Editor,
Jeremy Reynalds' comments about euthanasia are systematically wrong.
There is nothing wrong with governments, local or federal, authorizing euthanasia as long as strict guidelines such as the ones in effect in the Netherlands are enforced. No government should regulate the concept of someone wanting to end his or her life because of interminable suffering.
Personally, if I became disabled, paralyzed, blind or afflicted with a malady that would render my quality of life over, I would, without a second thought, move on to another realm.
These are personal decisions that should be made by the people involved, not doctors, not government officials and certainly not religious fundamentalists who have a very narrow viewpoint of life and death.
When my mother was seriously ill and in great pain several years ago, she wanted to move on. The doctors did everything they could to extend her life, but, fortunately, they failed and she was allowed to die in peace. When she passed on, I rejoiced, not because she was dead, but because now she is alive and well and no longer in pain.
I have no fear of death, and I don't mourn when a loved one dies. I believe they continue to live, and I can interact with them when I need to.
Jeremy said God's law requires that only God can give or take a life. That is not true. Religionists make laws based on their own prejudices and biases, and then they give God credit to give themselves validity. I guarantee the God that wrote the Tenth Commandment, which equates women as property, is not a God I am inclined to emulate or even be associated with, and I damn sure don't want that commandment hanging in any public place.
The problem with religious fundamentalists is that they believe we are human beings looking for spiritual enlightenment. The truth is we are spiritual beings temporarily living in human form.
Most religions, including Christianity, believed in reincarnation (as I do), but early biblical revisionists couldn't reconcile reincarnation and the theory of burning in hell. So they took all references to reincarnation out of the Bible in order to give us a mythical devil. I believe that when we die, we are ultimately reborn and live again, and again and again.
God isn't concerned with our ephemeral human existence; he is concerned with our eternal spiritual existence.
For any government, local or state, to make euthanasia illegal is wrong, and if it takes into account any religious viewpoints when formulating these laws, then it is reprehensible.
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If Christian fundamentalists or any other religious group want to make euthanasia or abortion illegal, it should be restricted to those folks who belong to those churches and not be inflicted on the rest of society.
Richard Fagerlund
Environmental services
