I believe that the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.
I believe all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of kinship, love and tolerance.
I don't believe in distinction of any kind, such as
- race, colour, ethnicity, nationality
- sex, gender identity
- sexual orientation
- language, culture
- religion, spirituality
- political opinion
- any opinion
- origin (social, national or any other kind)
- age
- weight, size
- looks, beauty or lack of it
- disability or illness, visible or invisible, of mind or body
- property, wealth
- birth
- other status or identity

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Right to one's own life

It can be discussed who is adult, but it should be an undiscutable fact that all adults should have 100% right to decide over their own lives. No-one should make decisions about an adult's life, not how this person should live, whom she should marry, how she should vote, which God to believe, if one is to believe in God or not...

The state - or anyone else for that matter - should not tell the person whom to love. Mothers should leave their adult daughters' sex life to the daughter, parents should not tell their children to marry "this nice boy, who's --- like us" or not to marry "that... person...". Being gay might make your life harder due to the society's prejudices and discriminatory attitude, but, hey, being dark skinned, being Jewish, being this and that makes one's life harder too. That isn't a reason enough to "not to wish that for your child". Some "totally normal" people would tell you that life IS hard. Period. Because the society IS prejudiced and discriminatory, you will be bashed even when you are a pretty blue-eyed and blond woman, Christian, married and a mother, just because you have opinions and voice them.

The society should not be telling you that you may not marry because you are in love with a wrong person. The society can protect children and animals from marriage, but adult, consenting human beings shouldn't be "protected" from marriage, and the society doesn't NEED "protection" from marriage either.
I am really p'd off with all the exaggerations - "if homosexuals are allowed to marry, then people will start marrying children, animals, cars, countries..." No, they won't. Marriage has not much to do with love, it's a legal contract, an agreement between two adult human beings. It exists for two reasons, and children is only one of them. Many married couples don't get children. Should their marriage be broken as well and the couple forced to go through fertility examinations and treatment? What is to happen to the infertile partner? Is she/he to be put to death or marked as "invalid for marriage"?
The other reason for marriage is much more important; people agree to take care of each other for the rest of their lives. Divorce and adultery are much bigger threats to marriage than if the couple was of same sex.

Children are not just bundles of joy either. They are quite a big economical, social and emotional burden. Not one adult - male nor female - should be forced to take on this burden against his or her will. Children shouldn't definitely be forced to take on this burden.

The exaggerations exist here too. I said that a man who is tricked to impregnate a woman (by she lying about the prevention or pricking the condom or he's taken advantage of when he's drunk or what not) shouldn't need to pay the allemony if he doesn't want to have anything to do with the child, and a feminist told me that I am persona non grata in a group for abused children because I support fathers' abandoning their children... On the other hand, abortion is not murder, and people supporting women's right to abortion are not murderers.

An adult person should be the only one whose opinion matters in questions of his/her health. The society, doctors, parents, spouse, children, may not tell an adult person that she should undergo an operation - or not to. They can't force an adult to go to doctor is she doesn't want to. They can't keep her from going to a doctor if she wants to. And the doctors may not refuse care from an adult.
An adult may not be forced to take any medication she doesn't want to, nor may she be refused the medicine she needs.
An adult person should be able to go through gender adjustment treatment, if she feels her body looks too male. (or he feels his body is too female). Likewise an adult is the only one who can make the decision on whether to go through any plastic operations, if she wants to amputate a leg or get a snout instead of a nose, or if and how to pierce, brand, tattoo and alter her body.
An adult person should be able to by herself decide whether she wants to go through a pregnancy, which might not be a disease, but does effect the physiology very much.

And finally, an adult should be allowed to by herself decide whether she lives or dies. Death penalty is barbarism and so is the criminalization of euthanasia.
Some people will start claiming that if euthanasia is allowed, people will be categorised into "worthy to live" and "not worthy to live". It's not a question of worth. I'm sure there are people who cannot see the value of life as an invalid, even though Christopher Reeve and Stephen Hawkin should have proved that you CAN have a valuable life even when your body isn't much to have.


I remember a story...

Father has syphilis, Mother has TB. They are very poor with 4 other children - 1st born blind, 2nd died, 3rd born deaf, 4th has TB. Mother is pregnant again, & the Doc knows this one will be deaf.

What do you do ?

Most college groups agree the Mother should abort the fetus, at which time the Professor says "Congratulations, you've just killed Beethoven".

You really can't tell by what a life is worth.

On the other hand, I don't think Terri Schiavo appreciated her "life" after 1990. Sure, her parents saw the smiling, young woman every time they looked at their daughter, but... did they ever LISTENED to her thoughts, ideas, opinions? Doesn't seem like it to me, if they were quite happy with just having her body there... and that being the case... WAS it Terri? Was SHE alive?

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