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IntroductionThe common human fear of death is irrational. It is perfectly understandable to fear the process of dying; it can be, and often is, long, humiliating, unpleasant and painful; although it doesn't need to be.To the individual who dies, death is the loosing of consciousness. Sleep is also the loosing of consciousness, but it is temporary. Why should we fear the one and not the other? We were, in a sense, dead before we were born; what reason do we have to fear re-entering that state? Is the delusion of religion largely the cause of the fear of death?
In our culture to end your own life is often considered 'not the right thing to do'. Why should that be so? If your life has become a burden to you – and to others – why should you not be able to end it? "The only part of the conduct of any one, for which [a citizen] is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign."
The people who are left behind may suffer from a death, obviously. The loss of a spouse, a sibling, mother, father, son or daughter can be devastating; that is another story. On this page I am thinking about one's own death, and the unnecessary and baseless fear of that death. I wonder whether the fear of death is mostly confined to the people of those cultures that were based on Judaism, Christianity and Islam; the religions that brought the world the sick and intentionally terrifying concept of eternal torture in Hell? Do Hindus and Buddhists fear death? I don't know. (I do know that for Balinese Hindus, funerals are an occasion for celebration.) At this point I probably should say that I do not fear death. This must be at least partly due to the fact that I am thoroughly convinced that the God of the Bible does not exist and that the theory that we all have an immortal soul is quite incredible (in the true sense of the word) and has been all but disproven by modern science. The Bible, with what it claims to tell us about the Christian God, has to be about the most unconvincing, irrational, and inconsistent collection of fantasies and folk tales known to Man (with the possible exception of the Koran).
For those who have managed to avoid or escape the religion delusion, there
is nothing to fear in death.
Why might one want to die?
Climate change, and the associated problems of ocean acidification, ocean warming and sea level rise is damaging the world already, it will only get far worse in coming years. The air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels kills millions of people world-wide each year. And there are many other insults to our shared environment. At the time of writing I am 73; I will not live to see the worst of the damage, but my children and grandchildren (everyone's children and grandchildren) will have to live on a greatly damaged planet.
A significant number (not enough) of people are willing to do unpaid work for the improvement of their community, but those same people are often unwilling to lift a finger for the future of the planet as a whole. Another example of selfishness and the unwillingness to act for the greater good is the fact that only 3% of Australians donate blood. The process is no more than a minor inconvenience and takes about an hour, the blood (or plasma or platelets) may well save someone's life, yet only one person in 33 does it (many people for one reason or another can't donate blood, but the great majority can). I have seen similar selfishness in my own community when many people opposed the construction of a local wind farm. The wind farm would be good for the community, the region, the state, the nation and the planet, yet many opposed it for selfish reasons such as they "didn't want to have to see nearby wind turbines" or occasionally hear them. A great problem with humanity is that the people who rise to positions of power, such as Vladimir Putin, Xe Jinping, Donal Trump, Australian PM Scott Morrison and the very wealthy, such as Rupert Murdoch, Clive Palmer and Gina Rinehart are unethical and thoroughly despicable people. How can one respect such beings? Living among them is becoming an increasingly unattractive prospect. One of the world's greatest problems is that there are too many people. They are overloading all the world's environmental resources. My death would reduce that load on the planet by one.
My health is gradually declining, I am usually in some discomfort, often in some pain; my immune system seems to be declining in effectiveness, in a number of ways my body is not working as it should or used to.
The time is approaching when death will be a more attractive option for me than continuing to live.
Why do we feel we should treat animals more humanely than our fellow humans?We humans sometimes treat animals cruelly and criminally. I've written about this in a page on animal rights.But the majority recognise animals should not be allowed to die long and painful deaths, they should be euthanised if they cannot be cured. A significant part of the work of veterinarians is providing animals with painless deaths. In fact allowing and animal to die slowly and in pain is considered a crime.
Yet a great many people want to deny a humane death to their fellow humans!
What personal reasons do I have to seriously consider ending my life?Apart from the reasons mentioned elsewhere on this page I have personal reasons, relating to health, for feeling I've reached my use-by date.
Why not end my life?Unfinished business - how much of what we want to do is ever finished? Just a couple: weeds, plantings |
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Related pagesRelated external pages...
Exit International is a leading non-profit, voluntary assisted dying organisation that was founded in 1997 by Dr Philip Nitschke.
Euthanasia; some thoughts on euthanasia, assisted suicide and suicide What would make a good memorial to a loved one who has died? Suicide as a rational decision Milestones in the development of human society. The recognition that one has a right to die when and how one chooses is a milestone that we are just beginning to reach. Religion and other superstitions The absurdity of the immortal soul concept Contribution; if I could no longer contribute to the community in which I live I'm not at all sure that I would want to go on living. Killing in peace and war; killing someone is normally a terrible crime. Are we to accept that killing on our government's say-so is justified? |