Suicide: An Ethical Delimna

[Faith No More]

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Perhaps I hold a different and less logical view than most of my peers. Nonetheless I believe in the power of the mind. Happiness, sadness, futility, and joy are all very real and somewhat tangible things. So, living in a way that makes YOU believe you are creating value in the lives of yourself and especially others is incredibly important. By creating the "illusion" (for lack of a better word) of importance you are, in actuality, creating value. Even if it leads to no greater good (I personally believe humans are ultimately depraved and selfish), it is still having an effect on your mind and is therefore an effort that is worth while. In other words, whatever keeps you believing that you are not meaningless is worth it, if for no other reason than, you are creating a very real happiness within yourself. Also, I do not believe that faith in God or gods is foolish. It is a mechanism that we have designed to bring ourselves happiness, even if it is wrong or misplaced. Clearly I do not have all the answers and you are welcome to voice your disagreements and pose questions to me. One of the hardest things about figuring personal beliefs out is thinking of things to question and, on top of that, actually thinking out a coherent response.

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Did you seriously compare suicide to pedophilia and murder? One causes real harm and the other causes hurt feelings. Hurting someone's feelings is only unethical if you do it intentionally. Not if it happens as a side effect of something you did to save yourself.

Hey, do you think it's unethical to commit suicide if you have a disease that causes excruciating pain and have been given 5 years to live in pain?

I firmly believe the best thing people can do is take care of themselves. I cannot help anyone if I do not first help myself. So, in that way, one should not take other peoples' feelings into consideration before suicide. However, as a person who has been mentally scarred by another's suicide, I must say it is hard. It is so so hard and I could never imagine putting another through that. Western nations have very much become individualist societies, which has their merits. Even so we often neglect the impact every action we do has on everybody else and it is sad. (I'm not sure what this means when it comes to taking one's life).
It is selfish to take one's own life but it is also selfish to do anything. Everything you do is selfish but that is not necessarily a bad thing. When it comes down to it, everyone who helps others, does it because it makes them feel better. But is that a bad thing? I do not think so. The point is it is a very complicated question and I do not have the answer. Although I would like to say I fully support euthanasia; however, I do not have the knowledge nor the patience to actually suggest a plan of action that would be safe and free of fraud.

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The reasons behind suicide can go well beyond being able to find meaning in life. It ultimately comes down whether or not the quality of your existence is good enough to keep maintaining it. Sometimes the mental anguish can wear you down to the point where your only goal is to make it go away, even if that means taking the easy road out. When I tried to commit suicide, I didn't really want to die. I truly desired to live, but with a life free of pain. At that point however, I no longer saw that as a possibility. My mental suffering had beaten me down so badly and sucked me of all my will to fight against it that I just wanted to be free of it, no matter what the cost.

There many different reasons people commit suicide, so that makes approaching the issue somewhat tricky. I think the best way to attack is it at a fundamental level by creating emotional stability. That comes from properly developing emotional bonds when we're children, especially in the first five years. Much of how our brain functions as adults is determined in these early stages, so if we want address complex emotional issues, we have to evaluate how we treat children both culturally and individually.