Excellent Sonia Sodha article in The Guardian

[Nellodee]

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/05/sometimes-our-take-on-human-nature-trumps-our-political-allegiances-good

I really enjoyed this article about how you sometimes find yourself on the opposite side of a debate to someone you admire, or the same side as someone you usually disagree with, mostly concerning the euthanasia debate but also referencing women’s rights issues.

'the difference between those who understand personal choice as the product of autonomous individuals, and those who see it as a brew of human relationships and cultural influences.'

That's a good point.

I wish it was possible to subscribe to the Observer without getting the Graun as well. Nipping out to the newsagent seems to be the only solution.

I love this section:

'And so it is often our own instincts about human nature and how we understand the lives of others, not just our own, that drives our position on them. I have no doubt that writing about male violence against women and child abuse has shifted my outlook from team autonomy to team interdependency on a much wider range of issues, because I understand more about the world than I did a decade ago.'

Sodha beautifully describes the development of my own views on a lot of issues over the last 20 years.

As to the issue of assisted-dying: I really hate thinking of people in terrible, unbearable pain having to suffer until their natural death and feel we should allow them a choice as to whether or not they can end that suffering but I also fear the potential for abuse and overreach of a state-run system of euthanasia such as that currently developing in Canada and Belgium.

I am opposed to assisted dying. It should not be legal to kill people.