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| Courtesy: The American Culture |
Have u heard about Terri Schiavo, the American who spent 15 years in a vegetative state, whose case was heard in Florida courts for more than 20 times before she was ‘allowed’ to die on euthanasia or mercy-killing on 31st March 2005. How about the Italian woman, Eliuna Englaro, whose 17 years of stay in a coma brought a constitutional battle to the predominantly Catholic country when Berlusconi’s government objected the Italy’s top court decree to give Englaro a mercy-killing. Englaro died naturally on 9th February 2009. Many countries have been experiencing political and legal battles on matters of euthanasia. Still euthanasia is illegal and a criminal act in most of the countries.
In secular countries like Italy, where many claim to have the right and the freedom to choose your own life, where many claim is the staunch of freedom of conscience, where many claim to be a strong symbol of freedom of thought, where many choose human reasoning over faith, still seems to struggle over those rights or freedom they are talking about. What do you think is the reason?
Man made constitutions, laws, codes and regulations initially emerge in accordance with culture, belief and ethics of the society or country and would go on changing as these ingredients change. Italy, which was once the spiritual hub of the Catholic Christians has been changed to a place of Atheists and Agnostics. But when people are subjected with questions of bioethics concerning the relationship between faith and reason, still some find it difficult to stick to the notion of freedom. People follow different beliefs and religions not because they don’t know what freedom is, they find safety and contentment in what they are following. Now if you are to live among such a group of people don’t you think that you should respect and abide by their rules and regulations as long as you don’t commit a crime and go against your belief? If you think you have your own right to choose your way of life, who are you tell others how they should live?
So, why can’t you leave alone some 300,000 people who belong to a same religion, culture and race to decide their own way of life? What makes you to think that they should legalise same sex marriages, churches and temples? Why don’t you call upon the rights and freedom of the two Australian ladies, Davina and Beck Storer who travelled to Canada in June 2009 to get married because same sex marriages are not officially recognised in Australia? Don’t you think it would be more rewarding to call for the rights of more than 20 million people rather than trying on some 300,000 people? Why don’t you go along with the evolutionary psychologist Randy Thornhill and the anthropologist Craig Palmer who claim that rape is a natural act, an evolutionary adaptation, a biological phenomenon used by men to spread their genes, so excessive force shouldn’t be used to stop raping as it may decrease the chance of the victim getting pregnant? If you are done with human rights, why don’t you support the organization, ‘People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA) who claim that fish do have rights? Do you think you will ever be allowed to have absolute freedom by any constitution?