, the state should not interfere with those people who (for whatever reason) lack this ability, when they seek help to do so.

This is perhaps no different to helping any disabled person overcome the limitations of their disability.

No cents involved in this one, just a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit…