Suicide: An Ethical Delimna

[TreeSapNest]

Thank you for those answers.

On the topic of chemical imbalance, it's probable. But if it's probable, medicine should have been the probable remedy, which it wasn't. So that being said, I don't want to enable myself. There are tons of people like me who have committed suicide, and many like me that haven't. But perhaps things aren't so black and white. But just the fact that others deal with what I have and more survive and some have extremely beautiful lives is enough for me to think that regardless of chemical issues in the brain...recovery has to be possible...for anyone.

Need something to believe in? I have one for you and you're gonna like it.

No moral to save you. No god, no medicine. No love. Just you.

Your life is in your hands now, and no one else's. You have become the very most important thing in your life! You have! - something you can never lose nor have taken from you. Grab hold of it!

[TheRealJoeFish]

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus is an essay that looks at suicide philosophically. Have you read it? I "read" it back in college but barely recall what it says, other than (I think) starting out with the question "life is absurd and meaningless, so should we just kill ourselves?" and ending up saying, I think, that, no, we shouldn't, and should rather strive against the absurd or something like that. I'm sure I botched that synopsis, so someone else can fill in the details while I dig up my copy and actually read it this time.

[Losty]

I don't think suicide is immoral at all, but you'll never get the chance to enjoy your life if you're dead. When I had thoughts about suicide I thought of my children and how much I would hate to hurt them. When those thoughts became unbearable I checked myself into a clinic and got some help. Life...well, life kind of really does suck. The little things that make you smile still make it worth it in my opinion.

[Mystic]

You have to overcome with love of life and appreciate the good in it. Don't expect too much from life, appreciate what you get from it. Like Losty said the little things that make you smile make it worth it.

[Strider]

I don't believe there is anything inherently immoral about suicide, but there are plenty of reasons to not take this ultimate action:

- Oftentimes, the emotional pain one is experiencing is temporary and the considered solution (suicide) is permanent.
- The pain and anguish inflicted upon family members and friends.
- Suicide can seem more preferable to facing serious issues, but that doesn't make it a better option.
- You get one chance to live. Even if my life sucks (which I feel it does a lot), I know I'm going to have an orgasm or eat a cookie every now and again. Little things matter.

As an aside, I'm completely supportive of assisted suicide for people with terminal illnesses. People with such illnesses will suffer physically and ultimately die so the notion and acceptableness of suicide changes significantly.

[Minimalist]

Depends on culture.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/s...y-20141018

a 37-year-old government official who was in charge of safety measures for the event was found dead around 7 a.m. local time in an apparent suicide after being questioned by police regarding the incident. A police inspector revealed that the man jumped from a 10-story building after writing a short note, "I am sorry for the dead victims. Please take good care of my children."

[FatAndFaithless]

At least something that we can agree on here (I would assume, anyway) is that no matter one's feelings or stances on the morality or legality of suicide, the worst way to talk about it especially to those suffering from mental distress or illness to the point where suicide seems viable, is to attach some guilt-tripped threat veiled in compassion about how God owns your body and soul or that it would be a sin against him, that could make you wind up in hell.

The way to help someone think their way out of suicide isn't to make the afterlife seem so much worse to scare them out of it, it's to make their life now worth living. It's something that I constantly see theists of all stripes do and it pisses me right the fuck off.

[Losty]

Depends on culture.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/s...y-20141018

a 37-year-old government official who was in charge of safety measures for the event was found dead around 7 a.m. local time in an apparent suicide after being questioned by police regarding the incident. A police inspector revealed that the man jumped from a 10-story building after writing a short note, "I am sorry for the dead victims. Please take good care of my children."

That is just so.... :'( </3

[Violet]

Against it... hard to say. Like, say you're working on a project with a couple of people, and you off yourself a week before the presentation without having compiled your part of the project yet... well yeah: that'd be a pretty shitty thing for you to do. But no less shitty than not doing any of the work in the first place and especially lying about how it was coming along.

The question of 'who you'll hurt if you leave behind' has the balancing factor of 'who are you hurting by staying alive'? The best way to do it without hurting anybody at all is to quietly distance yourself from everyone, then disappear, then end it.

I mean, life might turn around for some people. Sure... it really might. It probably won't, and it'll surely take you one hell of a lot of effort and a good spot of luck to do it... but it could happen.

[Ravenshire]

I've never understood the taboo on suicide. Nobody sought my consent in bringing me into this world. Why should anyone be able to stop me from leaving it?

I understand that there are people who could be hurt by a suicide. There are also those who could be helped. My mom was killed by terminal cancer years ago while living in the only state in the U.S. to allow physician assisted suicide. Despite voting for the law, my mother chose to follow her delusions to their excruciatingly painful conclusion. Would I have missed my mom more had she decided to end her suffering earlier? I really doubt it. Would my memories of her be better for never having seen her in that type of pain? Definitely!

I can certainly see situations where I would at least consider suicide and if I'm ever stricken with a terminal illness that causes the kind of pain my mother endured, I'll be moving to Oregon so that my loved ones can be present when I opt out of the suffering.

What's truly heinous about the suicide taboo is that, in most jurisdictions, you cannot even attend the suicide of a loved one without the danger of being indicted on criminal charged up to and including pre-meditated murder. But, we can go and watch people so far gone they are unable to interact with those around them as they die in agony.