Chairman Brando's Haunt

Very few places around the world allow for voluntary euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide (the difference being that in the latter case the patient has to take the pills if/when they choose), and that seems a bit puzzling. Nowhere in the United States allows for euthanasia and only three states, Washington, Oregon, and Montana, allow assisted suicide.

Supposed “morals” and cultural influences be damned — people should have a right to die. Our unwillingness to consider a person’s final wish is especially puzzling and gut-wrenching when you read some the heartbreaking stories from those who wish they could have made the same choice for their loved one as the woman in the news item above but were instead forced to make them suffer as the law currently mandates.

As someone who has lost my dad to cancer and having to have my 13 year old dog put down last week the irony of this hit me hard. I was devastated by both but sadly the dog had a less painful and more dignified ending and that really bothers me a lot.

My dad died at home and I am thinking I should have just morphined the shit out of him and just watched him peacefully go instead of the fucking horrific ending he had to endure. If I had it to do again I would put half that bottle under his tongue and hold his hand like I did my dog and watch him go off in peace.

If you’re ever in that position and think you will feel guilty for “killing” them I can tell you you will feel worse for not having helped them end it after the shock of it all is over.

This one’s even worse:

My babydog also died at age 13. She stopped eating and drinking and could barely stand. I carried her to the emergency vet on Christmas day only to learn her clotting factor was so low she was in danger of hemorraging. I could have treated her but her chances of survival were very low. I held her in my arms while the vet put her down. I told her I loved her and she went peacefully with minimal pain.

My grandfather died 9 years previously. He stopped eating and drinking. He told us he did not want to live. He was suffering from complications of diabetes. He whittled down to 118 lbs. My family ignored his wishes and the doctors lopped his leg off bit by bit. He was fed via a feeding tube. He was in terrible agony. He mercifully died after the third amputation. He had no dignity and was essentially tortured.

If someone says they want to die, why are we so arrogant to insist that they don’t know what they’re talking about? Even if you’re religious, the idea that “God creates and ends all life” ceased to be relevant the moment we developed the technology to prolong a painful or vegetative “life” indefinitely. Mere existence is not living.

At the very least it’s good that we do allow for loved ones to stop medical treatment in cases where conditions clearly aren’t going to improve and the only thing keeping them alive are the tubes and machines they’re attached to. I was there when my parents made the decision to turn off the life support of the only grandfather I knew. We stood around the bed and watched him go. It was terribly sad, of course, but there comes a point when the mental anguish of watching someone never get better is too much for a family to endure.

Against gay marriage? Here’s a concise list of reasons why you’re wrong.

I keep hearing over and over that “we can’t redefine marriage.” Well, why not? We have been redefining marriage throughout history. In fact, marriage pre-dates recorded history. The Bible (which is often used to defend the ‘one man’/’one woman’ definition) is full of polygamous marriages.

Let us not forget that we went through this exact same issue with interracial marriage before its banning was deemed unconstitutional.

In fantasy fiction, we are often confronted with worlds where history extends for thousands of years without so much of an advancement in technology, politics or philosophy. Obviously, the reason for this is because history in fiction is but a narrative tool, however it also makes a lot of sense when you consider the aspects of fantasy that do not appear in our own world.

If we lived in a world where our problems could be solved by magic, prayer, or a convenient deus ex machina; if we lived in a world where we saw first-hand indisputable evidence of miracles that implied an intelligence beyond ourselves, then we would simply be convinced of our world’s indiscriminate physics. There would be no way to study the behavior of matter that could easily be manipulated by gods that we knew to exist. The explanation for why things are would be right there in front of our face with no reason to question it.

So we should be thankful that there is no god and there is no such thing as magic and that our wills cannot bend reality. Elsewise, there would be no inner search for what is right and no progress to be made in a world that exists exactly as its god created it.

Source: Don’t Feed the Animals
Paragraphization: Mine 

This woman, fearful of the end of the world, took a boxcutter to the throats of her two daughters, and then sliced her own throat. This is what religion encourages: fear based on imaginary terrors.

…

I want to see Harold Camping prosecuted for bilking people out of their money, for destroying lives and families. I want to see his radio empire dismantled and the people who promoted his lies disgraced and ashamed.