Is Assisted Suicide Ethical? - Dennis AMA

Life Audio. On today's episode of Timeless Wisdom. Hi Dennis, what do you think about assisted suicide? I noticed you avoid this topic. It's an extremely difficult subject. Extreme. It— there's, there's— and there's certainly no perfect answer. I'm convinced. I'm not an absolutist in the no camp. And I'm certainly not in the yes camp. Dear Mr. Prager, I am 37 years old and I long to be able to have good and deep conversations with my elderly parents while I still can. We live in different countries and most of our communication is via FaceTime. Every year that passes, I realize that my conversations with them have no real substance. We either talk superficially about work, who's mad at whom in the family, and the weather. Yet when I think about it, I still have no idea what to ask them or what topic to bring forth. That's coming up on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.

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Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Hear thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, Go to DennisPrager.com. Hi everybody, Dennis Prager with Ask Me Anything. Okay, here we go. Anchorage, Alaska. In speaking about God as he, you said, quote, we cannot relate to, let alone obey or love an it. That's taken from my Genesis commentary in the Rational Bible. I understand and agree with your point. But I can hear people saying that there are plenty of things, things they love and relate to, such as nature. For me, I love certain foods and places, even software that I've used for decades. I do interact with places, swimming at the beach, and the software seems more of a world than just a tool. Although I wonder at times which of us is the tool. Would you elaborate on what it is to love and relate to something or someone? Okay, so you, you— the idea of relating to an it, I don't I don't quite, uh, have that. I only— I really relate almost exclusively to people. I relate to my dogs, but not nearly as much as my wife does, to be honest. And I do, I enjoy them a lot, but I relate to that which can relate back. But an inanimate object just cannot relate back to me. I mean, it's so— isn't that obvious? If I, if I love my car, does my, does my car have anything to say to me? So I— and nature, like, loving nature I mean, I love many inanimate things, but we really— I don't think we love or relate to an it, and the it doesn't love us. I think that's a bigger factor. If God were an it, God could not love us. So what it loves you. Does your car love you? Does nature love you? Okay, if God were an it and not, not a he— that's, that's the question you raise about the comment that I made in the beginning of my Genesis commentary— it— the, the whole monotheistic experiment would be an absurdity. Does it give you Ten Commandments? Does it love you? Does it judge you? And it doesn't do anything. I'm thinking of— what was that famous film where Wilson the volleyball was loved? Yeah, Castaway. Yeah. So we all understood the relationship between Tom Hanks and the— and Wilson the volleyball, because he was basically in solitary confinement. He was alone on this island after a plane crash for so long. I'd have related to a volleyball myself too. I'd have painted a face. It makes it psychologically helpful, but obviously it remains a volleyball. Alrighty, everybody. Carmen in Charleston, South Carolina: Aside from Joseph Telushkin, do you have other childhood friends that you are still close with? Did you ever figure out what happened to your roommate from college who asked you, what is God? What is good? Lastly, did you get to reconnect with anyone from your childhood because of your public life? All right, so no, he's really, uh, the one from childhood, really high school. I didn't know him in elementary school that I'm— that I've maintained contact with. I have gone to my high school reunions, very, very bittersweet affairs as you get older. Because your picture of every one of them is from when they're 16 years old, not 60 or 70. It's a very— it's a unique experience. It's your own time capsule when you go to your high school reunions. And it was really good to see many of them, and I was always happy to see those for whom life worked out well. We only had 120 kids in our class. It was not a big high school. Okay, let's see. Sonia in Athens, Georgia. Dear Mr. Prager, I am 37 years old. And I long to be able to have good and deep conversations with my elderly parents while I still can. We live in different countries, and most of our communication is via FaceTime. Every year that passes, I realize that my conversations with them have no real substance. We either talk superficially about work, who's mad at whom in the family, and the weather. Yet when I think about it, I still have no idea what to ask them or what topic to bring forth, since neither side is good at communicating and we seem to be always in a rush. I am traveling with my family this year to visit them, and I would like to change that. Do you have any advice on how to navigate and guide our conversations into more substantive areas. I was wondering if you used to have deep, open conversations with your parents as an adult, and if so, what were they about? How are interesting topics brought up? Are there things you wish you had talked with— to them about that you now regret not having brought up? Do you miss having those conversations? Thank you for continuing to share yourself with us. May God bless you and your loved ones always. Thank you. This is a tough one. This is a very tough one. So I, I, I have very, um, non-romantic views on the subject.

I—

people don't know what the word romantic is. Often they think of it as from romance. It's not— that's one definition. But for example, we speak about the Romantic era in music or a romantic view of life, a romantic view of, of, of whatever. Romantic is wishful thinking. I think that's one way of putting it. I don't have wishful thinking views of almost anything. I think that this, this may be totally off base. I want to preface my comment. I think that a lot of people expect too much from their parents, and this may be an example. Maybe your parents aren't that deep. This is not meant insultingly. There are not many deep people. I mean, I have an immediate answer to your question. Raise a deep subject, you know. Hey, Mom and Dad, you know, you're getting old. Do you— I'm just curious, if I may ask— do you fear dying? It's a legitimate question. I don't know if you feel free to ask it. Or, you know, I was thinking about X, Y, and Z, or X, Y, or Z. What's your take on that? You know, you've lived much longer than me. How was— how was the world changed? Since you were a kid. You think the world is better or worse? Almost interview them. That could work. I had deep conversations with my father on the radio because I interviewed him. Probably deeper than in person. That's not said disparagingly at all. But on the radio, I had my father on every July 18th because it was his birthday. And I would ask him these questions, and people then would write to me, "Boy, you lucky to have such great conversations with your father." But they were assuming that the way we talked on radio was the way we talked off radio, and it was not, not really that true. So A, don't expect that much, and B, raise questions, interview them. This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

We live in a time where the moment you question the narrative, you're told to stop thinking and start complying. That's why what Angel is doing matters. With eye-opening documentaries like Thank You, Dr. Fauci and RFK: Legacy, Angel is willing to explore the issues others avoid. In a culture shaped by gatekeepers, Angel offers something rare: a platform for truth-seeking storytelling that isn't constrained by fear or conformity. Go to angel.com/prager, join the Angel Guild, and watch these films today.

Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom. Nancy in Jacksonville, Florida: My younger daughter at age 44 died from carcinoid cancer in June of 2022. I will never, quote, get over it, unquote, like some say. Would you ever devote part of your show to allowing parents who have lost children of any age— excuse me— to call in and tell your audience what life is like after that tragedy happens? If so, please let me know and I will do my best to call in. Well, my heart goes out to you, Nancy. As it happens, you asked the right guy because I have done hours on loss of children, uh, on the Happiness Hour in particular. For reasons I have no way of accounting for, I have been somewhat obsessed with parents who lose children. I don't know why. And I have quite a number who have in my life. It's really, it's, it's eerie, but I do. And I salute these people because in every case they, they give the appearance of being able to enjoy life. So the, the great question is, can you enjoy life ever after a child dies? I would hope that the answer is yes. I, I would hope that it is, and I think you should pursue joy after a child dies. Because if you don't, you're sort of dead, and then there's two deaths in the family. You need— you need— it doesn't— it doesn't help your child to deprive yourself of whatever joy you could experience. The horror— one of the many horrors of losing a child is that very often you also lose your marriage. This is— I— the statistics are pretty high about divorce rate after a child dies. It's— and by the way, it's not that the child was the cement that kept the marriage together, and now that the cement has broken off, there's nothing to hold the marriage. It's that the death of the child was a battering ram against the cement. That's, that's the problem. And so it really breaks my heart because then you lost your child and your marriage. Kelly, Los Angeles, California. Hi Dennis, has the media always been a PR firm for the left? I can't tell the difference between op-ed pieces and regular articles anymore, and I'm curious if this has always been the case or when it changed and why. And how. I adore you. I always tell my husband I hope I'm seated next to you on an airplane because I have a list of thoughtful topics I'd love to discuss. Ha! Wishing you a wonderful day. Okay, is your husband okay with your wishing that you sit next to me. I have no doubt he is. I'm just, just being a little devilish. So your question is about the left being a PR, the media being PR for the left. That's— it's, it's more today than ever in American history, but it was always liberal in my lifetime. But There's a big difference between left liberal and leftist. I give a video at PragerU on that. You might want to watch it. But today the media are truly just spokes— spokesmen for the left. It's, it's a very sad development. Janine, California: On a Dennis and Julie show, you said you were not a fan of Beethoven's 6th Symphony. Do you think you could learn to love it? If not, could this help inform your understanding of the many people like me who can never seem to learn to love the heavier classical music? I adore the, the lighter stuff. My desert island piece, one of the— these I would be hard-pressed to do without, ever hearing again is Claire de Lune. My dad used to play light classical music in his study where I did my homework while he was composing his sermons, so I have hooks on which to hang my love of classical music. So I've been able to learn to love a bit of the heavier stuff, though not yet the heaviest. Not to say it isn't possible to learn to love things to which one has never had prior hooks, but it's a far more difficult thing, I think. So I learned Joseph Telushkin was mentioned. I met— I learned from him in high school that some people are just not wired to love classical music. I think everybody should try it, but if it doesn't work, you're just not wired for it. I'm not wired for rap, if wiring would be the issue. And I, I learned not only that some people are not wired to love classical music. I have made peace with the fact that there are many D people, D people who will just not respond to classical music. But at the same time, there are many people who think they wouldn't respond to classical music who would. That is why you need to expose your children and yourself to as many things as possible. You never know what will get you. My stepson, whom I am very close— in high school, I don't remember yet, it was a certain choice among non-academic, not school class things to do. I don't know, there was— I think there was acting, uh, I don't know, maybe chess. I don't know what else. I don't know what there was, but one of them was stage— was it, uh, setting up stages, you know, the props and so on. He got stuck with that as the last choice, but there was nothing left by the time he would enroll. He loved it, ended up building a tremendous amount of things, then went into IT and he makes a living because he is so gifted in IT. You've got to expose yourself. Critical. Don't think you won't like it. You may not, but you don't know till you try it. That's just that parents' line about spinach and broccoli. How do you know you don't like it? This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

