CallaFirestormBW
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quote:
Abortion. If you are a pro-choice person, is there a point where you view the process as murder or is it until birth, a choice?
For me, I'm not all that keen on mid 2nd-trimester abortion unless the mother's life is imminently at risk (after 20 weeks). That being said, the point at which the fetus can survive outside the womb with minimal support (not extraordinary means) is my limit. If the fetus is born and is able to breathe, and providing nutrition, oxygen, and support to maintain body heat is sufficient to allow it to thrive outside the womb, it is a baby. Typically, for myself, as a former midwife, I put this at about 25-26 weeks (prior to that point, the lungs are typically insufficiently developed to allow the baby to breathe without a ventilator.) It is important to note, though, that in my opinion, until the point at which a fetus is able to survive on its own, I consider it a parasite, strictly -potential-, without any capacity to express that potential, and with no assurance that any potential will be met... and the mother, alive and functioning in society already, should have the right to choose whether or not to bring that creature into existence.
I also do not feel that the government has any right to determine, for me, whether or not I produce progeny. I feel that personal freedom in such matters is paramount, and that giving our government (or, to break it down even further, giving my next door neighbor) the right to decide whether or not I am forced to give birth to a child I am carrying is an infringement on my right to the sovereignty of my own body.
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Executions: Regardless of whether or not they deter criminals, do you think executing someone for the murder of another to be an acceptable form of punishment? If not, are there instances where it would be?
Honestly, I've always been sort of tied up on this one. I think that it is a terrific drain on our society to continue to feed and house criminals who have no hope of revision of their behavior or mindset, and who absolutely cannot be released back into society due to the risks of recidivism. I also find it abhorrent to imprison a man, and to force him to live in a cage for the remainder of his days. I consider a murderer, in a sense, in the same way that I would consider a wild animal, and, to me, it is, in its own way, a crime to steal another man's freedom as much as it is to steal a man's life.
At the same time, I think that we could reduce our prison populations by removing non-violent offenders, and not have to commit murder to compound the murder already committed by the incarcerated individual. If we -must- have prisons, I think that they should be reserved -only- for those who are too dangerous to be allowed to remain on the streets.
If it were me, I'd like to have a place like Coventry (anyone here familiar with the concept?) where they could have a place where they wouldn't be -incarcerated-, but where they would only be interacting with other individuals who were similarly incapable of refraining from inflicting violence on others.
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Right to die: How do you view right to die laws that exist for the terminally ill? Should it be a right in your view? Or do you believe that medical science has evolved to a point where one can die in peace without suffering? If you were the person making the decision, what would drive that process, fear? Economics? What?
This is my body. I reserve the right to decide how and when I choose to die. It is irrelevant to me whether another person agrees with my opinion of my own death. It is not their decision to make. My body is sovereign, and I claim sole discretion to determine its time of departure from this incarnation, whether it please someone else or not. I am not inclined to the use of extraordinary measures to remain alive, and particularly, at the point at which I am deemed permanently unable to interact with my environment and communicate as I so choose to do, I have formally requested the right to die in whatever time it takes my body to do so, and with any assistance the merciful choose to provide. I have no fear of death, and to me, there is no such thing as "dying before one's time"... when one dies, that -is- one's time.
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Pulling the plug: One of the areas in which I've always found pro-lifers to be inconsistent in defending life is removing others from life support. Aside from Terri Shaivo (sp), it is a common practice done in hospitals every day that generates little if any uproar. But in a technical sense, it is taking the life of another person. A few months ago a story ran on the front page of Yahoo about a man who had been brain dead, or at least thought to be, for 17 years who suddenly woke and came back with most if not all of his mental faculties. If you were called upon to make that decision, do you feel it to be one that could haunt you?
I consider the issue of removing a person from life support to be the same as freeing a man from prison. If someone is to die, then keeping hir alive on artificial life support is trapping hir in that body. If xhe is not meant to die, xhe will continue to live, but extraordinary means of sustaining life for those who have chosen otherwise, or for those for whom medical science can find no possibility of recovery is, to me, a form of involuntary imprisonment. It would not haunt me, were it my decision to make.
I made the decision once, for my mother. She had been clear in saying that she knew she was close to death, and was ready to die, several weeks before the stroke that put her in a coma. When the time came to make the choice, I chose to let her go. My dad and brother, on the other hand, chose to over-rule my decision and the express, written wishes of my mother, and the doctors that they worked with agreed to over-rule my mother's end-of-life wishes and inflict extraordinary means on her -- down to having the doctor re-start her heart when it stopped. She -did- wake from the coma, but was unable to move her limbs, and unable to speak. However, according to the doctors, she was able to -understand-, see, and -hear- everything going on around her -- she just had no means of communicating anything she felt or thought with anyone in the outside world. For five years after she woke from the coma, she sat in a nursing home bed, glaring at my father (who sat with her every day). Finally, she had another stroke and did not respond to resuscitation attempts (yes, my father and brother denied even a DNR-Do Not Resuscitate-order!!!). I would feel NO guilt in freeing a person from an ended life and free them from being tied to a body that is no longer useful, and I would hope that those who say that they love me respect my right to not be forced to remain trapped in this body once it no longer serves me.
< Message edited by CallaFirestormBW -- 3/3/2009 2:26:35 PM >
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Said to me recently: "Look, I know you're the "voice of reason"... but dammit, I LIKE being unreasonable!!!!"
"Your mind is more interested in the challenge of becoming than the challenge of doing." Jon Benson, Bodybuilder/Trainer
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RE: Acceptable Murder - 
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