Is it suicide?

[alan1]

Absolutely.

Young children, spouse/significant other, close immediate family, life goals - all those and many more have a direct impact on a person's desire to live and will to survive.

Any given person's belief system is another thing that would impact their decision to stay alive. Their outlook on life - optimistic, pessimistic - another big one.

So many variables to consider.
My children are grown.
I have no spouse.
I have somebody that I love deeply.
My family is close emotionally (although most are distant in the physical sense).
I still have goals and dreams.
My belief is that there is no god nor soul.
I am optimistic to the point that it sometimes annoys people.

I would refuse medical treatment for a terminal or probable terminal condition.

I can't imagine letting my self just go. I'm a fighter, always have been. I've been hit so many times I can't even begin to count them and I don't let that change my focus. I always win in the end because I NEVER quit. EVER. It's a mindset, and I've got it for better or worse.

I wouldn't/don't see it as quitting.
Having watched some one very close to me die from a horrid disease, and watching the pain our family went through for years before and after, I can see cutting that pain in half by just eliminating the before.

 

[Amanda]

So many variables to consider.
My children are grown.
I have no spouse.
I have somebody that I love deeply.
My family is close emotionally (although most are distant in the physical sense).
I still have goals and dreams.
My belief is that there is no god nor soul.
I am optimistic to the point that it sometimes annoys people.

I would refuse medical treatment for a terminal or probable terminal condition.

I can't imagine letting my self just go. I'm a fighter, always have been. I've been hit so many times I can't even begin to count them and I don't let that change my focus. I always win in the end because I NEVER quit. EVER. It's a mindset, and I've got it for better or worse.

I wouldn't/don't see it as quitting.
Having watched some one very close to me die from a horrid disease, and watching the pain our family went through for years before and after, I can see cutting that pain in half by just eliminating the before.

I can understand where you're coming from, I've had a family member go through something like what you're talking about. I just can't see myself ever giving up. It just seems wrong on a fundamental level.

 

[alan1]

I can't imagine letting my self just go. I'm a fighter, always have been. I've been hit so many times I can't even begin to count them and I don't let that change my focus. I always win in the end because I NEVER quit. EVER. It's a mindset, and I've got it for better or worse.

I wouldn't/don't see it as quitting.
Having watched some one very close to me die from a horrid disease, and watching the pain our family went through for years before and after, I can see cutting that pain in half by just eliminating the before.

I can understand where you're coming from, I've had a family member go through something like what you're talking about. I just can't see myself ever giving up. It just seems wrong on a fundamental level.

You need to stop looking at it that way.
Acceptance doesn't necessarily mean giving up.
If you accept a job for $150k salary does that mean you gave up because you didn't get the $180k you wanted? (the answer to that would be no).

 

[AllieBaba]

People don't know what they'll do.

I think we're obligated to live out our life, whatever it is. Strength comes through adversity, and even pain. My mom used to say she didn't want to live beyond having a decent quality of life; but as I said to her....if you don't know what's going on, why on earth would you burden me with your death, when I'd rather have you around?

 

[Phoenix]

After pondering this question over a few days' time, here is my opinion (coincidentally worth each and every penny paid for it):

Refusing treatment for a terminal issue is not suicide. Suicide is defined as:

* the act of killing yourself
* Suicide (Latin suicidium, from sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of terminating one's own life.

Discontinuing or choosing not to have treatment isn't killing yourself, since you're already dying or virtually dead.


That being said, if someone I loved were terminal, I would prefer to know, if only for the fact of being able to say a proper farewell, let them know how much I valued and loved them. It would make what time there was left all the more poignant.

 

[AllieBaba]

I wouldn't/don't see it as quitting.
Having watched some one very close to me die from a horrid disease, and watching the pain our family went through for years before and after, I can see cutting that pain in half by just eliminating the before.

I can understand where you're coming from, I've had a family member go through something like what you're talking about. I just can't see myself ever giving up. It just seems wrong on a fundamental level.

You need to stop looking at it that way.
Acceptance doesn't necessarily mean giving up.
If you accept a job for $150k salary does that mean you gave up because you didn't get the $180k you wanted? (the answer to that would be no).

