Suicide: An Ethical Delimna

[bennyboy]

Okay, there's a start. Could you give concrete examples?

Well, if I eat at a fancy restaurant, or throw my leftover food away, or buy new clothes, or own an expensive sports car, or a million other harmless, mundane, activities that people sometimes like to enjoy, and I'm conscious of millions of homeless and hungry men, women, and children, am I being unethical? Defining unethical behavior as selfishness with disregard for others is pretty damning for most self-gratifying pleasures we partake in.

Yes, this is a bit of a sticky wicket, isn't it? On the one hand, I think you could see the excesses of the Western world as highly unethical (and I'm sure people all over the world do see it that way). You have people 400lb plus eating steak dinners every night, when the 6000 calories they take in a day could support about 3 poor people. And if you look at it economically, a single $50 steak dinner could provide for an entire family for a week. Certainly, I think a strong ethical code should involve some degree of self-moderation, if not strict asceticism.

On the other hand, many poor people live in cultures whose ethics do not match ours. Treatment of women and children, for example, is pretty poor in Africa, India, and parts of Asia. Is it ethical to promote the strengthening of those cultures? I'm not sure.

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My other question is, what real value is your way of viewing ethics? What practical purpose does that system have?

The consideration of others in deciding on behaviors could mediate some of those behaviors. I'm sure there are many borderline suicide cases where those who care about their families and friends either avoid or delay their suicide-- Robin Williams being a good example. I'm sorry he killed himself, but he did a great good for many people-- including encouraging threads like this where we challenge each other to think about the ramifications of an act like that.

So in short, I think an ethical system could prevent some suicides, possibly long enough for a person to outgrow some of the issues that make life hard to live.