muad'dib

Another cause may be telomeres at the end of eukaryotic chromosomes. They are nucleotide sequences at the end of chromosomes that protect against degradation. There is an enzyme called telomerase that can lengthen the telomeres but unfortunately it isn't found in most cells of multicellular organisms like ourselves. This means that every time our cells divide our telomeres get shorter which means our DNA could eventually erode away because of replication. Telomerase has been found in cancer cells, meaning they can replicate forever without dying, which is pretty much what happens.

I read an article in my Bioethics textbook that said often (I don't remember the actually statistics, I will try to find them) when terminally ill patients request suicide it is for psychological reasons, such as isolation, a feeling of hopelessness, etc. If we were to say yes it is okay to use PAS to relieve this mental suffering people suffering from bipolar disorder will probably be seeking PAS as a solution, as well as anyone suffering any mental pain; where would we draw the line?

Actually most people with Down's syndrome are sterile.

Actually most people with Down's syndrome are sterile.

Go for it, it is your choice, nobody disputes that. What some may dispute is the morality of it.

Down's syndrome is due to a malfunction of the 21st chromosome, called trisomy 21. What happens in most cases is that nondisjuntion occurs during meiosis I resulting in one gamete having an extra 21st chromosome. This means that when this gamete combines with another from the opposite sex the zygote has 47 chromosomes not 46. There is not Down's syndrome allele as far as I know.

It's happened in the Netherlands, plus read what I was replying to when I wrote what you quoted.

haha....I'm glad to see someone else thought the same thing when they read that

Are you saying in all cases when people choose to commit suicide or just the terminally ill? It seems as if you're implying in all cases even if it's just a depressed teenager.

The Principal of Double Effect is a guideline that judges whether certain actions that produce both a desired effect (good) and undesired effect (bad), are moral or immoral. There are four guidlines that judge whether the undesired effect is acceptable. The first is that the action itself is not immoral, the second that the undesired effect cannnot be a means to the desired effect. Thirdly the undesired effect is not directly intended and the fourth is that the desirable effect has to produce a great enough amount of good to be at least proportional to the desired. Natural Law states firstly that the basic instinct of humans is self preservation/survival, it is built into us. If this is true then we have the right not to be killed because if we instinctly want to survive our life must be good. If we have a natural right not to be killed then we must have a natural duty not to kill others. The presumption of this is in favor of keeping ourselves and others alive.

Do you mean that the Principle of Double Effect and Natural Law are now defunct as moral principles, because if that is what you mean that's not true; or do you mean so many people violate them that we should just ignore them and they don't matter? Do you mean something else by that? Pain medication and hospice care do a lot in terms of relieving suffering. Just because physician assited suicide isn't available doesn't mean that terminally ill patients suffer. Granted there are many out there that don't have the money or family required for them, it is a very imperfect system, but physician assisted suicide could most likely lead to a much more imperfect system.