The right to die.

 

An the choice regarding their right to chose when and how to die is once more stirring the nations conscience. The religious leaders are almost wholly opposed on the basis that it’s Gods choice, not the individuals.
The Catholic Church warns that “the right to die can become a duty to die”.
The Muslim religion is steadfastly against assisted dying and yet in certain circumstances marks some out women for stoning and by issuing a fatwa the death of someone who has upset Islamic justice.
The Church of England decries assisted dying as it does suicide on the basis that only God can take away a life since only God brought life into being.
The Jewish approach is to worry that life’s uniquely precious approach to life will break if we compromise anything other than a normal death.
There are as many variations to the theme as there are different sects who preserve the idea of the sacristy of life.
But where, how and why did this doctrine come into place since we are generally agnostic about killing. We butcher animals every day but other human beings we remain stubbornly conflicted. Wars, punishment for crime, are all authorised by the State but to take your own life is somehow the ultimate sin.
I believe my life is mine to make of it what I may and to end it is not a crime.
Is it the belief in the omnipresent power of god over our existence, living and after death that gets in the way of this basic choice. Is it in some peoples mind that this power that can’t be over turned since then we consider superseding god.
From the essentially primitive mind to the most finely tuned mind there is a wide divergence as to the meaning of life. We give little cognisance  to the primitive but are in awe of the person who has spent a lifetime asking questions regarding the sanctity of life, but of course, what if are asking the wrong question and directing it towards the wrong people.
If we spurn the idea that death of ant is different to our own then it becomes supremely narcissistic to say  “we are special”. There’s no mention of the animals who went into the Ark, (two by two), they are, the Palestinians of Gaza,  collateral damage and not counted in gods omniscience and yet in the physiological architecture of life we are all similar. Darwin summed it up “all life is descended from a small species pool and that evolution occurs only through natural selection “. It’s only mankind’s ability to think out of the box that we create a different kind of box one in which a thought like the viability of Schrödingers cat, (something which can be thought of as being in two places at the same time) because it’s fate is determined by something can’t be determined.)
This ambiguity of not knowing is like that surrounding a belief in god. We can’t know and therefore to make prognostications on matters which affect our health and our right to end our life becomes inadmissible.
It’s not a question of, is it good or bad to base our right to decide to live or die on religious terms, it’s simply a question that can’t be answered in religious terms.
In fear of social malpractice, it’s not beyond the wit of man to devise safeguards to prevent people being coerced into an early dying program against their will since the desire to die because they no longer simply wish to live is a perfectly valid and rational position to take. When you regress into old age there are so many issues to contend with which were not evident in middle age such as muscular weakness, breathing issues, sleeplessness, early forgetfulness leading into dementia. From the pain of a worn out body to digestive complaints, backache, and mental non productivity to financial shortages, leading  to diminished self esteem.
The sight re of yourself caught in the reflection of a shop window is enough.
It could of course be a damn sight worse. With a chronic illness your right to call it a day should always be yours and not a weirdly dressed archdeacon or subservience  of parliamentarians to electoral opinion polls
I must advise my friends that I don’t suffer or wish to serve up an early death on myself but the hypothetical arguments on the religious need to live has to be questioned.