"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed."

-Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Murder vs. Suicide

The basic difference that I see between the two comes down to rights. In class we talked about the right to live. People seemed to generally agree that everyone has the right to live their life. The thing about rights is, you can choose not to use them. For example, I have the right to bare arms, yet I choose not to exercise that right. It can be argued then, that suicide is what people do when they choose not to exercise their right to live. Murder is different, however, because it infringes upon another person's right to live. It would be like some oen telling me I could no longer vote or own a gun. A person cannot impede the rights of others, even if they choose not to use those same rights.

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