For the past three hours I've been preparing for debate where I have to argue both for and against the legalization of physician-assisted suicide.The more I work on either side, the more I decide the opposing view is wrong. So, even though I seem to have gotten a good bit done, my only real conclusions on the matter have pretty much nothing whatsoever to do with physician assisted suicide.My Conclusions- As highly debated as this topic is, chances are, you don't know enough about it to form an intelligent opinion, and that's probably the case in most hot-button issues. I was strongly n favor of PAS at the beginning, and, from an ethical standpoint, I still am. However, there is huge potential for abuse of it, and empirical data does show that these abuses are likely. So, with this in mind, I'm not going to discuss anything like this with anyone unless I feel the need to first research both sides for about 6 hours.
- Even if you've done the six-hours of research, I might not necessarily think that your opinion is intelligent. Now more than ever, I understand that if you think there's a clearcut answer, you're wrong.
- There's no Christian standpoint on anything, much less a Judeo-Christian standpoint. Christianity pretty much corners the market on ambiguity. That's probably why so many people are Christians... you can justify any belief with the bible. Separation of church and state aside, if you try to form an intelligent argument using Christianity, I hope you fall over dead. That all comes down to interpretation of a work with questionable influences.
- If you're my debate partner, and you try to use a Christian argument, after I give you a book about the dissenting views of Christianity, not only do I hope you fall over dead, I hope that in hell you have to research for all of eternity. Also, in the event that you spontaneously die, I hope they give us an evaluation form at the end of class, an I hope you make an F-.
- And my greatest conclusion is, aside from the fact that I have to make an A, I really don't fucking care about physician assisted suicide. Legal or illegal, nothing can stop you from gassing yourself in your garage, and moral or immoral, it's your eternity. It's not like anything ever gets fucking done anyway. I don't care. I do not care. I don't care.
Ok, that's not true. I do care, but it's not relevant to me because I realistically do not have the power to change anything. And this seems like a huge exercise in futility. Woo hoo, you won both sides, and you still don't have an opinion. I am very frustrated, and in a bad mood.
This weekend was fun, but also emotionally taxing. Some things never go away, and just when you think they have, there they are, sitting 2 rows behind you, yelling like a goddamn idiot. My wish to hurt you back is so overwhelming that I can taste it. How can you let something go when it changed everything, and continues to change things?
