"Against Death doth no Simple grow"
- James Blish, They Shall Have Stars, 1956
Since the "right to life" is such a divisive issue, perhaps we should be focusing more on making its proponents justify it along the whole length of life.
For instance, just how much life does any given person have a right to at any given time? Another day? Six months? Twenty years? Forever?
If a doctor refuses treatment that could be shown to extend someone's life by ten years, simply because they could not pay for the treatment, could the doctor be subject to criminal charges? If a person acts as a disease transmission vector, and someone dies from contacting that disease, is the first person criminally liable for transmitting that disease?
Does attempted suicide qualify as a capital offense? If the death penalty is imposed on someone by a jury of their peers, is that jury then subject to criminal indictment? Is signing a DNR (Do Not Recessitate) form immediate cause for a charge against the person signing it?
Should it be legal for anyone to benefit from the death of another? This is a biggie - how can you justify inheriting money or property from someone who actually, you know, died? Should it not instead go to fund research in prolonging life?
“the inalienable right to life of every person at any stage of development shall be recognized and protected.”
We all have
the right to live forever, by this meme, and
any measures that are not taken to make that possible should be deemed criminal actions on the part of all who do not take them. Where are my anti-agathic drugs? Can I sue you for making my life more stressful and thus cutting potential years from it? Should air and water pollution be considered criminal rather than civil negligence?
We're not likely to be able to change the minds of the people who want to make abortion illegal, but make it impossible for "right to life" to be substituted for "anti-abortion", and one of the most emotional pieces of propaganda that's out there might have to be taken out of the fight.
Maybe if we can't get them to be reasonable, we can at least get them laughed out of court.
A tip of the hat to Lawrence Lewis http://www.dailykos.com/... for quoting from Iowa Senate Joint Resolution 10 from April 2013, and kicking my outrage meter up a notch.