More sex and more death

I'd better stop writing about euthanasia soon, before I go off on one and offend loads of people. However, my last post did make me think of one more example. There is a classic argument in favour of euthanasia that I find immensely annoying, and it goes as follows. Suicide is not illegal and so, because some disabled people cannot kill themselves, it would supposedly be fair to allow assisted suicide, and give them the same "opportunities" as everyone else. In other words, disabled people should be given equal access to death before being given equal access to the London Underground or the jobs market.

What is ludicrous about this particular argument is that it can be applied just as easily to all sorts of illegal acts. Taking heroin is not illegal, but giving it to another person would be, so why not make it legal to inject a disabled person with heroin? Similarly, I've never heard a case of a successful suicide bomber being prosecuted so it would be grossly unfair to prosecute someone who carried a physically-impaired bomber down an escalator into a tube station. (I promised myself that I wouldn't get into my more provocative arguments - I fear that it is too late.)

However, I think the most compelling argument is provided by the case of prostituition. Paying for sex is not itself illegal in the UK, but it would be against the law to procure a sex worker on behalf of someone else. Therefore, if we are to legalise euthanasia based on the above argument, we should also be more lax about giving disabled people access to sexual services. While sleeping with a prostitute may sometimes be regrettable, it is not irreversible in the same way as taking one's life, and so the latter should require a higher degree of certainty and reflection before it is allowed. Hence, I propose the following solution. A person contemplating death should be given access to as much sex as they desire courtesy of the state. If they still want to kill themselves, it is then, and only then, that they should be allowed to do so.