Legislating Life and Death

• Should assisted suicide be against the law?
• Should abortion be against the law?
• Should the death penalty be against the law?
• Should stem cell research be against the law?

How do you stand on these issues? Do you vote based on these issues? When you look at these questions, do you find yourself at all conflicted? I'm just curious. Do you have a unified theory that resolves all of these issues in one tidy bumber-sticker sound-bite? If you don't, why not? Aren't you being just a bit indecisive? Is it really so complex?

I mean, killing = bad, right? You have rights over your own body, right? If I'm inside your uterus, do you get to kill me? If the State wants to kill you, shouldn't you have the right to kill yourself first? If you're against abortion because it's killing a helpless captive, shouldn't you also be against the death penalty? If you think the State has the right to kill you, shouldn't you have the right to kill it back? If you have the right to kill your fetus, then why don't I have the right to kill you for doing it? Is killing a life in your body okay but killing a killer in society not okay? If the State wants me to commit suicide, do I have to? If the State gives me the right to commit suicide, but I'm pregnant, do I lose that right? Who is the State? How many people makes up the State? When am I not the State? If the State wants me to give birth to a child, do I have to? Can I chose to get pregnant? If I chose to get pregnant, but I don't get pregnant, does my choice matter? Does the State get to decide how many children I have? If you're my mom, do you get to kill me? If so, why does that right go away when I'm born? Why doesn't my father get to choose? If my mother has the right to decide whether or not I am to be conceived, isn't that the same as my mother deciding whether or not I live or die? If I'm pregnant, how many people am I? If I'm three or more people, am I a State unto myself? If you don't know when I became alive, how can I have a date of death? If I can't survive outside of your body, and your uterus spontaneously aborts me, should there be a murder investigation? Should your body be tried as a killer? Isn't your uterus a danger to future unborn babies? Should the State get to issue you a license to conceive? Should the State be responsible for all conception? When do I get to pick what State I live in? If I haven't chosen my State, why does it get to chose me? Can a fetus chose to commit suicide? Can a fetus chose to do anything? Is consciousness required for life to exist? Is conception the creation of life? What was there before that life? Death? Do the sperm and egg cells count as life unto themselves? Do they get to chose whether or not to conceive? Are they conscious? Is the State conscious? Is the State alive? If not, how can a non-living thing get to decide the fate of living things? If it is alive as a collective entity like the body is alive as a collective entity? If that's so, then shouldn't the State get to decide what happens to its own body? Can the State commit suicide? Who gets to decide if the State dies? If all mothers refuse to conceive, are they responsible for the death of our State? Can we kill them for that? When is killing okay, mommy? When was I alive to you, mommy? Was I alive in your tummy? When was I not alive?

How come some brilliant philosopher hasn't solved all these questions for us ages ago? I mean, some of these questions are really really old! Why didn't Aristotle answer this one, or Jesus, or John Locke? Were these questions just not that important back then? Come on-- I need answers.

So here's your homework: write a law that decides on all of these issues with only one simple rationale. Due tomorrow. Good luck. Oh yeah, and don't forget to cover cloning.