Suicide......your thoughts

[Draymire]

Well said, or should i say typed.
I agree completely after all its your life, your choice not mine.

[insomaniacal]

I agree with you on the point of suicide due to medical reasons, there comes a point where there isn't a purpose in drawing out a certain long and painful death.

However, selling "suicide kits" I just can't agree with. True, you can practically make your own (how hard is it to just overdose?), but that's beside the point. Most people take their own lives for reasons that could be easily mended. I agree that it is your body, but saying humans are selfish because we disallow suicide isn't correct at all. Isn't it just as selfish to end your own life because you can't deal with a few problems, thereby causing all your friends/loved ones a huge amount of pain? There's no reason to make suicide easier than it already is.

[Goatboy]

However, selling "suicide kits" I just can't agree with. True, you can practically make your own (how hard is it to just overdose?), but that's beside the point. Most people take their own lives for reasons that could be easily mended. I agree that it is your body, but saying humans are selfish because we disallow suicide isn't correct at all. Isn't it just as selfish to end your own life because you can't deal with a few problems, thereby causing all your friends/loved ones a huge amount of pain? There's no reason to make suicide easier than it already is.

I am glad you disagree. I realize my view is extremely controversial, but I have thought for a long time about this issue.

As far as calling it "easier" perhaps I wasn't clear on that. I don't think giving an EasyDeath© kit (I love Gallows Humor) to every emo kid that comes in is responsible. I do, however, think that some people have a legitimate reason to want to die. Those people should be able to do so in a pain-free way.

[Defience]

If you attempt suicide or seriously talk about hurting or killing yourself in the state of Pennsylvania you are taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. If its decided that you do pose a threat to yourself or others then you are involuntarily committed for a minimum of 72 hrs, so the type of help and extent of help you need can be worked out. That may include antidepressants and counseling but there aren't any fines imposed. The goal is to encourage the individual to accept treatment and to realize that life is worth living. So in a sense, you could consider the attempt 'illegal', just not criminal.

I personally feel sorry for people that take their own lives (with the exception of suicide bombers), I can only imagine the dark lonely places their minds must have been in to believe they are better off dead.

[insomaniacal]

[quote="Goatboy"sue]
As far as calling it "easier" perhaps I wasn't clear on that. I don't think giving an EasyDeath© kit (I love Gallows Humor) to every emo kid that comes in is responsible. I do, however, think that some people have a legitimate reason to want to die. Those people should be able to do so in a pain-free way.[/quote]

It already is fairly easy to kill yourself in a painfree way, especially with books like "The Peaceful Pill" being extremely easily available online. I think people should be treated in such a way that they will begin to see a point to life, because ultimately, there's nothing stopping you from killing yourself as it is. Doing so in a painless manner is pretty much their own choice.

[Defience]

Moving this to Ethics for two reasons:

1.) It belongs there
2.) Some people are sensitive to this, and General is a popular board

Agreed.

[RoyalFool]

The ownership of your own life can not be determined by religion or the law but by what you believe so their are many answers and beleive’s about suicide but this is mine, my beleiveis that Suicide as long as not in the harm of others or just to get away from a trouble that you havn't faced is a crime against your self, but suicide because you cant move or you cant keep a resonable quality of life is justified as long as you make your peace with the world, life and your family and freinds

RoyalFool

[sandsphinx]

I'm 16, imagine what it is like for a 16 year old to have a best friend who tried to commit suicide multiple times, imagine how selfish and confused that boy must have been to take his own life because his life wasn't working out. This boy had a house, a family, obligations, a girlfriend, his suicide attempts were completely acts of insolence. This is my view on suicide:

Suicide in a whole is selfish, is cowardly, is pathetic, and is highly highly happening too often. The fact that someone can feel so helpless, so lonely, so bad that he/she has to take there own life makes me question wether we are in fact an intelligent race. This whole idea that suicide is a solution to terminal cancer baffles me, surely if you had cancer you would want to spend *more* time on this Earth.

I feel that death should occur naturally, be it diseases, or old age, or accidentally. That is natural, even diseases are natural. Diseases are a product of this Earth, and if we die by that disease we are dying truly naturally. We all die at some point, and there is always going to be a time where we are pushed to the limits. But for me to sit there and see a friend of *that* age commit suicide twice really upsets me.

Humans have created great things, we have struggled and survived in times where the odds have been against us. Millions of years our race has survived. And we have enhanced our technology, knowledge and faith to a considerable extent. It's crazy to think that the human race has accomplished all of that, but we have not yet learnt to embrace others, or embrace ourselves.

[thetan]

Life is nothing but a series of chemical equations starting at ejaculation and ending abruptly at death.

Mankind is probably one of the only species on earth that becomes aware of the fact that they will one day die at a very early age. I'm not afraid to die and i don't think any one should truly fear death.

However, my views on suicide remain largely fork()'d. When i was 12 yrs old my best friend was found dead in his closet by his mother. He hung himself with a karate belt. Months passed and his father was found dead in a hotel 6, he too took his life. Years passed and i slowly watched this family that i grew up very close to fall apart even further. The eldest daughter ditched the house around 16, became addicted to meth, got into prostitution ended up pregnant and i haven't seen her for ~5 yrs now. The second youngest daughter is now 20 years old and married to a 32 year old junky. The mother has been in and out of crazy houses multiple times for various reasons. I try to visit my old friends grave at least once a year, but i've missed a couple of times :-/ I'd always wonder "how would things be different if he didn't do it? would his family be the family that i knew growing up? would it still be a family?".

That being said, i don't think that /all/ suicides are completely selfless. I mean, i've had my lows in life but i've always had my outlets (people from other forums might know my life story but i'm not going to repeat it all again here.). Once in a while you will get the case of the couple that's been wed for 50 years and one of the spouses die of natural reasons. Who am i to tell that individual he has to spend the rest of his life sad and alone, never to see his spouse again? Probably not the best example i know, but who am I or any of us to force any one else to live a life they can no longer bear?

</random thoughts - ramblings>

[sanddbox]

crazy to think that the human race has accomplished all of that, but we have not yet learnt to embrace others, or embrace ourselves.

I don't entirely agree with such a negative view of the human race. The majority of us aren't screwed up - and it's not like we haven't 'learned to embrace others'. However, there are people out there who aren't mentally healthy, and bad things end up because of it.

What are we more likely to hear about and remember? A suicide or a man who performs CPR on an elderly man suffering from a heart attack?