Franklin Graham peppered Obama about ties to Islam

You once did.

Can the government FORCE you to give me a kidney? Can it force me to give you a transfusion of my rare blood to keep you alive, even for a moment?

Absolutely not. In any other case, you would agree that the government doesn't have the right to force one person to keep another alive [with their body] against their will.

Unless you are reversing your stance that a fetus is a "person".

Not to *chirp* as I'll be gone for a few days, but...

Against the person's will who is to die?

I agree that the government ought not force someone to stay alive against their own will, but that is a quite different matter than allowing for someone's life to be terminated against their own will. The person who is a candidate for euthanasia will not get better in 9 months.
I wish, of course, that nobody would choose euthanasia, but it is a very different matter with entirely different policy consequences. If someone wants to kill themselves (or get help), it is a very different question indeed from someone who has no say in the matter, likely to be perfectly healthy, being killed for convenience.

I am also to be gone for a few days, so the crickets can chirp at each other:)

TerryRC wrote:People are more important than animals. You think so to. Why? First, of all, we are more intelligent than the other creatures we share this planet with. True, not all of us demonstrate this all the time, but we are.

Now you're not going to tell me you don't think people are more important than animals. You do. You care for animals, you may love some. I love my dogs. I practically worship at the alter of Sylvester, the cat I've shared my life with for 17 years. However, I would never place his life over yours. You are more important than Sylvester. Your life is more important than Sylvester's life, and so isn't every other person on the planet. Including those I can't even stomach.

So intelligence is what makes us [humans] so special? That is it?

I kill and exploit animals to survive. I don't think that makes me more "special" than them or more
"important", just more savage.

I also fix up animals or put them out of their misery if they can't be fixed. That is because I can't stand to see suffering - a weakness in my personality.

What makes us so special, I think, is that we make up myths to justify our need to feel special.

So, Terry.....are you telling us you don't think a person is more important than an animal? Is that what you're saying?

Ziggy wrote:Have you asked Sylvester which is more important- his life or Terry's? Tell us what he says.

I don't have to ask. Sylvester knows he is the most important creature in the history of the universe. My family and I exist only to cater to his whims, silly!

Against the person's will who is to die?

I agree that the government ought not force someone to stay alive against their own will, but that is a quite different matter than allowing for someone's life to be terminated against their own will. The person who is a candidate for euthanasia will not get better in 9 months.
I wish, of course, that nobody would choose euthanasia, but it is a very different matter with entirely different policy consequences. If someone wants to kill themselves (or get help), it is a very different question indeed from someone who has no say in the matter, likely to be perfectly healthy, being killed for convenience.

Mike, this is what I said:

Can the government FORCE you to give me a kidney? Can it force me to give you a transfusion of my rare blood to keep you alive, even for a moment?

Absolutely not. In any other case, you would agree that the government doesn't have the right to force one person to keep another alive [with their body] against their will.

It has NOTHING to do with keeping someone alive against that person's will.

The government normally can't force a person to use their body to keep another person alive.

So, Terry.....are you telling us you don't think a person is more important than an animal? Is that what you're saying?

No, Steph. I just want to know why you think people are so much more special or important than animals.

Mike said that "human motherhood" is a higher calling. I just wanted to know what makes the "human" part of it so important.

Nobody has a problem with using pig embryos in science, for instance.

Like I said, I know I am more savage than most animals and I will exploit that. As far as me being more important than them - I think I am, but then, until I met my wife, I was the most important creature I knew, so that isn't saying much.

Really, humans aren't any more special than ants. In the end, we may even turn out to be of less worth.

"In the end, we may even turn out to be of less worth."

By whose standards? Do I detect some nihilism here?

By whose standards? Do I detect some nihilism here?

If it wasn't for ants, mammals wouldn't likely be around. What have we done for the good of our planet and other species? At least most animals don't crap in their waterhole. Humans are too lazy and/or ambivalent (or greedy) to care.

Try those for standards.

The only thing I detect is a desire to know what makes being human so much more important than anything else.

I also wish your opinion on the fact that the state can't normally hold a gun to an individual's head and force that individual to use their body to keep another person alive.

You would change that for pregnant women.