The case is R v Dudley and Stephens, about shipwrecked sailors who turned to cannibalism. There is both an important similarity and an important difference in the duty spoken of in each case, but I'll leave it to those interested to read both texts.
On the comments over at the Sowell thread; I thought this was kind of special in a Timothy Leary/Adolf Eichmann sort of way:
"I'm all for it, myself If and when I get to the point where I am too infirm to enjoy a decent quality of life, hand me a steady supply of LSD and shrooms, and let me traipse my way into the beyond. Why do you religious fascists want to force me to suffer? What kind of insane sadism drives you? Praise be to St. Jack of Kevorkian!!!"
While our bodies are doomed to perish until they are resurrected imperishable, there is the matter of honoring life even in frail members. Not that we should hang on to it desperately, fearing death, but that the testimony of suffering for a time combined with the submission of family and society to the temporary needs of the elderly and infirm glorify God who gives life abundantly.
I was just reading about the duty to die the other day in an entirely different context:
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The case is R v Dudley and Stephens, about shipwrecked sailors who turned to cannibalism. There is both an important similarity and an important difference in the duty spoken of in each case, but I'll leave it to those interested to read both texts.
On the comments over at the Sowell thread; I thought this was kind of special in a Timothy Leary/Adolf Eichmann sort of way:
ReplyDelete"I'm all for it, myself
If and when I get to the point where I am too infirm to enjoy a decent quality of life, hand me a steady supply of LSD and shrooms, and let me traipse my way into the beyond. Why do you religious fascists want to force me to suffer? What kind of insane sadism drives you?
Praise be to St. Jack of Kevorkian!!!"
Kind of makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
While our bodies are doomed to perish until they are resurrected imperishable, there is the matter of honoring life even in frail members. Not that we should hang on to it desperately, fearing death, but that the testimony of suffering for a time combined with the submission of family and society to the temporary needs of the elderly and infirm glorify God who gives life abundantly.
ReplyDelete