Watching the news with relatives one night, they take in a report about a 50-year old woman, whose two sons had died – one from cancer, one by suicide. Grieving, the woman asked her psychiatrist to kill her, and he complied.
The point of this episode was not the story itself. It was the disparate reactions to the story of herself and her relatives. Ms Dykxhoorn was horrified. Her relatives didn’t even blink: “Their eyes were just as glazed over as if they had been watching a report of a minor traffic accident.” When she probed them to discuss it, they were indifferent. Shouldn’t the psychiatrist have treated her for depression, she asked? “Well, her uncle replied, this was obviously what she wanted.”
I think the ideology of autonomy has gone so far that now anything anybody wants for themselves is recognized as morally acceptable simply because they want it and "my body! my choice!"
Isn't it interesting how euthanasia lets people off the hook. You can end mental anguish with death, and boy that's sure easier than expending energy, both mental and physical, caring and treating a person in need.
It's all so very convenient.
Some day you might lose your will to live. And nobody is going to care.
