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From: spaf@gatech.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.suicide
Subject: Re: More thoughts
Message-ID: <215@gatech.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 11-Jun-83 15:57:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: gatech.215
Posted: Sat Jun 11 15:57:16 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 14-Jun-83 02:46:29 EDT
Lines: 41

I'm afraid some of what I'm saying is not coming across clearly
due to the limited bandwidth of this medium.

I believe that suicide is a moral wrong, and an act that can
and (in some ways should be) prevented.  At no time do I claim
that there is any particular right of society to *force* anyone
not to commit suicide -- that's why I tried to separate the
issues of morality from what society does about the subject.
Morality is defined personally, and societal ethics are determined
by the members of that society based on their morals.  There
are two separate issues to discuss here, and I was *only* addressing
the morality question of suicide.

If I were to know of someone who were trying to commit suicide,
I would probably try to talk them out of it or have them seek
professional help.  I'm not sure just how forceful I might be
in preventing them from carrying through.  That's a separate
question from my belief that suicide is wrong.  That separate
question is one of how "right" do I believe it to be to
interfere in another person's exercise of free choice?
That is a subject I'm not sure I want to discuss over the network --
it is just too complex and involves too many special cases.

Please don't accuse me of twisting words.  I'm not trying to
convert anyone, nor am I trying to prove anything.  I was trying
to express an opinion based on experience.  If you don't agree,
fine.  I especially resent being compared to Falwell, even if
indirectly; anybody who knows me would find it rather absurd.
Falwell and other idiots are too quick to condemn things they
don't agree with and compare them to bad examples (like the devil).

If you want, we can discuss the moral "rightness" of suicide, or
we can discuss the civil "right" to suicide (there is no such
thing as a natural "right").  Please don't get the two confused.
-- 
"The soapbox of Gene Spafford"

Spaf @ GATech		        (CS Net)
Spaf.GATech @ UDel-Relay        (ARPA)		 School of ICS
...!{sb1, allegra}!gatech!spaf  (uucp)      	 Georgia Tech
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