Wesley J. Smith: Final Exit Network Billboards: Trying to Take Spotlight Off Group’s Criminality

First Things/Secondhand Smoke ^ | 7/21/10 | Wesley J. Smith

[Gondring]

Leaving aside the question of whether the right to life also grants one the right to die, my statement was that euthanasia and assisted suicide ARE NOT RIGHTS.

I give you credit for honesty in this discussion, my FRiend. Many of your colleagues in the anti-rights crowd play cutsie little games and try to pretend that assisted suicide and euthanasia are synonyms.

Both of these REQUIRE the participation of others, that is something that you and your ilk always ignore.

On the contrary, that's something I most vigorously point out.

It is absurd to think that one can have a right but be required to do it onesself. I don't recall you arguing this with Mrs. Schiavo's eating, and I think it's absurd to think that if one has a right to get a tattoo, for example, it applies only if one inks it himself. That's a contortionist view.

Now, I asked you if you had a shred of evidence that the right to life movement was trying to restrict Second Amendment rights and this is what you post?

Taking a man's rightfully owned firearms to prevent him from killing himself (Mr. Weinstein), even after confirmation that he is not mentally ill, is removing rights. I specifically answered that I wasn't writing about a "movement."

You have also changed terms..."pro-life" isn't the same as "right-to-life," in the sense you have used "pro-life" in the past.

Has the culture of death published a new set of talking points claiming that the pro-life movement wants to ban firearms.

I don't know. I don't associate with the culture of death, of course. In fact, they are more similar to you, in that you both seek to remove a person's rights and choices.

Death is a PART of life but we did not create life, so we do not have the right to destroy it.

Specious.

You didn't create bacteria, yet you take antibiotics, no?

People have the ABILITY to end their own lives, that DOES NOT make it a right no matter how much you try.

Of course the ability doesn't make it a right. It's a natural right, regardless of ability. One doesn't have to be able to speak to have a freedom of speech--and assistance in speaking is also a right that flows from it.

Implicit in the theory that there is a right to die is the belief that some life is not worth living.

Poppycock. You have all kinds of rights. Their merit has no effect on whether you have them or not.

You have the right to be free from troops quartering in your home tonight, not because it has to be a bad thing...but because it flows from a natural right. Likewise, those who have absolutely nothing to say still have a right to speak.

Except the right to life exists and we have a moral claim to it, the right to die cannot exist because death has a claim on us.

So how dare you oppose death?

Your belief as to what is right for you does not define the limits of others' rights.

[Gondring]

Are you saying that God supports suicide?

Nope. I wasn't addressing that issue at all...sorry if that was unclear.