Let me introduce you to this peculiarly nasty British philosopher; The Baroness Warnock. She not only supports people's right to assisted suicide, but also feels people have a duty to end their lives. From a recent story line:
A couple of months ago, in an interview with the Church of Scotland's magazine Life and Work, she said: "If you're demented, you're wasting people's lives--your family's lives--and you're wasting the resources of the National Health Service. I'm fully in agreement with the argument that if pain is insufferable, then someone should be given help to die, but I feel there's a wider argument that if somebody absolutely, desperately wants to die because they're a burden to their family, or the state, then I think they too should be allowed to die."
I dare say by her own definition that the Baroness now qualifies to add herself to those with this duty to die. The Baroness would have gotten along well with Hitler's Nazis who felt the very same way. Following this nasty woman's argument what ill elderly person wouldn't feel they were a burden? In short, she is saying personal feelings determine what is right and wrong? What of the mentally ill who cannot think clearly or who have their judgement clouded by a bout of depression?
My own son is severely mentally ill, so I resent her suggestion and resent her as a person for making it. The Baroness is living proof to me that neither age or advance academic degrees automatically produces wisdom. By her own definition of dementia I would cheerily say to her, "Madam, your views make you a waste of life!"
HHH
