h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is an interesting and thought provoking piece .However, I think you may have run together issues that are rather different.

If a little child is suffering from a condition that means it can't survive, decisions have to be taken about ending treatment. These cases are tragic but surely decisions can only be taken by doctors and parents. The courts only get involved if patients and doctors can't agree.

This situation is dfferent from one that arises when a mentally competent but terminally ill adult wants help to end his/her own life. In these cases, it can be argued that the patient's wishes should be respected.

I'm not sure about your statement 'You can only learn about living processes from living beings.' I would have thought much experimentation takes place at the level of the cell, or the gene.

You might like to look at the Judgement of Solomon as it is about a parent wanting what is best for their child, even if it means giving them up.

I thought I had posted another comment on this but it seems to have gone astray alas. One of the Glaswegian cases I had mentioned (in that missing thread) that caused public outcry was of a minor criminal seen on the street, outside where a murder was committed, who was charged for the crime and sentenced to hang, even though witnesses in the house had seen the woman's nephew come out of her rooms shortly before the crime was discovered, yet he was not even looked into as a suspect (turns out he was a friend of the judge). Then there is the more recent Jeremy Thorpe case, recently dramatized on BBC television.

In other words I am no friend of the court, when illogic and ignorance of the facts comes into play, rather than the truth.

By the way discovery of the truth can only happen with an open mind. A closed mind with a fixed idea, will only sift through previous evidence, looking for proof that reaffirms their prejudices, not discloses anything new on the subject.

Damn, I wish I hadn't lost that first reply as a lot of what I have put here now depended upon it for connection of points, making some of what sits here and in the previous post, seem puzzling to other people I am sure.

I entirely agree that the poor and disadvantaged get treated as if their lives are of little value, while the rich and well-connected get every help and comfort. .

If you compare the concern about poor Charlie Gard's case with the acceptance that children are dying in refugee camps in a range of countries, it looks as if a white British life is valued more highly than an Asian or African life.

Yes but the world looks to us to fix its problems. If we could have fixed Charlie Gard, we could have exported this solution to other countries. Whether we would as you say is another question. When it comes to wisdom, unfortunately you cannot package that and send it to the White House. As they say, you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink, nor a stupid man to answers and make him think.

Often enough the things that make the difference in poor countries are relatively simple. Like providing clean water, sanitation and vaccinations against preventable diseases like diptheria.

As for wisdom, everyone will have a different idea of what that means. Plato might have thought there had to be one Idea of Wisdom, or Truth but, if you accept Wittgenstein's theory of language, there could be lots of incidents of wisdom and truth.

I agree with simple, practical solutions like you mention.

As for Wittgenstein, the answer thereof is to found in complex profundities, buried in deep wit, not witticisms