Will Suicide Ever Be Globally Accepted?

[CoolHwip]

I was just watching futurama where fry and bender are in the suicide booth and wondered do you ever think a time will come where you're allowed to kill yourself with no questions asked or no mental health checks etc. Where you could just wake up one morning and think "I think i'll kill myself today" and then do it and not have no one stop you or talk you out of it?

How would this even work? What age limits would you impose? What if the person is mentally ill, drunk or drugged up or maybe just angry, hurt, sad or embarrassed? Should they be allowed to kill themselves even though it could be a hasty decision which they might regret the next day had they not went through with it?

What is the global daily suicide rate now and how much would it change if people were allowed to kill themselves?

Would you like this to be a reality? Should we be allowed to kill ourselves if we want to?

[jim360]

No, I wouldn't, and in general no, we shouldn't, although there are some specific cases where death may well be the only way to deal with something. Such cases are rare, but, apparently,

[jim360]

I hate my computer sometimes, a little pressure on that mousepad and it does all sorts of stuff I didn't want to. Like highlight a huge amount of text and delete it.

Anyway....

Such cases are rare but, apparently, increasing in number. Also it seems that in the Western World, the conditions that mean you have a "quality of life" worth living on for are set rather higher than elsewhere. At the moment the cases are exceptional, and maybe I'm exaggerating a tad, but there never used to be this case that it was the "moral thing to do" to kill someone out of kindness. When did that start happening? When we started living longer, and in a healthier environment, that meant that people lived beyond what they were "supposed to", perhaps?

Suicide as a normal day-to-day activity seems something we'd want to avoid. Most people who want to kill themselves, or who want to day, need help to find the joy in life again, and shouldn't be allowed to kill themselves just like that.

[woofgang]

Oh Jim, here we are back to personal choice again.....I agree it's never morally right to kill somebody, but to assist them in their choice or allow them to choose to do it is different. I do accept the depressive illness argument to a degree but even there there must be some personal choice for adults

[wildwood]

What is the law going to do if you killed yourself, put your coffin in a jail cell?

It will never be globally accepted as we can't even live in peace. I support assisted suicides for unfortunate people who are in agony and have sensible support. We help animals in terminal pain illness, but not humans.

[jno]

wildwood, if it's illegal then although you can't prosecute the offender (assuming it's actually worked, of course, which it mightn't) you can charge others with aiding and abetting.

I think that's okay. If you're prepared to help someone kill themselves you should be prepared to explain yourself in a court of law. It's possible not all such aiders and abetters are acting from the purest of motives, and it's proper that the law should check.

[jim360]

The thing about personal choice is that, well, it's personal, and is affected inevitably by your state of mind. I fundamentally refuse to accept that, except in cases of unbearable and continual physical pain, anyone who wishes to die is in a right state of mind. Even then it's hard for me to imagine, but I'll reserve judgement on that until I ever have to deal with it personally.

This question wasn't really about those special cases, but about the idea in general. Should anyway be able to kill themselves unchecked and unchallenged? Well, at some level they are, I suppose. I'm sure if I put my mind to it the knives a few feet behind me could be fairly effective, and no-one could stop me. I wouldn't actually do it, or at least I hope not.

Suicide in general, though, from those people who have what are fixable problems, is just, well, something that should be stopped if possible. Many, most, of those who kill themselves did have friends, family, neighbours who will miss them and be affected by their death. Certainly those who kill themselves in public ways affect deeply all who witnessed it. It is, I think, a deeply troubling and, well, selfish act. Those who must live on in the knowledge that a loved one died, and that it need not have happened, may never get over it properly.

So yes, it should if possible be stopped. And if ever someone wants to commit suicide, you'd better be sure they have absolutely no other choice, no reason to live on, before you even think of helping them to do it.

[woofgang]

I agree that there is a thoughtlessness about people who for instance throw themselves in front of trains but I think that in general they are too far gone in their mental pain to be described as selfish

'No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief.'
BY GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief,
More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring.
Comforter, where, where is your comforting?
Mary, mother of us, where is your relief?
My cries heave, herds-long; huddle in a main, a chief
Woe, wórld-sorrow; on an áge-old anvil wince and sing —
Then lull, then leave off. Fury had shrieked 'No ling-
ering! Let me be fell: force I must be brief."'

O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall
Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap
May who ne'er hung there. Nor does long our small
Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep,
Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all
Life death does end and each day dies with sleep.

[Iluvspikey]

If I am so ill and there's no alternative, then I say yes, a person should be allowed to say enough is enough, you wouldn't treat a dog the way some humans get treated

[missnemesis]

I don't think it will ever be 'accepted' as such however I don't think that it is up to others to decide whether someone takes their own life; it is THEIR OWN life after all.

It may not be your/our or my way out of a problem but we have no right to demand that others live through what may be for them an unbearable situation.

Jim you said "Many, most, of those who kill themselves did have friends, family, neighbours who will miss them and be affected by their death."

This is of course true but don't you think that is in itself an incredibly selfish way to look at things? What makes the people who are left behinds grief more important that the suicidee's (as it were) need for a release from the pain and or anguish they are going through?