From: Dr Sebby (drsebby@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Aug 05 2002 - 17:50:43 MDT
...ya know, these issues of life or not-yet life, or "when does 'it' become
he/she"...or "when do rights become real", or "at what point can i
use/sacrifice him/her for me without being 'evil'" etc. prove to be such
difficult quandries for the simple reason, in my opinion, that they are
actually tied to some of the deep roots of existance...and the farther down
you follow some of these roots, things get very, cold, dark, dirty and
altogether "un-pretty". so for those of us striving to enjoy sunday brunch,
brotherly love and the company of a fine terrier, such details can truly put
a damper on the hue of that late afternoon sun...or some vinagre in our
lemonade.
...my thought is this; why do we try to avoid tampering with other's lives
to such extreme degrees as death etc.? it is simply a mixture of empathy
and the golden rule fueled by a selfish fear. the empathy is a goodhearted
notion and the selfish fear is totally reasonable(no one wants to get killed
themselves..or harvested for organs etc.).
...but at what point and through what means do we become capable of choosing
"me" over "him/her" or "this one" over "that one"? it is an obvious
circumstance of existance that death is half the cycle. just as every
dollar in our pockets came from the pocket of someone else, so do does every
moment of our planetside joy. but when we contemplate death, you cant
really say it's a 'bad' thing..or 'good' for that matter...if it comes
instantly and unbeknownst to the victim, it matters not to him...he suffers
no last second terror, or panic or fear, no regret, dispair, or anger...he
is simply gone. but the event will cause these symptoms to his friends and
family, and community...all of which have invested time, money, hopes and
needs upon. the more he was a participant of his society, the more
disruption and malaise will result. so at least we have some sort of
reasonable foundation for objecting to such premature eliminations.
...but a baby?...much less a fetus? well, aside from the fact that the
creature is far from what we could honestly term as sentient, or even
self-aware, it's impact is entirely negligable...except for 9 months of
agony and self-sacrifice for it's immediate family etc. so at some point
people have less and less a problem with differentiating between "their"
rights and those or the lack thereof of a fetus's rights. but at what point
does this happen? and how may it be justified internally? at some stage, if
the subject is far enough away or sufficiently misunderstood, a multitude of
actions may follow, of which many will prove to be staggeringly selfish.
but the rationalization process has suddenly made these acts of "evil",
quite acceptable and ok.
...silent computations are at the heart of such issues in my opinion. if
this is true, then we can hardly be considered ambassadors of good-will or
holier-than-thou rhetoric. we simply dont want to admit the process by
which we dole out the "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" on others. and to avoid
doing so, we simply make up new terms of classifying things, and then it's
ok...a bit like the church did to them brown people a few hundred years ago.
DrSebby.
"Courage...and shuffle the cards".
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