tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6367540557347019200.post7045816507382703890..comments2024-02-20T00:47:19.513-08:00Comments on Currents in Catholic Thought: Altered StatesJoe Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191089729473477072noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6367540557347019200.post-32539799194865346292017-01-15T06:05:59.552-08:002017-01-15T06:05:59.552-08:00On the one hand, everyone has a right to die and m...On the one hand, everyone has a right to die and many exercise that right every day; on the other hand, what Fins advocates for is the right of a consciousness to be recognized. He sees this right of consciousness as a civil right. As far as I can tell, and I am no expert in his thought, he does not address how the rights of consciousness play out in an arena of rights.<br /><br />My encounter with the other is not about imposing any kind of being upon the other, and has no ramifications for legalities; I neither bestow nor reduce the rights of the other. In fact, it is the other who positions me to recognize the humanity of the other; the other does all the imposing. Regardless of the appearance of the consciousness of the other, the other obligates me just the same. <br /><br />The God of religion is absent from the claim of the other upon me. Levinas's God is not the God of religion, despite my hypothetical of a trace coming into the phenomenological field. Levinas would have none of that.<br /><br />The right to suicide is also a right exercised by many. That right is not on the same page as imposing life on someone who has chosen a natural death over against a Frankensteinian medicalization of ventilators, countershocks, artificial hydration and nutrition. I agree we have a right to determine what life is for us, and to have our preferences at the end of life honored. Happily at least this much is part of daily medical practice.Joe Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14191089729473477072noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6367540557347019200.post-12975089695655953712017-01-13T23:30:29.546-08:002017-01-13T23:30:29.546-08:00Is there any state or condition in the world in wh...Is there any state or condition in the world in which the person's right to live or die is not defined or informed by your own particular experience and encounter of that person? I think if a person has a right to die—if such a right exists—it has nothing to do with the form or content of what you do or do not encounter or experience of that person, their body, or any phenomenological dynamic dependent on your own awareness. <br /><br />If. If I have a right to die, that is not superseded or replaced by your encounter with the trace of God in my living misery. If I have a right to die, you have no right to force me to live to underwrite your own experience of the meaning you find in my torture. <br /><br />At this moment, I do not know why we do not have a right to die. In fact, I can't see why this is not the highest right we have, the one we must cherish more than any other, if for no other reason than our first moment of existence in this world was decided by the right of someone or something else. <br /><br />The decision or act which brings us into being was done so without us. Perhaps the decision or act which ends our being should be done by no one else. You can't, in an intellectually honest way, reject such a possibility before exploring it. Joseph Charles https://www.blogger.com/profile/02849704279926794392noreply@blogger.com