Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Death With Dignity

Oregon's physicial-assisted suicide law was upheld by the Supreme Court today; story here. Voting probably went as expected, with Roberts, Scalia and Thomas dissenting. I wonder how long it'll be until the individual justice's decisions are put up on the net, I'd love to read through them.

As for how I feel...personally I'm in favor of physician-assisted suicide laws, for the same reason that I'm pro-choice; while it may not be what I would choose for myself (or my partner, in the case of abortions), who am I to dictate to others what is right and what is wrong? I think it's better to make information available, to educate people as to their options, and then let them decide what is best for them.

That said, I do think a lot of information about abortions either isn't made available to people or they don't care to find out, and by that I mean the emotional aspect of it. Obviously as a man and as one who hasn't had to have an abortion with a partner (if I can even say that without getting harassed by women, since it is, after all, them who have the abortion) I'm acting on things I have read and been told about abortions, but since that's the best I can do it'll have to be good enough here. Anyways, I think people are insufficiently prepared for the emotional repercussions of abortions, which I don't think ever go really away; like addiction, they can be fought off but all it takes is hearing one baby crying somewhere in the distance and you're right back where you started.

Real guilt never lessens over time, I don't think; if anything it only gets sharper.

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