[ExI] Vegetative patient free of pain

[Stefano Vaj]

On 24 November 2012 19:20, Dan <dan_ust at yahoo.com> wrote:

> That's true and then it becomes more the issue of not allowing an assisted
> suicide. My guess is, though, this would be a harder sell if it became
> widely known, especially if the patient were in pain. I mean, yeah, people
> who are against suicide under all conditions are going to use such evidence
> to play the patient's request as one that can't be granted because
> communicating the request itself means the patient is alive (in a
> meaningful sense of the person being alive and not merely of a nonconscious
> collection of organ systems being alive), but I think this would likely
> lose sympathy to many others, maybe even most people. I'm guessing outside
> the US, in Europe especially, the general sentiment would likely fall more
> on the side of granting the request.
>

One wonders, because assisted suicide *is* illegal in most European
countries and in most cases, even when the consciousness of those requiring
the assistance is undisputed, so that the ability to "pull the plug" for
the relatives or the courts is generally admitted for vegetative patients
on the basis of the idea that they are already "dead" in any practical
sense.

But what I was bringing up here, if I'm understanding you, is no matter
> what culture you foster or don't, if people are allowed to exercise
> autonomy over their lives -- with the costs being borne by them and those
> who choose to help them -- then I think the whole issue becomes not much of
> a problem. The problem we have today arises because most people don't
> believe in this kind of autonomy.
>

Yes, and I am with you here. One point however that regularly escape the
libertarian approach is "freedom to do what?". If I am not legally or
violently coerced, the non-secondary issue remains of what my "sovereign"
personal choices and preferences are or should be. To say that they should
be "free" is of little guidance as to their merits, and the cultural and
social norms that inspire them. For instance, I may respect the "freedom"
of somebody to devote all of its energies to the Invisibile Pink Unicorn
cult to the detriment of any other possible goal, but I cannot say that I
approve, condone or encourage that choice.

Conversely, my question is: do we have a stake in persuading people that
actually living as long as possible should be their first if not their sole
priority? My personal answer is that life-extensionism is not and should
not be about that, but about persuading people that any investment is worth
that can give us more *choice* on the matter.

-- 
Stefano Vaj
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