Herbert Nehrlich - The Morality Of Euthanasia

So does Philosophy then, suffer from
the superficiality of its apparent softness?
Or do you find it harsh, my friend, and cold,
its objectivity a front to trivialise all human feeling.
Thus it is not a question of 'Can man reason? '
nor, 'Can man talk? ' but rather, 'Can man suffer? '”

I suspect that rights are really notions, misconceived
and threatening the happiness of many, if not most.
It is the greatest number that must be pleased
as, after all, we are but slaves of pain and pleasure
shuttling as we do, between the two.

Perhaps this can explain our morbid fascination
with euthanasia, or nicely stated, assisted death.
Could it not be the grand solution for all final illness?
Or is it a false compassion, behind which one can hide
those hidden homicidal impulses, a God complex
all wrapped inside the pages of their own psychopathology.

The taking of a life is but philosophy of murder,
and its attraction grows from seed to deed in minutes,
there is the prospect irresistible, of pain and pleasure
which, in the end will wipe it clean, the slate of morals
to give then to the greatest number, the hope of happiness.

Herbert Nehrlich

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