Also, Lefty’s comments on the old canard that “Atheism is a religion too!” have been spot on.

She, unlike me, is deeply religious. She feels that fighting to hang on for however long would be insulting her god. It’s like she arrived at the same conclusion as I have from the polar opposite point of view.

I’ve been telling her ever since it was just a suspicion instead of a confirmed diagnosis that I agreed with her. I was of two minds about telling her this, at least initially, because I love my mom and wasn’t sure that she’d understand where I was coming from.

Mr. Clendinen’s essay may help that. I’m going to write her a letter (as in an old school letter, with my own hand, not an email) and try to tell her how much I love her and respect her decision and I’m going to include the link to Mr. Clendinen’s essay because it so clearly sets out what I have believed for so long.

Thank you for finding and sharing this.

I believe pluto exists even if I haven’t seen it personally because it can be verified. Given evidence to the contrary I would change my views. That isn’t faith. Faith is believing something despite or in spite of evidence. I require proof to believe something.

Well a lot of them aren’t atheists, but just because someone disagrees with you doesn’t mean they’re not using their intellect. Just because a belief is “religious” doesn’t mean it isn’t intellectual and doesn’t indicate that it’s incorrect. Also, people can use their intellect and be wrong; intellect is just as fallible as anything else human.

*Also, I see that some idiot has responded to you with “atheism isn’t a religion”, which is true as far as it goes (theism isn’t a religion either), which isn’t very far. There are plenty of religions and cults that are perfectly compatible with atheism e.g. humanism (classical or modern, including Objectivism), Buddhism, various sorts of progressivism and scientism, various sorts of spiritualism. Personally I find the question of whether a belief is “religious” or “faith-based” uninteresting; what should matter is whether the belief is correct or incorrect.

**Also: The notion that people should be prevented from imposing certain kinds of moral beliefs on others is itself a moral belief to be imposed (maybe rightly, maybe wrongly).

I think that the biggest reason why ending one’s own life when and how one wants it ended should be legalized is to protect the loved ones of the dying person and to allow them to participate or at least be present. When suicide is not legal, a person who wants to end his own life cannot ask their loved ones to be present when they do so, since they would be legally obliged to try to prevent it or alert the authorities.
This guy will probably have to die alone to protect his friends and family from criminal charges and that is just sad.

I did not enter “people who freely consent” because that, at least among libertarians and anarchists, is fully understood. But laws, and the medicinal institutions, as has happened already in Europe, take it upon themselves to “assist” those who have no death wish . . .

And to make a single issue of any of it gummint policy is to embrace statism and the usual marxist model.

So either read what I say (I do write fairly concisely, or examine your own beliefs. I said “what is” very clearly the first time, said again even more clearly a second time, and I know precisely what I am talking about.

The only “huge hole” is not by my definition whatsoever. I am quite clear, and I will state it again for your benefit:

You are free to off yourself. You are not free to coerce (look up the definition) by law or statute or regulation or whatever, to force (as they do in Europe with assisted suicide), to in any way force another to assist you in offing yourself. If you find someone with a magic cocktail, great, but that is not to become societal policy, but individual policy.

And if that doesn’t cover the nineteen bases of the other two, I don’t know what else to tell you.

I defend your right to die whenever you wish, I do not defend a public policy that in any way forces a single other individual to participate in that against their will.

Got it?

Your second post still doesn’t clear this up.

The modern Swedish State legalized prior refusal of treatment, suicide, and assisted suicide fairly early on. Gradually it became an accepted social norm for Doctors to have a good deal of input in such cases …. and since then there has been a long series of outbreaks of scandal – almost like an episodic disease – concerning euthanasia and eugenics. What strikes me is that, in my personal experience, the Swedes are among the nicest people on earth …. and their medical officials STILL can’t refrain from playing God.

That makes me very nervous.

Part of the problem is that we have a large and vocal group of people who are quite prepared to enforce their morality, while denying that it is a morality based on religious belief. We call them Atheistical Western Intellectuals (which is ironic, since by and large the last thing they use is their intellect). Their denial that their opinions are largely religious means that they feel they can viciously attack anybody who holds DIFFERENT religious opinions, on grounds of ‘separation of Church and State). If you disapprove of something these people like, you get shouted down, and accused of being a religious fanatic. This, it is unacceptable to frown on Homosexual Males, but perfectly acceptable to frown on Heterosexual Males.

I’m an agnostic, but I get very very tired to the Faith the Atheists have in their lack of religion.

That should include cognitive freedom as well.

Absolutely! I would not want to live like that or have that hanging around the necks of loved ones.

Americans as a group are for some reason obsessed with quantity rather than quality; they think more is always better, even if it’s more pain, humiliation and powerlessness. As far as I’m concerned, when one dies isn’t remotely as important as how one lives.

Geezopete. How hard are they to understand? Quit trying to make them mean something else. If you want to off yourself, fine. Do it in free fashion, do not force coercion at any level—professional, legal gummintal. That is enslaving someone else to your desires, by whatever force.

Did that cover all the bases?