Law & Order

I love Law & Order, and no I'm not talking about some fascist military state here. Law & Order (the tee-vee show) Sunday nights on the soon-to-be defunked Channel I. (Let's observe a moment of silence for MediaWorks which I thought was a great move for our entertainment industry which is as we speak retrograding) Anyways back to Law & Order... this week a woman was charged with assisting a suicide. She, who was chronically ill and in general constant pain, started a blog (*wink*) as she dealt with thoughts of suicide and as other suicidal peoples responded to her, she found for herself a support community. And although this community wasn't quite like Heaven's Gate (that's the mass suicide cult from years ago), suicide wasn't viewed as iniquitous but as an option that was both real and a human right. There was lots more to the show but this was certainly sufficient grist for the ol' brain mill.


Suicide is as we know illegal in Singapore (at least the last I knew...). Its strange that we can't choose to live and die on our own terms. Beyond the moral backlashes, its freakin' against the law. But my life must ultimately be my own. Its not about being willing to fight and not giving up, its about being able to call it quits. Its about dying with dignity and on terms that we have laid out for ourselves. I'm not talking about suicide as a form of escapism, that's something else altogether, I'm talking about our right to die. I'm not suicidal, but I do believe that as much as we have the right to live, we too must have the right to die.