Venting We as pro-choicers shouldn’t have to justify or defend our position in discussions of RTD in a free society!

[TAW122]

It angers me greatly that we pro-choicers often have to add some disclaimer or qualifying statement and/or justify our sanity, rationality, risk factor before we even get into discussions about the right to die, especially in the open and most other public forums (outside of SaSu or similar communities). Sure, there are other marginalized groups throughout history who constantly have to justify their existence and/or cause, but overtime, they have become accepted in mainstream society due to societal changes in values and attitudes. For example, the minorities before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had to justify and lobby for their rights and fair treatment, before the late 20th​ century, LGBT and similar groups had to justify their stay, and many more. But at the end of the day, eventually all those groups become popularized and recognized such that they wouldn't already be questioned, accosted, or even discriminated at the institutional level. Almost nobody publicly marginalizes these groups in public (at least the majority of people as they have accepted them as legitimate groups and positions). This isn't to say that discrimination and mistreatment doesn't happen, it still does, but much less than it was decades or even a century ago. We as pro-choicers should one day hopefully reach that point.

If we lived in a pro-choice, destigmatized (not the current faux destigmatization of MH discussions that are deceptive, disingenuous, and seek to control the discourse of the subject (often one sided) world, then we would be able to freely speak about the topic of CTB, death, and/or other similarly currently taboo topics without the fear of repercussions whether legal, socially, or medically. I find it really wrong and a huge injustice for us pro-choicers to have to constantly justify our position, and even then, sometimes people will often try to find excuses and reasons to scrutinize, paternalize, and/or otherwise dismiss our position. We still couldn't have an open discussion about the right to die without scrutiny or even the opposing side (pro-lifers) raising the issue of our medical health and mental health. This is not only offensive as it is another subtle way of pro-lifers trying to silence us into submission.

Until then, we would still unfortunately still have to qualify our statements and even defend our positions until society changes their shitty attitude about people who don't always find life to be a virtue to be mentally ill or irrational. In a socially mature and advanced society, we should at the minimum be able to discuss the right to die openly, without having our health and mind questioned, scrutinized, or worst yet, be silenced into submission. We would at least be able to have a codified right to die with reasonable safeguards (waiting periods, evaluations, and more).

 

[FuneralCry]

I find it so disgusting and absurd how those who want to die are seen as "irrational" despite the fact that existence just causes so much suffering. There could never be anything irrational about wishing to be permanently relieved from having the ability to suffer endlessly.

And it's our life, our decision after all, the decision to cease existing on our own terms should never be something for other people to decide as they cannot experience existence in the same way.