Suicide

[Faith No More]

Well, we neither have killed ourselves, so truth be told, you and I equally haven't walked that walk, and you know as little about it as I do.

Your answer, too, ignores the point I'm making. Ironically, I'll say that just because you're ignoring my point doesn't mean it isn't there. It only means you're ignoring it.

Simply because the suicide doesn't think that the moral dimension of their act is worthy of consideration, due to their own pain, that does not mean that that moral dimension doesn't exist.  It only means that they cannot or will not address it.

I'm not trying to convince a suicidal person.  I'm trying to have a conversation with you.

If a person cannot comprehend the morality of their actions, that relieves them of responsibility.  That's why we let people plead not guilty by reason of mental defect in our court systems.

Judi is absolutely right that the pain that may be caused by a suicide doesn't register to the person contemplating it.  I'm as close as you can get to being a living suicide.  I made an 100% serious attempt that landed me involuntarily hospitalized by the courts.  What I felt after I woke up alive was bitter anger and disappointment, but I also felt a lot of guilt.  It wasn't until my girlfriend came over to my house and I realized she could have been the one to find me dead that the guilt over the pain I could have caused sunk in.

All I could see was my own pain, and I was consumed with trying to escape it.  It clouded my mind to the point where even death was preferrable, and I all I could think about was making my suffering end.  When I finally came to the conclusion that I had to die to end the pain, the consequences of that choice never crossed my mind.  I was so blinded my depression that all I couldn't even contemplate the pain my death my cause.  It didn't register in my mind at all.  

Sure, suicide causes as much if not more pain as it can end, but to call it an immoral act because of that fails to take into account the mindset of the person contemplating taking their life.  A person can reach the point that the pain doesn't allow them to think straight, and I think that means that suicide not an inherently immoral act.