A state is never neutral. It encourages certain choices by what it makes easier. Now that laws are making death easier than care, an implicit statement is being made about human worth.
What we are seeing is the natural outcome of a push started long ago. That push was to devalue human beings and human life and life in general.
It all began with seeing people as replaceable or expendable. In the workplace, people are not seen as a value. They're seen as a burden. They are seen as replaceable. The mentality is to eliminate as many jobs as possible and make one worker carry a heavier load, and if they can't, they'll just find someone who can or is willing.
Notice how they've eliminated a lot of the uniforms people once wore. Businessmen no longer wear ties. Nurses no longer wear whites. Jobs that once typically wore uniforms such as sanitation workers or gas station attendants no longer wear uniforms. The mentality is to bring people down to a common level where they're suddenly seen as easily replaceable.
Life becomes less valuable. What counts is how well someone can conform. Can't cut it or don't conform? No problem. They'll just replace you. It's not about developing people. It's about treating them like clogs in a machine that can be easily replaced.
This mentality transfers over to life in general. Your value is seen only in terms of how well you can contribute to the mass corporations. When you're no longer of value, get rid of you and replace you with a new "part."
Life becomes more and more meaningless. No wonder death rates are up and people don't want to stick around.
Contrast this is a viewpoint where people are seen as "the profit." In other words, it's about developing PEOPLE and what they can do. It's about taking LIFE to it's highest levels. It's about allowing freedom to reign and allowing people to live their dreams to the fullest. It's about corporations suddenly changing to whereby their main focus is on the UPLIFTING OF LIFE, not the mass profit it can make off life.
This is what we need to change over to. The UPLIFTING OF LIFE. We should be striving to uplift people and life. Not by "making everyone equal" via downgrading and dumbing down. Rather, people are equal in that they have EQUAL OPPORTUNITY to find happiness and live their dreams.
People are offing themselves because life is SO NEGATIVE right now. We can turn that around by seeing the VALUE in people in general, or in LIFE in general. Life is NOT to be casually thrown away. Life is a GREAT gift. It's a golden opportunity.
Choice is what we have been given. So what will we choose?
I spent the majority of my working life for a company that claimed in part of its mission statement that people are our greatest asset. It did not take me, a blue collar employee, long to realize they were only meaning the top layer of company officers.
Sarah. Good job as always. I knew about Oregon and California, but just learned about Canada.
Some of the stories I've seen from Canada say folks come for treatment and are offered euthanasia.
There does not appear to be anyone in charge who sees this as a moral dilemma. Where are the voices political or religious speaking out against this atrocity?
I did not know that Oregon had entered that "Brave New World." America has come a long way since Jack Kevorkian was jailed for assisting terminally ill people with his "death machine."
I fully agree with your statement "We should weep for those who chose premature death so quickly because the societal bonds that ought to have provided a natural longing for life have already been severed". But other than weep, what do you propose we do, what should society do to provide everyone with this longing for life ? And what to you suggest we can do to alleviate the suffering that often comes when the end of life is near. This is not the job of the state. This is our job.
John is right when he observes that in our society and in our work environments, people are rarely valued, but this is not new at all. Serfs, slaves, peasants, they have always been disposable. Valuing people and people's lives demands more than just stopping "Death with Dignity". It means valuing "others" and treating them with respect. This is very difficult. From Jericho to the present Middle East, we humans have always been willing, sometimes even eager, to kill others, oftentimes merely because they were "other".
Maybe the revulsion shown by those who oppose "Doctor assisted Suicide", as it is called in Vermont, is caused by the very novel phenomenon of people considering the lives of their fellow citizens of little value, instead of just the lives of outsiders. What we need to do is recognize and acknowledge that everyone is worthy, that all lives are valuable. Focusing only on the premature deaths of those who might be our aunts and uncles will not do.
Shared w people involved in politics in my State.
What we are seeing is the natural outcome of a push started long ago. That push was to devalue human beings and human life and life in general.
It all began with seeing people as replaceable or expendable. In the workplace, people are not seen as a value. They're seen as a burden. They are seen as replaceable. The mentality is to eliminate as many jobs as possible and make one worker carry a heavier load, and if they can't, they'll just find someone who can or is willing.
Notice how they've eliminated a lot of the uniforms people once wore. Businessmen no longer wear ties. Nurses no longer wear whites. Jobs that once typically wore uniforms such as sanitation workers or gas station attendants no longer wear uniforms. The mentality is to bring people down to a common level where they're suddenly seen as easily replaceable.
Life becomes less valuable. What counts is how well someone can conform. Can't cut it or don't conform? No problem. They'll just replace you. It's not about developing people. It's about treating them like clogs in a machine that can be easily replaced.
This mentality transfers over to life in general. Your value is seen only in terms of how well you can contribute to the mass corporations. When you're no longer of value, get rid of you and replace you with a new "part."
Life becomes more and more meaningless. No wonder death rates are up and people don't want to stick around.
Contrast this is a viewpoint where people are seen as "the profit." In other words, it's about developing PEOPLE and what they can do. It's about taking LIFE to it's highest levels. It's about allowing freedom to reign and allowing people to live their dreams to the fullest. It's about corporations suddenly changing to whereby their main focus is on the UPLIFTING OF LIFE, not the mass profit it can make off life.
This is what we need to change over to. The UPLIFTING OF LIFE. We should be striving to uplift people and life. Not by "making everyone equal" via downgrading and dumbing down. Rather, people are equal in that they have EQUAL OPPORTUNITY to find happiness and live their dreams.
People are offing themselves because life is SO NEGATIVE right now. We can turn that around by seeing the VALUE in people in general, or in LIFE in general. Life is NOT to be casually thrown away. Life is a GREAT gift. It's a golden opportunity.
Choice is what we have been given. So what will we choose?
I spent the majority of my working life for a company that claimed in part of its mission statement that people are our greatest asset. It did not take me, a blue collar employee, long to realize they were only meaning the top layer of company officers.
Sarah. Good job as always. I knew about Oregon and California, but just learned about Canada.
Some of the stories I've seen from Canada say folks come for treatment and are offered euthanasia.
There does not appear to be anyone in charge who sees this as a moral dilemma. Where are the voices political or religious speaking out against this atrocity?
God help us and our kids,
Keep on keeping on Crusader Gal.
jack
I did not know that Oregon had entered that "Brave New World." America has come a long way since Jack Kevorkian was jailed for assisting terminally ill people with his "death machine."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kevorkian
Hi Sarah,
I fully agree with your statement "We should weep for those who chose premature death so quickly because the societal bonds that ought to have provided a natural longing for life have already been severed". But other than weep, what do you propose we do, what should society do to provide everyone with this longing for life ? And what to you suggest we can do to alleviate the suffering that often comes when the end of life is near. This is not the job of the state. This is our job.
John is right when he observes that in our society and in our work environments, people are rarely valued, but this is not new at all. Serfs, slaves, peasants, they have always been disposable. Valuing people and people's lives demands more than just stopping "Death with Dignity". It means valuing "others" and treating them with respect. This is very difficult. From Jericho to the present Middle East, we humans have always been willing, sometimes even eager, to kill others, oftentimes merely because they were "other".
Maybe the revulsion shown by those who oppose "Doctor assisted Suicide", as it is called in Vermont, is caused by the very novel phenomenon of people considering the lives of their fellow citizens of little value, instead of just the lives of outsiders. What we need to do is recognize and acknowledge that everyone is worthy, that all lives are valuable. Focusing only on the premature deaths of those who might be our aunts and uncles will not do.