We live in a time where the moment you question the narrative, you're told to stop thinking and start complying. That's why what Angel is doing matters. With eye-opening documentaries like Thank You, Dr. Fauci and RFK: Legacy, Angel is willing to explore the issues others avoid. In a culture shaped by gatekeepers, Angel offers something rare: a platform for truth-seeking storytelling that isn't constrained by fear or conformity. Go to angel.com/prager, join the Angel Guild, and watch these films today.

Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom. Right, this one is from Andrew in San Diego, California. Question: What are your thoughts on depression and how can one overcome it? I'm 23 years old, and when I try to improve at something, especially when I'm terrible at it, It is then that I find my inner critic to be the loudest. My critical self-talk takes over any ambition I had at becoming a better person, and my battle between myself— I should— what you really mean is within yourself, or between yourself and your mind— is discouraging. I'm debating whether I should start taking medication. Thank you and God bless. Well, I even hate to say this, but my heart goes out to you. I hate to say it because I don't want you to feel sorry for yourself, but if I feel sorry for you, then it makes sense if you feel sorry for you. This is why I, I have been so grateful all of my life. I've never had to battle depression. As one massive example of how lucky I— I know I'm so lucky that I don't have that battle. I don't have those voices in me that you have. So my, my non-professional answer, which might be a really good one and might not be a good one, is first, I'm a behaviorist. I believe that behavior modifies feelings and thoughts and psyche. Therefore, you don't wait to do something. You're— you have to be mind-directed, not animated by a good voice of ambition. Just intellectual understanding, rational understanding. I have to do X and Y and Z. That's why my— one of my fundamental beliefs about happiness is act happy, you'll feel happy, or at least feel happier. So you have to do as much— get, get very, very busy. Get with people. Monitor what brings you some relief from depression. And, and it could be any— could be music, could be a walk in nature, it could be, uh, having a girlfriend, it could be art. It could be work. It's— there, there is essentially an infinite number of possibilities. Get involved in whatever brings you some peace and keep doing it. And keep doing things that you don't even know will bring you peace and try them out. Hobbies, plus all the things I just mentioned. I don't know how to squash those negative voices in you. So that's another reason I'm a behaviorist. Let your voices be your voices and don't let them direct you. That's where you do have free will. You don't— you may not have free will over these inner voices, but you have free will on whether you listen to them. Should you take a medication? I can't answer that. If you try everything that I've just said, and again, having a community— I don't know how lonely you are, but I know that there's a vast amount of loneliness in America that would depress anybody. All of my broadcast career, I've said to people, you should date for friends like you dated for a spouse. That's how important it is to find friends. You have friends, you have a community, you have music or art or both, you have reading or whatever can give you some degree of pleasure. That should help. And if none of that helps I, I don't have an opposition to medication. I think it should be a last resort, but I, I, I'm totally open to it. Tevita Fusitua, Beaverton, Oregon. Hi, I was wondering if you could go into why the Bible is evolutionary in its approach towards some issues like slavery and revolutionary on other issues such as homosexual relations? And what does that teach us when to be revolutionary and when to be evolutionary in our approach? Wow, that's a good one. Generally speaking, I'm for an evolutionary approach to making the world better. Now, it's hard to know at any time whether it's revolutionary or evolutionary. Was the banning of slavery revolutionary or evolutionary? I'm just posing the question. I'm not gonna give