…because somebody's gotta say it!

“I’m pro-death! I’m good with abortions..assisted suicides..unassisted suicides..anything that gets the freeway moving a bit faster!” – Bill Maher

For decades, pro-life activists, mostly for religious  reasons, have been fighting to keep abortions and assisted suicides illegal. The idea, I believe, is that a person has no right over his/her own body and the government must tell him/her what to do with it.

All around the world we have activists scowling at stem-cell research. To these ignoramuses, the only life worth protecting is that which is microscopic. No point worrying about the millions of  ill and disabled patients around the world who’d benefit from this scientific breakthrough. Clearly, it’s more important to defend the life of some goo sitting in the freezer than to care about the life of a 41-year old family-man.

In Pakistan, like many other nations, euthanasia is illegal. The idea is that God, in his infinite sadism, would rather watch a terminally-ill cancer-patient squirm in his bed with agony than to allow him the sweet escape of death, which is coming for him anyway. The argument they put forth is the same everytime: “Medical miracles happen all the time!” So for every one in a million patients who miraculously survives a certain terminal disease to live a couple of extra years, the rest of the 999,999 people have to die slowly and painfully. That makes perfect sense.

I’m not just in favor of suicide for terminally-ill patients (though that is the main concern here), I also support any kind of assisted suicide regardless of such an illness. A person should be able to do whatever he/she wants with his/her body. Of course, it’s not something I would recommend. Should a person go to the doctor to ask for assistance in suicide, the doctor’s first move should always be to provide ample counseling to the patient, or refer him directly to a psychiatrist. But at the end, the final decision should rest with the patient.

The pro-life activists should realize that we’re not trying to repopulate the earth after a cataclysm here. In a world where humans are rapidly outgrowing the available resources, it’s almost criminal keeping a mentally-sound person from committing suicide against his/her will.