Suicide: An Ethical Delimna

[bennyboy]

I'm sorry, lust, gluttony, laziness? I didn't realize you were religious. We will never come to an agreement on this because I think you have a skewed sense of morality and you probably think I do too.

I'm not. My point is that the actions we consider harmful to the self or others are ALL mediated by brain chemistry. They all involve influences beyond the direct agency of a consious person.

Regardless of how it may or may not affect other people, no one else has any right to claim ownership of my life. So killing myself doesn't fit with your analogy at all.

Why do people keep shifting the moral burden away from the one actually contemplating the act? Suicide is a violent act, and the person committing the act knows that they will leave victims behind. They have chosen to commit the act anyway, because the cessation of their own pain is more important to them than the prevention of suffering in others.

If knowingly acting in a way that will cause harm to others isn't unethical, then ethics is a meaningless term.