Suicide
 

Should suicide be legal?
Should assisted suicide be legal?
What about when the person has fatal disease?
How about as an option to life in prison or institutionalization?

That's a trick question.

Suicide isn't illegal to begin with.

Psychiatric commitment is a civil, not criminal process.

People don't receive any criminal charges for making attempts on their own lives that do not endanger others — for example murder-suicide, or attempts which directly endanger someone else, like cases in which the suicidal person attempts to set off a natural gas explosion and they live in an apartment or other multi-family dwelling.

only partially true wolf...
 

The law says that one may not assist OR ATTEMPT to commit suicide. Sucessful attempts are not criminal due to the obvious fact that the "criminal" is already dead.

An attempt that does not result in death becomes a civil matter at the order of a judge, who tends to get the case first. He sends the headache to YOU, and you get to prepare another rubber room. Or something like that.

Having counselled several people in much the same manner as that linked website from the other thread whose name escapes me at present, I know how it goes and what happens after. My experience is mostly limited to the terminally ill, true, but then again there was one old woman who had somehow gotten our phone number and called threatening suicide but who really just wanted someone to talk to. :(

I feel sorry for her and sometimes wonder whatever happened to her. Did she ever take my advice to go out and play Bingo or join a senior community center? I may never know.

Brian

Suicide? Ain't nobody's business but your own.

This question is as unanswerable as whether abortions should be legal. There are too many differing moral stances, too many possible circumstances.

There are times when suicide is a selfless act. For instance, a person who is only kept alive on life support, who has no quality of life and only downhill ahead of them... if such a person chooses to unburden their loved ones from the enormous medical bills, how is that wrong? The misery is over for the dying, the mountains of medical bills stop growing, and the loved ones are free to grieve.

As far as whether it should be allowed in circumsances where someone is healthy but suicidally unhappy, that's a tricky one. One might argue that the decision to live or die is the purest form of freedom. Just because most people have an overwhelming sense of self-preservation, does that mean that it is our place to try to impose such a tendency on those who lack it? Are we entitled to the right to choose our time of death?

Personally, I think suicide for medical reasons should be available legally. As far as suicide for personal reasons, only if it puts no other people in danger. From a moral standpoint though, I feel suicide is wrong outside of cases of terminally ill patients. But that's just me.

The question is not if you approve or not. Just whether the cops should interfere.
I don't care if a suicide bomber blows him/her self up as long as they don't take anyone else (or their property) with them. Others would stop the idiot if they could, on moral grounds.

I think you misunderstand my point... the "unanswerable" question I refer to isn't whether or not I approve, but whether or not it should really be legal. Laws are supposed to reflect the values of the majority, but this question is so complex and there are so many very strong opinions about it that no matter which way the law goes, a lot of people will be unhappy about it. Hence my reference to laws concerning abortions... almost everybody feels very strongly about it one way or the other, and there is no satisfactory compromise. It is almost impossible to contruct effective laws about such things, because upholding the laws, whichever way they go, means pissing off half the population.

OK, I follow your reasoning. That being the case then shouldn't they make no law and leave it up to the indivdual. Or do you think that would still piss off the half of the population that love to impose their beliefs on everyone.

That isn't quite how it goes down in California. In here, they get you medical attention (obviously) then you are relegated to 72 hours of psychiatric observation. After the 72 hours, they will release you if they feel you are no longer a danger to yourself or others. As for it being a civil matter or a judge getting involved, according to the local police, that doesn't happen. Perhaps the laws are different out here on the left coast.

Yes, I believe people deserve to die the death they choose, however, under two conditions:

1) They harm no others (obviously)
2) They can fully appreciate the consiquences of their actions. I think that a lot of depressed people want to die on a very gut level, but can't see any further than their depression. Just my uneducated opinion.

Believe me, there is nothing further than your depression. It's not like the flu. It totally consumes you and your life and it's not going to get better even if you understand what's happening.:(

I used to take Prozac but the Doctor took it away.
He said "Losers aren't supposed to be happy".:(

I'm just wholeheartedly curious as to when, how, or what exactly gives anyone else, besides the person that lives that life, the right to speak out to them, or at them. Freedom flows through my veins, so should it not be my right to take my life if I deem it unnecessary to mine own happiness? Such a plethora of dreadful prescribtions we all have for those that have to walk, to breath, to live, every single of their days, with themselves, by themselves, surrounded or otherwise. What gives us (you and i) that priviledge? Because we (yes you and i) claim the right to tell others exactly when we deem them a tad bit self destructive? Arent we all self destructive in some form or other? At some time or other? Mostly by accident, mostly by happenstance. Regardless of that I make no terrible claim to say I can understand anyone at all, barely myself on most rather lucid days. So then, how could I, even if its supposedly for the welfare of those that are not healthy, in mind, perhaps even in body? I decide my fate, and would hold it high in my heart, if i perhaps am given a choice in my own ending. Suicide? Hrmm, ask a buddhist.

No well the cops dont know that!

They always try to stop someone from doing this..... WHY??

If someone doesnt wanna be on this hell hole anymore,WHY FORCE THEM TO STAY???

Its no ones business but thier own!!!!!!!!!!

Seems to me that the well to do are the ones most likely to choose suicide. I don't hear about poor folks taking their life.

tarheel

I've read that in a lot of places, ATTEMPTED suicide is illegal. Gives new meaning to "it's only illegal if they catch you."

The 'Suicide Divide' as I understand it is primarily a White People Activity. Astonishingly, statistics show that the group least likely to commit suicide in the USA are extremely poor black women.

I believe that forcing someone to remain alive against their will is unethical. Of course there are exceptions--there always are--but if someone has a medical condition or no family or other problems that bad, let them decide if they want to go or stay. This is the opinion, however, of someone who has never had a family member (that I've been told about) or close friend take their own life. One neighbor, a while back, but again...he had reasons. Income halved, feet getting necrotic from diabetes-related circulation problems, ex-wife about to sue him for most of what he had left, not enough money for a decent apartment even before his income got halved...yeah, he had reasons.

I think it should be illegal for the decision to live or die to be taken away from the terminally ill. Everyone else should at least have to pretend to want help at least once, but I think terminal medical diagnosis should be a qualifier to make up one's own mind.

Regarding folks who are on life support...

A lot of folks have lost the ability to distinguish "quality of life" from "length of time lived". My mom and I talked about life support years ago and she has a firm rule: If there is no chance of recovery, pull the plug. If she is likely to recover, pull the plug after 3 days and let her do it on her own. She's been told 2 or 3 times she'd never walk again, but that hasn't stopped her yet.

You ain't been listening.

Dude I knew casually shot himself just yesterday.

I guess it was no big deal to him.

Dude I knew, casually shot himself just yesterday.
Dude I knew casually, shot himself just yesterday.

That's the point I was making with the anecdote. I'm sure Gravdigr knows my writing style well enough to get it.

This post brought to you by The Oxford Comma - ask for it by name!

:)

I love that explanation.