Control Freaks

Just ran across the following quote from a column in the Irish Independent supporting the idea of legal assisted suicide.

"Nobody, nobody, can deny you the right to control your own destiny"

I used to give talks at Catholic schools about what we liked to call 'bioethics' (to get past the gate-keepers who might object to having visitors opposed to abortion) and one of the things we liked to do was deconstruct the standard abortion slogans. How much sense does it really make to say "a woman has a right to control her own body"?

I asked the class for a show of hands of those who had control over their own bodies. There were always a few takers.

So, what age were you when you decided how tall you wanted to be?

Quite apart from the moral aspects of the statement above, one has to ask if it is based on reality. Ask the following questions: Is there a right to do something impossible? Do you, for example, have the right to flap your arms and fly?

Is there such a thing as the ability to "control your own destiny"?

Maybe a good person to ask would be a cancer patient.