Life Issues Archives
September 21, 2006
Economic Euthanasia - 'Assisted Suicide' Proposed For The Depressed
One would think that there are a sufficient number of babies and sick old people to kill that clinics like Dignitas would not have yet worked their way down to killing people that are simply depressed.
... morePosted at 12:10 PM
May 18, 2006
The Peace Of Freedom--The Positive Peace Principle Part III
But, one may still ask, despite the benefits of a positive peace I described in Part II, does such freedom really promote social justice (the final element of the Positive Peace Principle listed in Part I)? Is a positive peace a just peace? To answer this some idea of the Good or Just society must be joined with that of peace. But, to pose this is to offer a Rubik Cube full of twists and turns and different colors. I have analyzed this puzzle in my The Just Peace and will outline the approach and conclusion here. To begin, let... ... morePosted at 10:38 PM
May 10, 2006
20th Century Mortacracies
As a result of an 8-year project I concluded some years ago, I defined the major 20th century mortacracies as those listed below. But, since then I have increased some of the estimates, particularly for Mao's China and colonialism., but had yet to change the above table. This was done by Jade in New Zealand, and with thanks I show below the table she sent me, with slight revisions I made in its format: In the last century, governments have murdered 262,000,000 people. And that is not even counting mortacide (as defined in my recent post). With such a near... ... morePosted at 10:16 PM
May 8, 2006
Who Are The Mortacracies? Part Vi--The Answer
I think I solved the puzzle of why my posted images always showed on the Mac and only sometimes on PCs, thus requiring me to provide alternative links. It has to do with leaving empty the height and width containers for an image, e.g., putting nothing after the equality for height= and width=. If the dimensions of an image are okay as is, these containers should be omitted. I haven't been doing that, but will do so now. Before providing a final list of mortacracies, there is one more term to add to those I've been using. As you know,... ... morePosted at 10:27 PM | Comments (1)
May 7, 2006
Who Are The Mortacracies? Part V
I lied. I wrote that this would be the concluding part of this series on defining the world's mortacracies, with my identification of the final list and what to do about them. But, I came across the Fund For Peace webste on failed states with beautiful data for my purpose here. So, never one to let good data rest in peace, I will exploit them to further define mortacracies. The data comprise the 12 indicators of a state's failure listed below: 1 - Mounting Demographic Pressures, 2 - Massive Movement of Refugees and DPs, 3 - Legacy of Vengeance -... ... morePosted at 10:12 PM
May 4, 2006
Who Are The Mortacracies? Part IV
So far, I have suggested that mortacracies be defined by their democide (Part I), and also by their LE--the life expectancy of a people from birth--(Part II), and their LE within the context of a peoples' HDI--general well being--(Part III). While some free countries may have a very low HDI and LE that they inherited from their previous rapacious thug regimes, I expect that their very low LE will be moving upward. And those thug regimes whose people have moderately high LEs should show them falling as the regime's rapaciousness and corruption affects the people's well being. So, what does... ... morePosted at 10:12 PM
May 3, 2006
Who Are The Mortacracies? Part III
In Part II, I used a people's life expectancy from birth (LE) as an indicator of whether they were ruled by a mortacracy or not. But is LE enough? Perhaps, in addition to LE, I should consider a wider measure of human underdevelopment that takes into account LE's social and economic context, and its high and low. We have this from the UN's Human Development Report for 2005 It used a human development index (HDI) based on a people's income, education and health. Its purpose is not to give a complete picture of human development, but to provide a measure... ... morePosted at 10:23 PM
May 2, 2006
Who Are The Mortacracies? Part II
RETRACTION: In case you read it in yesterday's Part I, before I edited it out: I lost my cool at the end of the blog and called for the democracies to make war on these bloody mortacracies (a thanks to Walter W. Cox for questioning it). I retract that as an irrational and dangerous thrashing about. I had just seen the previous night the A&E "Flight 93" and 9/11 recap, and then stupidly wrote my Part I about the bloody mortacracies. But the question as to what to do about these mortacracies has to be answered sensibly, and as a... ... morePosted at 10:23 PM
May 1, 2006
Who Are The Mortacracies? Part I
I have used the term democide for murder by government, where murder is understood as it is defined in civil law. This is clear enough. And, I have used the term mortacracy for a regime that commits mass democide, such as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, communist China, and Pol Pot's Cambodia, among others. The key understanding of democide is that it is intentional. But what about those who die from a regime's actions or their lack, but which death is not an intentional consequence, but a natural consequence of the regime's actions. Such might be, for example, corruption that... ... morePosted at 10:51 PM
September 13, 2005
Euthanasia In New Orleans?
(Cross Posted on Hidden Nook) (Catholic World News) A doctor from hurricane-ravaged New Orleans has admitted to euthanizing patients, rather than leaving them to potential death at the hands of looters... "They would have been dead within hours, if not days. We did not put people down. What we did was give comfort to the end," the doctor said. (Source*) The doctor claimed that their behavior was an act of "compassion," although it is interesting that nothing was mentioned on gaining the consent of family members or at least the individual (at least they attempt to do that in the... ... morePosted at 11:37 PM
August 14, 2005
Is The UN Disability Treaty Against Life?
(Cross Posted at Hidden Nook) (Catholic World News) The inclusion of unprecedented language making "sexual and reproductive health services" a human right garnered the widespread support of governments participating in a United Nations session that is drafting a treaty to protect and promote the rights of persons with disabilities... The passage comes under article 21 of the draft, "Right to health and rehabilitation." It requires nations to "[p]rovide persons with disabilities with the same range and standard of health and rehabilitation services as provided other citizens, including sexual and reproductive health services." In UN parlance, sexual and reproductive services means... ... morePosted at 1:42 AM
June 26, 2005
Iraqi Family Struggles To Care For Family Member In 'PVS' State
In Babylon, Iraq, a bomb explodes at 1:30 in the morning, the electricity goes out, and the family of a severely disabled woman diagnosed as being in a PVS state - begins using hand-held fans to keep her cool and comfortable.
... morePosted at 2:37 PM
June 19, 2005
Learned Consciousness and Unconsciousness
I have been too deeply shocked by the widespread commentary by bloggers and the press sparked by the release of Terry Schiavo's autopsy report to write about it. I have read the autopsy report. The examining neurologist stated quite explicitly that Terri's state of consciousness (whether she was in a persistently vegetative state or not) could not be determined from an autopsy. However the report also showed that her brain was highly abnormal, and to many, that appears to serve as a justification for killing her by thirst. Yet the autopsy also showed that the parts of her brain that... ... morePosted at 8:38 PM
June 15, 2005
Father Rob on BlogsForTerri: "Will Autopsy Report Make 'Outlandish' Claims?"
What the report will conclude is not yet known, but the Schindler family and many supporters of Terri's right to live hope the autopsy will provide clues regarding the cause of the cardiac arrest which led to her anoxic brain injury in 1990. They also hope that the autopsy will provide evidence of the abuse of which they have accused Michael Schiavo.
... morePosted at 10:43 AM
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