A Question of Ownership

For most of us it is difficult to share our personal struggles with another person. Somehow, we must believe that what is our business is ours alone by virtue of ownership. It is our life so it is our own personal property. Nobody wants to place his or her property in jeopardy at the hands of another, especially if the other is a stranger to us. There are enough crooks and thieves in the world who would take away what is ours for their own means.

I speak of personal issues as if they held some monetary value such as gold or silver, but if you think about it, our personal space does have value to us or there would be no laws governing personal privacy or rights. My argument, however, is this; that even though we possess such things as property, our lives are not our own to do with as we please. We do have the freedom to choose where and when we go or what endeavors we wish to participate in, but we do not have the authority to endanger our lives for the sake of our perceived notions of self ownership. Likewise, we do not have the right to choose for another whether or not their life should be endangered.

So many times in my own struggles in life, I have fell victim to the ravages of depression or what used to be diagnosed as melancholia. If you have ever experienced these feelings of utter despair or shear lack of self worth, then you can empathize with me about the thought processes that go through your mind at the lowest moments of depression. There has even been in recent years an explosion of therapies and drugs to treat this acknowledged medical malady so what I am referring to is no myth to society as a whole. The affects of this disease have claimed more than a few lives because those suffering from it have chosen to end their lives rather than endure the symptoms of what is wrong or broken in their lives.

Just as there are millions of women, who for one reason or another become pregnant as a result of some activity freely chosen or forced upon them, decide to end their pregnancies; it becomes an issue of ownership whether or not they have the right to end the life of their unborn child. Again, I stress the idea that property rights and personal rights diverge as it applies to ownership. God puts us here on this earth to love and serve him through our good works, and thus it is in his hands that our lives are placed. He gives us no more to handle than we can endure; we merely have to trust in the love and compassion he gives so freely. It is then He who possesses our lives and determines when it is our time to leave it. I cannot simply believe that we are here by accident and that we are given the right to decide upon matters of life and death as it applies to our own experience. We are here on earth at God’s discretion and we must act in accordance with the example of his son Jesus who taught us the ultimate meaning of love.