Wow... Apparently our consititution has sections I didn't know about that contain a 'right to know about our right to die'.

You learn something new every day

Bit of a duff article really. I hope Fiona isn't around when I'm old and frail.

Anyone read the Harriet McBryde Johnson article "UNspeakable Conversations" in the New York Times, Feb 16, 2003? Johnson, an extremely incapacitated person and a disability rights lawyer records her encounter with Peter Singer.

Johnson begins her article:

"He (ie Singer) insists he doesn’t want to kill me. He simply thinks it would have been better, all things considered, to have given my parents the option of killing the baby I once was, and to let other parents kill similar babies as they come along and thereby avoid the suffering that comes with lives like mine and satisfy the reasonable preferences of parents for a different kind of child. It has nothing to do with me. I should not feel threatened."

All I can say is thank Gd I don't live in Holland and the Northern Territory legislation got ditched.

We are discussing an individuals right to seek the existence or exit of their choice.

We can either respect the individual or pretend that as a “society” we have collective rights which override those of the individuals who comprise it.

To be honest I am with and will always be with the “individual” (”society” is nothing but a collective noun for multiple individuals).

If someone decides to exit in a manner of their choice, with all the dignity they can muster – so be it.

Same for abortion – a lady exercising a sovereign right over the processes of her oiwn body – exactly the same issue.

That some other “individual” members of “society”, because of some supposed religious or personal moral conviction, demand the right to interfere or intercede and deny the rights of other individuals to pusue the existence or otherwise of their choice, is a problem for those who would interfere, to resolve for themselves.

As this article illustrates - someone who wants to do something about ending the pain of their personal circumstances has all the opportunity - regardless of statute.