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fpbFirst, remember what I said about parents and children:
http://fpb.livejournal.com/173966.html
Then, but only if you have a very strong stomach, read this:
LONDON, August 15, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – This week, a popular BBC radio announcer told the public that she had entered into a “suicide pact” with friends should she be incapacitated by illness.
Jenni Murray, the presenter of BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, a feminist and euthanasia advocate, said that she does not want to be “trapped” into caring for her mother who is ill with Parkinson’s disease.
Murray, a member of the Order of the British Empire and a patron of the Family Planning Association, is airing her views tonight on a BBC television program called “Don’t Get Me Started.” Publicity material for the show says that Murray “plans to end her own life when she becomes a burden to those around her.” She discusses methods, including smothering with a pillow or injecting with drugs, with two friends,
The network said: "Jenni is angry that, having fought so hard to become liberated and independent, women are now being trapped into caring for dependent parents."
Murray complains that the law against assisted suicide is supported by a “religious minority” who hold to an outdated moral view that human life is inherently valuable and that children have a legitimate obligation to care for elderly parents.
The program highlights the growth, especially in Britain, of the idea of an “obligation to die.” Most leading thinkers in the bioethics field endorse euthanasia and assisted suicide and often argue that elderly and ill patients have the obligation to end their lives to relieve pressure on families and the health care system.
In 2004, Baroness Mary Warnock, Britain’s leader in bioethics, said unequivocally that the ill and elderly had an obligation to die as soon as possible so as not to burden relatives and the medical system. Baroness Warnock, called Britain's “Philosopher Queen”, said in an interview, “In other contexts sacrificing oneself for one's family would be considered good. I don't see what is so horrible about the motive of not wanting to be an increasing nuisance.”
She said, “I am not ashamed to say some lives are more worth living than others.”
fpb reprises: It is tempting to speculate what an appallingly loveless upbringing these creatures... the world woman seems very distant from anything they are... must have had, to even contemplate the option of murdering their parents for their own convenience. Parricide is, perhaps, a suitable punishment for having brought a Jenni Murray or a Mary Warnock into the world. (Warnock's supposed philosophical eminence, by the way, could never be confirmed to me by genuine philosophers; in the work of the late Karl Popper, for instance, she only appears, and in no complimentary guise, in a single footnote.) Nonetheless, Murray's claim that she'll be ready to go when her time comes is indubitably a lie. The same selfishness that makes it possible for her to contemplate - and contemplate with self-congratulation - murdering her mother, also makes sure that she will never see a time when the world could possibly be deprived of the rich contribution and irreplaceable values granted by her wonderful presence. Jack Kervorkian, according to a recent news story, is dying of cancer in prison right now, and yet he stubbornly refuses the same remedy that, in similar circumstances, he was so doctrinaire about inflicting on others.
http://fpb.livejournal.com/173966.html
Then, but only if you have a very strong stomach, read this:
LONDON, August 15, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – This week, a popular BBC radio announcer told the public that she had entered into a “suicide pact” with friends should she be incapacitated by illness.
Jenni Murray, the presenter of BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, a feminist and euthanasia advocate, said that she does not want to be “trapped” into caring for her mother who is ill with Parkinson’s disease.
Murray, a member of the Order of the British Empire and a patron of the Family Planning Association, is airing her views tonight on a BBC television program called “Don’t Get Me Started.” Publicity material for the show says that Murray “plans to end her own life when she becomes a burden to those around her.” She discusses methods, including smothering with a pillow or injecting with drugs, with two friends,
The network said: "Jenni is angry that, having fought so hard to become liberated and independent, women are now being trapped into caring for dependent parents."
Murray complains that the law against assisted suicide is supported by a “religious minority” who hold to an outdated moral view that human life is inherently valuable and that children have a legitimate obligation to care for elderly parents.
The program highlights the growth, especially in Britain, of the idea of an “obligation to die.” Most leading thinkers in the bioethics field endorse euthanasia and assisted suicide and often argue that elderly and ill patients have the obligation to end their lives to relieve pressure on families and the health care system.
In 2004, Baroness Mary Warnock, Britain’s leader in bioethics, said unequivocally that the ill and elderly had an obligation to die as soon as possible so as not to burden relatives and the medical system. Baroness Warnock, called Britain's “Philosopher Queen”, said in an interview, “In other contexts sacrificing oneself for one's family would be considered good. I don't see what is so horrible about the motive of not wanting to be an increasing nuisance.”
She said, “I am not ashamed to say some lives are more worth living than others.”
fpb reprises: It is tempting to speculate what an appallingly loveless upbringing these creatures... the world woman seems very distant from anything they are... must have had, to even contemplate the option of murdering their parents for their own convenience. Parricide is, perhaps, a suitable punishment for having brought a Jenni Murray or a Mary Warnock into the world. (Warnock's supposed philosophical eminence, by the way, could never be confirmed to me by genuine philosophers; in the work of the late Karl Popper, for instance, she only appears, and in no complimentary guise, in a single footnote.) Nonetheless, Murray's claim that she'll be ready to go when her time comes is indubitably a lie. The same selfishness that makes it possible for her to contemplate - and contemplate with self-congratulation - murdering her mother, also makes sure that she will never see a time when the world could possibly be deprived of the rich contribution and irreplaceable values granted by her wonderful presence. Jack Kervorkian, according to a recent news story, is dying of cancer in prison right now, and yet he stubbornly refuses the same remedy that, in similar circumstances, he was so doctrinaire about inflicting on others.
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-16 04:03 am (UTC)I see it around me... people justifying avoiding inconvenience to themselves and congratulating themselves for basically... making themselves happier. Very disconcerting.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-16 11:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-16 12:10 pm (UTC)