The service offered by Kevorkian was within moral reason, just like a person who cures cancer or delivers babies. A mortal coil is unwrapped and severed. Should be approached like various forms of bankruptcy. The only way I can legitimize the illegality of suicide, is that it's often an unnecessary burden on various public services (emergency response personnel, the morgue, court system, etc.). If the decedent had their affairs set straight before they off themselves/get themselves off'd, then who cares? Now, of course, there's plenty of creationist overtones and prejudices involved in the *ACTUAL* legislature, at least in 'Murka. In a truly free state, it would be fine to an hero, as long as you had your affairs in order.

>they'll go to hell for it
This. It's religion-based moral outrage, just like the abortion debate and the gay marriage debate.

Kevorkian was killing people for his own enjoyment though, have you seen his paintings? The man was demented.

In that context, it's for the same reason the German man who placed an ad in the personals saying he wanted to eat someone, and then when someone came over to his house and willingly let him cut off and cook his penis so they could both eat it, and then allowed himself to be killed, cut up and stored in a freezer was still arrested for murder.

Because if someone wants that to happen to themselves, they're obviously not of sound mind.

>>432
All beliefs are based in morality. If you disagree with something, at the root of your argument you'll either be saying "Because it's right" or "Because it's wrong". Even arguing that "morality shouldn't be legislated" is ironically an argument based on the morality of the person presenting it.

>>434
And in the examples I gave, the most compelling counter-arguments are something along the lines of 'It's wrong BECAUSE GOD'.

>>436
I'm an atheist, and I'm against the things you named and could provide you with lengthy arguments on both subjects which have nothing at all to do with god. Are you done being an idiot?

>>433
Beyond his paintings, is there evidence that he enjoyed killing people? I'm not trying to challenge this notion. I really don't know much about the man. I've seen in interviews that he upholds the morality of the right to die, so I wonder if the paintings aren't the emotional expression of the difficult of doing what he thought was right.

Kevorkian was an unusual guy, though, to say the least. During the Vietnam war, he floated an idea to pull blood out of dead soldiers and preserve it for the wounded living. The proposal was rejected because it was too macabre for the time.

>>439
A lot of right-to-die opponents are morally opposed based on a mixture of cultural and religious doctrine (assuming we limit the discussion to the Christian subset of Western civilization. I have no idea what pagans and non-Westerners think of the issue). It's the same type of disconnect that causes one to slay doctors who give abortions while at the same time decrying the death of the fetus. It's not that a life for a life is logical, it's that a pre-established social, cultural, or religious boundary is being crossed and this cannot be allowed.

Right now in Europe there are right-to-die campaigns. Patrick Stewart of Star Trek fame is one of the spokespeople for this movement. The notion is that it's unreasonable to ask someone suffering from a debilitating illness to live and suffer when that person can die with dignity. It makes perfect sense to me, but it is nevertheless a logical argument to an emotional opposition.

>>439
>could
It's /id/ not /b/. Sperg or get off the pot.

All people who wish for death do so in despair. Whether it's losing hope in having a comfortable life, or losing hope for hormonal or chemical imbalance reasons, desperation is an element of the equation. If anything, I'd feel more comfortable with someone who was able to admit their desperation having the right rather than someone who was deluded and unable to admit it.

I have no opinion on the morality of it, so I'll withhold any further commentary.

>>451
do you not bankrupt out of despair? or seek reimbursement for damages in an accident? or dial 911 when your car is stolen?

to say 'dispair' isnt a worthy motivator in a human decision is retarded.