She doesn't "need" to do anything. From where we stand, you "need" to change the way you think.

But neither of us was arrogant enough to tell you so. You're entitled to your way of looking at things, as we are.

I'm like Amanda. I'd never give up, nor would I ever "accept" that it's best that my life be terminated...any more than I'd "accept" that it's right to terminate anyone else's life.

 

[AllieBaba]

However, there are many treatments I'd refuse.

Just as I refuse to get a mammogram or butt-oscopy for fun.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Suppose you were diagnosed with some sort of horrid disease.
Maybe it's something that is potentially curable, like some sort of cancer where treatment may cure you but is not a definite.
Maybe it's something that is incurable, but medical treatment may extend your life.

Would you consider it suicide to just accept your condition and refuse medical treatment knowing you will die in short order?

No. Suicide, by definition, requires the active taking of one's own life, not merely the acceptance that you're going to die eventually, no matter what you do.

By the way, in answer to later questions, whether or not I chose to accept treatment would depend on weighing the costs of that treatment versus the likelihood of it working. A really good chance of saving or prolonging my life is one thing. But I wouldn't want to spend what little time I have left chasing pipe dreams. Better to just make the best of what I have.

 

[alan1]

I can understand where you're coming from, I've had a family member go through something like what you're talking about. I just can't see myself ever giving up. It just seems wrong on a fundamental level.

You need to stop looking at it that way.
Acceptance doesn't necessarily mean giving up.
If you accept a job for $150k salary does that mean you gave up because you didn't get the $180k you wanted? (the answer to that would be no).

She doesn't "need" to do anything. From where we stand, you "need" to change the way you think.

But neither of us was arrogant enough to tell you so. You're entitled to your way of looking at things, as we are.

I'm like Amanda. I'd never give up, nor would I ever "accept" that it's best that my life be terminated...any more than I'd "accept" that it's right to terminate anyone else's life.

I smell contradiction in your post.

 

[Terry]

I always thought if I was very ill like lets say with Cancer and I knew I had cancer before actually going to the doctor, I wouldn't go. I wouldn't tell anyone...but I rethought that recently.

Which part did you rethink?
The not going to the doctor part?, The not telling people part? Or both?

Both! I was not feeling well for over a week. I thought I had lung cancer or something wrong with my heart. I didn't tell anyone, and didn't want to go to the doctor. Well my hub caught me cringing in pain and he called my doctor. The phone rang, it was my doctor talking to me, so I went in the next morning. Turned out I'm ok it's only something called pleurisy but what a scare I had.

It made me rethink it. Now I go to the doctor for small things but I always said to myself If I know it's really that big "C" than I rather just live out the rest of my days without sad faces, or hospitals.

 

[Korimyr the Rat]

Might as well be suicide.

Question is, what's wrong with committing suicide in the first place, especially when you're no longer pulling your own weight? I have no intentions of spending my childrens' inheritance on medical bills trying to squeeze an extra two weeks out of however many decades I'm allotted.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Might as well be suicide.

Question is, what's wrong with committing suicide in the first place, especially when you're no longer pulling your own weight? I have no intentions of spending my childrens' inheritance on medical bills trying to squeeze an extra two weeks out of however many decades I'm allotted.

I would like to think my children consider me worth more than merely the money I bring in/leave to them. I know my parents were worth more than that to me.

 

[Korimyr the Rat]

I know my father certainly was worth more than his inheritance to me, as well. But outliving his dignity and spending the last days of his life as a broken shell in a hospital bed is so much less than he deserved.

I loved my father until the very end. I did what I could to keep him comfortable while he was dying and I held his hand when he died. But it would have been better if he had died years earlier, when he could have still died as a man.

 

[Cecilie1200]

I know my father certainly was worth more than his inheritance to me, as well. But outliving his dignity and spending the last days of his life as a broken shell in a hospital bed is so much less than he deserved.

I loved my father until the very end. I did what I could to keep him comfortable while he was dying and I held his hand when he died. But it would have been better if he had died years earlier, when he could have still died as a man.

You know what I learned from my father's death? It was that dignity doesn't come from your circumstances. It comes from how you handle them. And quality of life isn't measured by how much you enjoy yourself, but by how much you add to the lives of those around you.