March 29, 2024

Billboard promotes right to die

The US activist group Final Exit Network (FEN) has erected billboards all over the US to support the right to “Die With Dignity” – what they have labeled the “ultimate right of the 21st century.”
fen

The US activist group Final Exit Network (FEN) has erected billboards all over the US to support the right to “Die With Dignity” – what they have labeled the “ultimate right of the 21st century.”

“The people that we provide support and information to want to live as much as the next person. They just cannot tolerate their irreversible disease,” said Frank Kavanaugh of FEN. “They know that life is not going to get any better for them. And they would like to be able to hasten the end of their life.” The FEN maintains that it only provides information, and does not help people kill themselves. “We don’t physically provide someone with the means. We don’t do it for them. They must be able to hasten the end of their lives all by themselves,” said Kavanaugh.

Dr. Michael Grodin of Boston University says there are too many unknowns. “This is the problem they have. What did they do? We don’t know what they did because weare not observing. We don’t know if they helped themselves or actually killed them. So this is a concern,” he said. ~ The Boston Channel, Mar 22


Billboard promotes right to die
Jared Yee
pets

In what may seem a slightly exaggerated semantic move, leading academics have claimed that animal lovers should stop calling their domestic animals ‘pets’, because the term is insulting. Domestic dogs, cats or budgerigars should be relabelled “companion animals” while owners should be known as “human carers”, they assert. Terms such as wildlife are also dismissed as insulting to the animals concerned –which should be known instead as “free-living”.

The call has come from the editors of the Journal of Animal Ethics, a new academic publication. It is edited by the Rev Professor Andrew Linzey, director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. In its first editorial, the journal condemns the use of such terms as “beasts” and “critters”. It argues that “derogatory” language about animals can affect the way they are treated.

“Despite its prevalence, ‘pets’ is surely a derogatory term both of the animals concerned and their human carers,” the editorial claims. “Again the word ‘owners’, whilst technically correct in law, harks back to a previous age when animals were regarded as just that: property, machines or things to use without moral constraint.” ~ London Telegraph, Apr 28



assisted suicide
FEN