Suicide: An Ethical Delimna

[bennyboy]

I disagree with the idea that suicide is an individual decision. A person's parents have invested very much time and effort in raising the person. The government has provided schooling, healthcare and other services.

Does this oblige a person to continue living?

People are not obliged to behave ethically. But I think having received help from others, but not to be willing to stick around and at least do as much good as one has received, is unethical in my view.

A self-centered teen will often declare "I didn't ASK to be born. I didn't want to go to stupid old school anyway. Why do I owe anything to anyone?" I disagree with this sentiment, because all those abstracts represent a real usage of resources: food, clean water, etc. as well as indirect damage, like the destruction of a small forest in order to make paper for the person's lifetime of reading and toiletries.

Yeah, but the argument that they should continue to live, against their will, and cause more of this incidental damage because they've already caused some, is irrational.

No it's not. If you've made a conscious decision to die, your life is disposable. There are a great many things that you could do in that state, including a less-than-zero impact lifestyle.

Nobody asked to be alive, that is true. Nevertheless, I think it's pretty shitty to dine and dash. If one's life is to be thrown away, why not spend a couple years planting trees, or working with needy kids or something? Why just flip a giant bird to the good that could be done if one wasn't such a selfish, childish prick?

It's much more selfish to shame a person who wants to die (not to mention, the best way to approach a suicidal person if you want to reinforce the lack of self-worth that drives so many people to it) because you are offended by the fact that they don't see the same reasons you do to keep living.

Who said I'm offended? I'm making the argument that suicide is intrinsically selfish, and that intrinsically selfish actions, when they negatively affect the greater good, are unethical.

Now, if someone no longer CAN contribute to the greater good (say they are lying in bed with terminal cancer), that's a very different issue. Then you're just talking about unnecessary suffering.

Homophobes hate homosexuals because they were taught to find it icky and unnatural. Arguing against suicide from a position of "because I don't like it" doesn't have the hate element, but the moral ground is similar in all other respects.

That's a weird analogy on at least two levels: first of all I didn't say I hate people who want to kill themselves, or that my reason for taking a position against suicide was because I don't like it. Second, what the hell does homosexuality have to do with a behavior which is intrinsically selfish?

---

I don't know....when I read benny's comment I thought it sounded pretty hateful.

I don't really hate people who want to kill themselves-- I hate the quality of weakness or despair that allows people with a chance at a good life to throw it away because they are feeling depressed or thinking irrationally. My mother was suicidal-- should I have, at the age of 4 or 5, supported her "right" to end her life? I myself have contemplated suicide. Should I disregard my childrens' best interests if I decide I've had enough of this world?