Suicide

[rupol2000]

Suicide is society's fault. Society has no right to allow anyone to do this.

 

[Likkmee]

Suicide is slow with liquor.
Take a bottle, drown your sorrows,let it wash away tomorrows.

 

[BackAgain]

As I have said it can be argued that everything people do is selfish in some way.

Why is it any different from other risky behavior that can result in death?

Is it selfish for a man with kids to be a stuntman, or a NASCAR driver?

A risky choice is one thing if a guy has skills and can make a living to support his family with those skills. By stark contrast: there is suicide which involves no risk. Just certainty.

Your argument is a bit off. My view is that (with the exception of the risk that there is a God who disapproves of snuffing out one’s own life), if a person has come to a point where living is simply too painful, the decision to end life is a personal matter. That doesn’t change the fact that it is selfish.

 

[Blues Man]

What? You thought I was on the prowl across America and some anti-suicide crusader? Eh,.. NO. We all have our spheres of influence. Mine is mostly close to my home. If you aren't planning to do it in my presence, you are probably safe from my interference. Besides, I don't know you and won't actually miss you. Just do yourself somewhere else.

You said you had the right to forcibly stop a person from committing suicide. You made no other qualifying statements.

 

[Blues Man]

A risky choice is one thing if a guy has skills and can make a living to support his family with those skills. By stark contrast: there is suicide which involves no risk. Just certainty.

Your argument is a bit off. My view is that (with the exception of the risk that there is a God who disapproves of snuffing out one’s own life), if a person has come to a point where living is simply too painful, the decision to end life is a personal matter. That doesn’t change the fact that it is selfish.

Suicide is no more selfish an act than thousands of other acts committed by humans

 

[Blues Man]

The question of whether somebody is of sound mind comes into play

But except for those that are terminally ill it is assumed that anyone who wants to commit suicide is not of sound mind.

I don't agree with that assessment

 

[Blues Man]

Suicide is society's fault. Society has no right to allow anyone to do this.

Society doesn't trump the individual making choices for himself that involve no one else

 

[BackAgain]

Suicide is no more selfish an act than thousands of other acts committed by humans

Of course it is. But the measure of how selfish it is remains beside the point.

 

[Blues Man]

Of course it is. But the measure of how selfish it is remains beside the point.

I disagree.

A person's life is his own to do with as he sees fit. That is true whether or not he has a family.

And it obviously does matter how selfish it is because as I said people do all kinds of selfish things so why should suicide be any worse than any of those other selfish things?

 

[Slade3200]

But except for those that are terminally ill it is assumed that anyone who wants to commit suicide is not of sound mind.

I don't agree with that assessment

Agreed… that’s where the conversation get cloudy. Who determines whether somebody is of sound mind?

 

[Blues Man]

Agreed… that’s where the conversation get cloudy. Who determines whether somebody is of sound mind?

No one can really stop a person from committing suicide if they have decided to.

So it doesn't matter if anyone judges that person to be of sound mind.

 

[task0778]

What if a person is terminally ill with a debilitating disease that takes a long time to end, and their spouse is their primary caregiver? Would it be selfish to commit suicide to preclude him/her from the pain and expense of watching their loved one waste away? I wonder. Maybe we shouldn't be too quick to judge.

Would such a person be a coward? Maybe we shouldn't be too quick to judge.

Many suicides are due to depression, which I think too many people dismiss as no big deal. Maybe we should walk a mile in those shoes, not the mildly depressed but those in a far worse state. Maybe we shouldn't be too quick to judge.

I believe that each of us has the right to choose suicide. As a society, we ought to be doing more to help those depressed people who need it, before it gets to the point of suicide. And I think assisted suicide ought to be a possibility for those in my first case.

 

[BackAgain]

I disagree.

A person's life is his own to do with as he sees fit. That is true whether or not he has a family.

And it obviously does matter how selfish it is because as I said people do all kinds of selfish things so why should suicide be any worse than any of those other selfish things?

I know you disagree. That’s ok. You have a right to be wrong and muddled in your thinking.

When you are wrong, as you were, there is no pressing need to remind anyone of what you said. Repeating it doesn’t convert error into accuracy.

It is selfish to steal money from your mom’s purse. It is vastly more selfish to deprive a loved one forever of something that cannot be replaced. If you steal mom’s money, you disappoint her. If you kill yourself, you break her heart.

 

[Blues Man]

I know you disagree. That’s ok. You have a right to be wrong and muddled in your thinking.

When you are wrong, as you were, there is no pressing need to remind anyone of what you said. Repeating it doesn’t convert error into accuracy.

It is selfish to steal money from your mom’s purse. It is vastly more selfish to deprive a loved one forever of something that cannot be replaced. If you steal mom’s money, you disappoint her. If you kill yourself, you break her heart.

People move on after loss it's how we cope with it.

Death is part of life. Death by suicide is no less heart breaking than death by accident or disease.

 

[Blues Man]

What if a person is terminally ill with a debilitating disease that takes a long time to end, and their spouse is their primary caregiver? Would it be selfish to commit suicide to preclude him/her from the pain and expense of watching their loved one waste away? I wonder. Maybe we shouldn't be too quick to judge.

Would such a person be a coward? Maybe we shouldn't be too quick to judge.

Many suicides are due to depression, which I think too many people dismiss as no big deal. Maybe we should walk a mile in those shoes, not the mildly depressed but those in a far worse state. Maybe we shouldn't be too quick to judge.

I believe that each of us has the right to choose suicide. As a society, we ought to be doing more to help those depressed people who need it, before it gets to the point of suicide. And I think assisted suicide ought to be a possibility for those in my first case.

The terminally ill are I think in a separate category and we are as a society coming to realize that suicide in those cases is understandable. The idea of forcing a terminal patient to live in excruciating pain for an indeterminate amount of time is abhorrent and is akin to torture.

 

[task0778]

Death by suicide is no less heart breaking than death by accident or disease.

I don't know about that. I don't have a personal experience of a suicide, but I would think that most people would understand that there's nothing they could have done about a death by accident, but the same cannot be said for a suicide. Yes, both are heart-breaking, but a suicide leaves the survivors with questions and doubts about how they missed the signs and what could they have done or what did they do that contributed to the cause of the suicide. A suicide could leave some people with a boatload of guilt that they otherwise might not feel.

 

[BackAgain]

People move on after loss it's how we cope with it.

Death is part of life. Death by suicide is no less heart breaking than death by accident or disease.

Yes it is. On a variety of levels.

 

[Blues Man]

I don't know about that. I don't have a personal experience of a suicide, but I would think that most people would understand that there's nothing they could have done about a death by accident, but the same cannot be said for a suicide. Yes, both are heart-breaking, but a suicide leaves the survivors with questions and doubts about how they missed the signs and what could they have done or what did they do that contributed to the cause of the suicide. A suicide could leave some people with a boatload of guilt that they otherwise might not feel.

There is nothing anyone can do to stop a person who has decided to commit suicide.

The thing is people who are serious about it don't tell anyone and they tend to be successful. Many suicide attempts are not actual attempts at suicide but are meant to seek attention. This is one of the many gray areas of suicide.

 

[Blues Man]

Yes it is. On a variety of levels.

Again I disagree.

 

[Slade3200]

No one can really stop a person from committing suicide if they have decided to.

So it doesn't matter if anyone judges that person to be of sound mind.

Agreed. The question would be if it would be leagal to proved resources and aid for a more comfortable passing