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Regarding how it impacted the Dutch subconscious and culture, I obviously can't say for sure (not being Dutch, nor having lived in that period). But they do ha

by blunte 9y ago

Regarding how it impacted the Dutch subconscious and culture, I obviously can't say for sure (not being Dutch, nor having lived in that period). But they do have a history of being pretty pragmatic about life in general (including euthanasia - https://www.government.nl/topics/euthanasia/euthanasia-and-newborn-infants https://www.government.nl/topics/euthanasia/euthanasia-and-n...)

DoreenMichele 9y ago
I have no idea if pragmatic is a negative word in your eyes, but it is for many people, who view it as incompatible with traits like idealism and compassion. To me, it is not. I am often interpreted by other people as compassionate and idealistic, yet I view myself as a pragmatist. So, to my eyes, it is a compliment to say they are pragmatic. It means they are very grounded and very focused on results, unwilling to take a neurotic position of don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up. I have a torturous medical condition. I am very much pro the right to die. I primarily need some means to earn an adequate income online to help me to stay healthy and minimize the torture my body subjects me to. I have mostly not gotten much support for that goal. It seems like a really small thing to ask of the world, to please help me earn a little money online as a way to prevent huge medical expenses and dramatically improve my quality of life. Those requests have often been met with really ugly replies. On Metafilter, someone accused me of panhandling the internet for trying to get feedback on how to monetize my web projects. Given the incredibly poor track record the world has for helping people like me achieve some kind of reasonable quality of life, I very much resent the general idea that I am not allowed to want to die. For me, death would be an end to enormous suffering, suffering the world mostly can't be arsed to do a damn thing about, even when the request for help is quite small. If the world in general wants to insist on life, it needs to vastly up its game in so many ways. I don't expect this to happen. So I very much feel that I should have the right to say "I have had enough. I want to be done with my suffering." And so should anyone else with a terrible condition that makes life not worth living. Insisting we stay alive while the US can't even be bothered to straighten out its healthcare system just strikes me as asshole behavior. The point is that I don't think euthanasia is a negative.
- deleted 9y ago
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- blunte 9y ago
  I didn't assign any ethical value to the word. And if you have a much broader sense of reality to existence than most people, "life or death" is a meaningless term. There is, or there is. There is no other. If you can consider "is", then you "is" :). And not to encourage current reality behavior that is disapproved of, but I would say that a highly disagreeable situation is a motivation to choose "NEXT".

by blunte 9y ago

DoreenMichele 9y ago

I have no idea if pragmatic is a negative word in your eyes, but it is for many people, who view it as incompatible with traits like idealism and compassion. To me, it is not. I am often interpreted by other people as compassionate and idealistic, yet I view myself as a pragmatist. So, to my eyes, it is a compliment to say they are pragmatic. It means they are very grounded and very focused on results, unwilling to take a neurotic position of don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up. I have a torturous medical condition. I am very much pro the right to die. I primarily need some means to earn an adequate income online to help me to stay healthy and minimize the torture my body subjects me to. I have mostly not gotten much support for that goal. It seems like a really small thing to ask of the world, to please help me earn a little money online as a way to prevent huge medical expenses and dramatically improve my quality of life. Those requests have often been met with really ugly replies. On Metafilter, someone accused me of panhandling the internet for trying to get feedback on how to monetize my web projects. Given the incredibly poor track record the world has for helping people like me achieve some kind of reasonable quality of life, I very much resent the general idea that I am not allowed to want to die. For me, death would be an end to enormous suffering, suffering the world mostly can't be arsed to do a damn thing about, even when the request for help is quite small. If the world in general wants to insist on life, it needs to vastly up its game in so many ways. I don't expect this to happen. So I very much feel that I should have the right to say "I have had enough. I want to be done with my suffering." And so should anyone else with a terrible condition that makes life not worth living. Insisting we stay alive while the US can't even be bothered to straighten out its healthcare system just strikes me as asshole behavior. The point is that I don't think euthanasia is a negative.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
blunte 9y ago
I didn't assign any ethical value to the word. And if you have a much broader sense of reality to existence than most people, "life or death" is a meaningless term. There is, or there is. There is no other. If you can consider "is", then you "is" :). And not to encourage current reality behavior that is disapproved of, but I would say that a highly disagreeable situation is a motivation to choose "NEXT".