"Thinker", are you STILL assuming that we're talking about drug-consumption, or law/policing policy with another country?

I sincerely hope you have disassociated this debate from "Drugs are bad and must be stopped" and into the second one (the choice of police policy- the one you had not touched in your response), because not only would this be a very bad reflection on you, worse still is I had been wasting my time trying to present in as plain terms as possible the argument most of us are focusing on.

All this nonsense about only getting one life so we have to hang onto it even if it's the pits, even if we're vegetables or in terrible agony! People who think like this need psychological help!

All I can say is thank heavens we only get one life given its ups and downs. And surely, at the very least, we deserve to die peacefully at a time of our choosing.

http://dangerouscreation.com

Straw man, David. While I believe that you (and you alone) should have the right to bring your (one and only) life to an end, I'm sure that you still have plenty to contribute to your fellow-humans, and that your passing will cause sorrow and pain to many people :)

Joe

it/gets..so de-pressing...i hope to shine/a little light

this is but..the first..page-of...life/eternal

we must all begin...life-eternal...
by learning..the lessons..of this life

<<..revelation/that..had more/influence..and consolation than/words.

There is/but..one-way
for all mankind to travel..on their pilgrimage to God;

the earth/stages..tampered with..and rendered difficult-to/trace,
but from-where..my feet are/standing..the way was/clear
and unmistakable.

It was the way/called..Straight,..whose/engineer was God Himself,
and it/bore..His-stamp..and seal,..even as/we find it
{wrote/large}..upon the face/of Nature.

At this/point-Nature..became to/me
the interpreter of grace,..and my soul drifted/with its flow
into the ocean..of another revelation.

What man/can-stand..with watch in hand/and say
‘The day is dead,..and night is born?’
Who can divide...accurately/the seasons as/they come and go?

Who is learned/enough..to fix the boundary/of-sleep?

The early frosts of/winter..are sandwiched
into autumn's golden-days,..and spring dove-tails her/sunshine
into{winters}..icy blasts;

daylight comes/back..with insinuating pulses,
stealing a footing unobserved upon/the cheek-of..night;

the opening/leaves{of..the budding flower}..
put forth..so stealthily/that even though..we stand on/guard
to watch,..we should be/compelled to say..“It is not;..yes,it/is.”

In Nature..there/are..no leaps and bounds,
no cul-de-sacs..or chasms,..or sharp divisions in its/great-law of progress;

the order/is,..unfoldment from/within,
stimulated by/the..appropriation of/congenial nourishment..from/without.

This same/development..is also/observable..in the stages/of life,
so/far-as..they come within/the cognisance..of mortals.

Who/is learned-enough..to discover..the instant/of being,
or tell{infallably}..the time of the soul's departure?

Who can say/when unconsciousness..unfolds into consciousness,
or the/instinct..of the babe/gives place-to intelligence?

Who can/define..when responsibility is/born,
or draw a..line/between infancy..and boyhood?

So{to}..the parallel of/nature..and{creation/of our}soul
might be continued{even as our living/being be continue}d

...But..enough!

If the/same-law..is evident at/the..commencement,
and continues..as far/as man can/trace it,
by what right..do/we assume..
that any change/occurs..beyond our/ken?..{knowing}

Given the/same God..as Creator/and Preserver
Author and Finisher..and He/unchangeable,
why not/the..same law..and that/Immutable?

The thought..consoled me,..gave me strength..and peace.
The distance between/me..and my/ideal..was no doubt great;
but it would/be..reached by a natural-process
of which the/duration..to a great-extent,..lay in my own hands.

‘God is no respecter/of persons’;
there is/no royal-road or cross-country cut..

but One Way/which is..

‘the way,

{of/love..respecting..all life}

the truth,

{the truth..that this/life
is one..life-long journey/
that none...have autherity..to call..ended}

and the life,’

{gifted to-each...by him
who grants...even..the most/vile..

their gift..of life...by/..his love}

that we/do..to the least
we do to him..{the most}

Under one god, Iran, Saudi Arabia? Yes the Islamic fundamentalists and the christian fundamentalist have almost the same bronze age superstitious fears indoctrinated into them from birth.
Tell us under one god and crazy Jim Wallace do you guys go to 21st century medical specialists when you get sick or injured or do you pray "beg favours" with chants and rituals from your religious dark age deities and conjured up imaginary saints like Mary MacKillop?
Your religious cults have obstructed every scientific and medical endeavour known to mankind, they still are, this is just another, you must be horrified hearing an in-vitro fertilisation specialist has just won a noble prize?

You've nailed it, HFR: as Richard Dawkins wrote just after 9/11, one of the most dangerous myths is that there is an afterlife, to which Islamist suicide bombers think they will go to consort with their own 72 perpetually-renewable virgins. As Schopenhauer suggested, if you can convince a Christian that there is no afterlife, he will become an atheist within twenty minutes.

And yes, the worrying thing at the moment is the similarities between Islamist, 'Eretz Israel' Jews, fundamentalist Christians, and even the Hindutva 'Aryans' - that they think

(a) that there is a god [or in the case of Hindutva, 44 million gods] on their side, and

(b) that by being obedient to a book, they can gain eternal life, if not just yet then at the 'End of Days'.

It's ironic that deep-believers, on the one hand, and deep-Greens, on the other, both devalue human life so much: one mob proclaims that a post-earth life will be so much better; the other mob seems to despise humans so much that they would rather they didn't exist at all.

What puzzles me is that god-believers are the ones who oppose euthanasia, while the earth-believers are quite enthusiastic about it, with their endless scenarios of extreme pain and dignity of human life, and therefore......

Please spare us from both.

Joe