Situation:
You finally got what you want, you crazy libertarians, euthanasia is now legal. It’s legal and it’s regulated: they’ve got commissions, documents to sign, lawyers that need to be contacted, senators who bring up minutiae concerning the when, where, and how of the whole procedure, and about every hurtle you could throw at it including but not limited to contracts, forms signed in triplicate, no recognized loopholes, approval by a licensed practitioner of medicine, and more liability levied against everyone involved than you can shake a stick at. Go ahead, try to shake a stick at the liability. But there is one thing few of you planned on.
There are businesses that do it.
It was one thing to pose your hypothetical problems about “helping to ease the suffering of a dying grandma” but quite another to see the Happy-Go-Lucky-And-Kill-The-Dying Corporation snuff the mildly depressed knee injuries. Parents can even sign off on the euthanasia of their children, the ones too helpless to agree to kill themselves.
A lot of these Kill-Kill-Kill-Me Companies are run through the hospitals themselves. More people are killing themselves (or having themselves killed) than ever before. It’s a phenomenon unlike anything seen before: mothers deciding their kids don’t need mothers, husbands who don’t want to put up with their nagging wives, children not wanting to be bullied. Broken homes, shattered bodies, worlds turned to ash in the wake of Death, Inc. And it’s all legal.
Questions:
Happy now? Is this what you want? Does the tolerance of suicide make a society any freer? Does this increase the liberty of the people? Would this increase the happiness of the society? Is it the responsibility of the government to make people freer, increase their liberty, make them happy? If this isn’t their job, then what is? Should a government tolerate suicide? Can a government allow euthanasia? What can it do to prevent it? If it is legal for someone to commit suicide, doesn’t that imply it is legal to sell/pay for those services? Do you really feel comfortable with a business designed strictly for the self-destruction of its customers? Is there anyway this business could continue without government help? Should the government step in to help the Suiciders if it provides a valid medical option? Should the government be responsible for the health of its people? Why or why not? Does this imply that governments should step into the healthcare situation of its people? Can suicide ever be rational? Can paying for it, providing it, supporting it ever be rational? What happens when killing is the business and business is good?