an answer. I don't have a full answer, which is my point. But it is— as a general rule, it is preferable to do the evolutionary way. Emiliarate things gradually. It usually works better than overnight radical improvement of society. You almost always end up with revolutionary violence, just to give an example. So yes, that's how I would regard that. When, uh, when to do which. The left is revolutionary. We're going to change everything overnight. If you don't agree with us, you're, you're morally primitive. And I, I don't, I don't share that view. On slavery, I make the case for the brilliant and moral evolutionary approach. Had the Torah said 3,200 years ago, abolish slavery, nothing would have happened. You have to give laws that people will obey. And so you have to give your slave off one day a week on the Sabbath. You, you have to be very, very strict about how you treat the slave. You kill the slave, you get killed. That's what "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" is about. Everybody's tooth, everybody's eye is equal. It was actually a magnificent movement forward. In history. It got to the point where the Talmud, the great work of Jewish law and philosophy, the second holiest work in Judaism after the, after the Bible, says that whoever purchased a slave ended up with a master. That is how many rights were given by the religion to, to what we call slaves but were really indentured servants. You conquer a woman in war— this is in Deuteronomy— Conquer a woman in war, and if you want to sleep with her, what have the men of almost every army in history done? They've raped. Rape was like a reward of the war. In the Torah, you want this woman, bring her to your house, let her mourn her parents and her family for a month. And then you may take her as a wife. You, you may, you may not take her sexually unless you marry her. So you'll say, well, she didn't have full freedom. She couldn't have left this, the Israelite master's house. Yeah, okay, that's true, but think of the evolutionary improvement in the situation of conquered women. Thanks to the biblical approach. So yeah, I, uh, as a general rule, I am for the evolutionary approach to making the world better. See, seems to, uh, seems to work better. Sarah in West Palm Beach, Florida: I'm ashamed to say that despite reading and rereading about the Russian Revolution I can't really understand it. I am currently reading Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. I am still confused about the socialists incarcerating the communists, the Trotskyites, and the counterrevolutionaries, all of whom hated the socialists and each other. To me, outside of the counterrevolutionaries, they all seem like one and the same. I thought I'd ask for your summary of this revolution since that is your field of study. Dennis Prager, and you are great at clarifying ideas. Thank you. I appreciate your work immensely. It has truly changed my life. By the way, I think you should bring this explanation to your fireside chat. Okay, thank you. So interesting. In a nutshell, the The left in the Soviet Union, or Russia as it was known till 1917, is, as the biblical phrase goes, a— it became a land that devoured its own inhabitants, which is always what happens on the left. They devour their own. Look, look at how woke it is. I mean, you know, you, you take part in leftist, leftist wokeism and then you get fired from your job because you weren't woke enough. So anyway, you're right, the distinctions between all the groups on the left, there were some distinctions between Bukharin and Zinoviev and Kamenev and Trotsky and Stalin. But, but not enough for them to kill each other. This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

We live in a time where the moment you question the narrative, you're told to stop thinking and start complying. That's why what Angel is doing matters. With eye-opening documentaries like Thank You, Dr. Fauci and RFK: Legacy, Angel is willing to explore the issues others avoid. In a culture shaped by gatekeepers, Angel offers something rare: a platform for truth-seeking storytelling that isn't constrained by fear or conformity. Go to angel.com/prager, join the Angel Guild, and watch these films today.

Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom. Audrey Aman, Waitesburg, Washington. Hi Dennis, what do you think about assisted suicide? I noticed you avoid this topic. I don't think I've avoided it, but I don't talk about it much, but I don't think I've avoided it. I think it's something we must speak to. Everyone has compassion for those suffering in pain who are terminally ill. However, pain management is the answer, not assisted suicide. If you took— if you look at the expense or the experience— my glasses are in need of a reading glass part better than I have. Anyway, if you look at the experience of every nation where it's been tried, you'll see it is indeed a slippery slope. In Canada Oh, poor Canada. It goes under the ever so comforting acronym of MAID, Medical Assistance to Dying. And let me see, lost my spot here. And the— let's see, goes under the ever so comforting acronym of Medical Assistance in Dying. And the abuses are so frightening. Seniors report being told they could move into assisted living or, or chose— or choose, that's— they spelled it wrong— or choose suicide. Disabled people living in poverty are eligible. Two disabled women on welfare were unable to receive housing that would meet their unique needs. Ever-helpful social services suggested they take advantage of the offer of assisted suicide, which they did. I'm laughing because what, what is— what a suggestion. The words mature minors are now being discussed so depressed teens can receive the assisted suicide, since having a psychiatric illness will soon make one qualified for MAID, M-A-I-D, which is their term for medical assistance in dying. It's an important topic. My thinking: only those convicted of a capital crime should ever be put to death. There is a good reason the Hippocratic Oath says, first, do no harm. We do not have the wisdom to dispense death to others. The potential for abuse is staggering. As the mom of a disabled son who loves his life that could be euthanized tomorrow in the Netherlands, I feel we must speak up. It's an extremely difficult subject. Extreme. It's— there's, there's— and there's certainly no perfect answer. I'm convinced. I'm not an absolutist in the no camp, and I'm certainly not in the yes camp. My brother is the head of medical ethics at an Ivy League university. He's a doctor, and I— the last I spoke to him about it, his position was it should be illegal But doctors should figure out ways to do it when necessary and just not be prosecuted. Now, that's my position. There are times when the only truly merciful thing is to put somebody to death, but those are, those are not normal times, but they exist. Tomorrow on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. So here's one today. I want to attack a cliché. Now let me say a word about clichés. These are things, these are lines that are used over and over and they become a cliché. Haste makes waste is a good example. Anyway, haste makes waste is a great example and it's true. Most clichés are true. Okay? However, there is a small fraction that is used and just isn't true. And the one I'm dealing with today is the ends don't justify the means. It is said so often and it is said as if it's a given. The ends don't justify the means. Now sometimes, of course, that's true. A silly example, so just to make it clear, I'll use a silly example, one that nobody could dispute. If your end is to exterminate the, I don't know, your house has become somewhat infested with cockroaches, right? And somebody brings along a bazooka. And blows up your house, the ends, getting rid of the cockroaches, do not justify the means, bazooka-izing your house. 'Kay? We are all in agreement, in that instance the ends did not justify the means. However, if your house were infested with terrorists who were intent on blowing up parts of your city, then the use of a bazooka may well be justified. Now how then does the same exact means, using a bazooka to blow up your house or parts of your house, how is it in case 1 justified and in case 2 unjustified? The answer is because of the ends. Of course the ends justify the means. When you are fighting terrorists, a bazooka means— the means of a bazooka is warranted. Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. This has been Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit DennisPrager.com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles. We want to take just a second to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the podcast. Go to lifeaudio.com to find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network, including shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.

We live in a time where the moment you question the narrative, you're told to stop thinking and start complying. That's why what Angel is doing matters. With eye-opening documentaries like Thank You, Dr. Fauci and RFK: Legacy, Angel is willing to explore the issues others avoid. In a culture shaped by gatekeepers, Angel offers something rare: a platform for truth-seeking storytelling that isn't constrained by fear or conformity. Go to angel.com/prager, join the Angel Guild, and watch these films today.