Is it selfish to prevent people from commiting suicide?

[Nexus4]

If it is selfish for me not to want to watch someone get splattered by a train of their will, then yes it is.

 

[llubtoille]

I feel that would be based on the motivation person attempting to prevent the suicide.

If said person was wanting them not to do it as they would feel sad / miss them, then yes that is selfish - as they're doing it purely for their own gain.

if they're doing it because they genuinely believe the person is just going through a rough patch in life and (if they lived) would 'get over it' in time, then that wouldn't be selfish as they're doing it for what they believe is their friends benefit.

That said, as the person suiciding is being selfish in doing so, then the friend might as well be selfish and try and prevent it, kinda counters the other out.

 

[teebeeohh]

I always thought people who jump in front of trains or cars are selfish how hard is it to million yourself without troubling so many others?
And stopping people from killing themselves is not selfish, there is always a chance they will be happy living afterwards and if they really want to die they should just pick a method.that does not involve a crowded station.

 

[Kapol]

Fairly recently I was put in the position of having someone talking about killing themself, both trying and planning to. This was someone I knew my entire life. The worst part is, he didn't actually mean to tell me and my friend. He told us while he was asleep. Yes, he's suffered from sleep-talking almost his entire life. He even sleep-texts now. But that night he told our friend (who was with us as we were spending the weekend together to relax) that he had tried to kill himself, then he went on about how he was going 'bye-bye' and saying that he was 'going for a ride.' It didn't take a genius to figure out he was talking about killing himself, likely by getting himself in a car accident.

It made me wonder what to do, if anything. At that point he had just found out his girlfriend, who he was going to ask to marry him the next week, was cheating on him. Not only that, but he tried to salvage the relationship and forgive her. She turned him down. So you can kinda see why he was depressed. It was enough where he couldn't eat without feeling sick, and his entire life had seemed to go downhill.

So now that I've given context to why I was thinking of this, I decided... no, I didn't have any right to stop him from doing it if he really wanted to. BUT I don't think he really wanted to. It was just his current feelings making him think there was no other options. There's where it gets tricky. If the person really does want to, not because of grief or temporary sadness from what seems like a life-ending thing at the time, then that is their right. If the only reason their even considering it is because of something bad that, while it hurts, will get better over time, then I think that you should stop them and try to get them help. If you aren't sure, trying to get them help is likely the right option.

 

[scar_47]

This quote is my take on suicide "Now I say their might be forgiveness for a man who kills himself quietly, Who can pass judgement on another man's suffering and on the limit of what he can bear? But the man who kills himself making a show of his death in order to hurt somebody, he's rotten clear through, and what he deserves is that people spit at his memory instead of feeling sorry for him and hurt, as he wanted them to be". If someone wants to end their life who am I to pass judgement on them or attempt to stop them. As to wether its selfish or not that depends upon the reason your trying to stop the suicide but most of the time its people imposing their values on others.

 

[SinisterGehe]

To remove my right to control my life. To remove my right to end my life it removing my humanity. It is my fundamental right to control my life. I am human because I understand the difference life and death, the fact that I know that I can end my life when I so choose gives me perspective and means to see the goods sides of this world. I know that If I get in to a situation which I can not bare or do not want to bare I can end it all. It is my fundamental right. Just as I have right to life, I have right to die - and taking this away from me is declining my right to live as I see fit.

I suffer from severe pain condition caused by my dystonia and doctors do not promise that it will get better or that it wont decline. But if my condition would start to decline and the drugs are not enough to control it anymore, I would want to end my life. Human life is not supposed to be wasted by lying on the bed and being unable to do anything else than suffer, unable to experience life and enjoy it. In my opinion that is against the idea of living, it is not living, it is dying slowly without the ultimate death in the end. Death waits somewhere in the future, but it is not because of my condition, it is because it is the ultimate end, but I do not want to suffer and wait for it. I want to be able to live or to die. And I am in control of my life, it is not in the hands of anyone else.

 

[Wolfhowl the shadow lurker]

i tired to comitting suicide a few years ago no one saved me it just did not work

i dont think i was selfish i was just in pain and i think its a very kind thing to save someones life

 

[Dragonpit]

Yeah, it's selfish. Very selfish. But so what? There's no such thing as a completely selfless desire, and being selfish isn't necessarily wrong. There's nothing wrong with wanting someone to live.

 

[JediMB]

Suicide can be selfish. Preventing suicide can be selfish.

You'd be surprised how often in life we're allowed to be selfish. (Or maybe you wouldn't be surprised, but that's not the point.)

 

[agentorange98]

No it's not, that's like saying stopping someone from murdering someone is taking away their freedom of murder choice

 

[ultimateownage]

I think people should be able to die on their terms, so it really depends what the suicide's over.

 

[Tanthius]

To remove my right to control my life. To remove my right to end my life it removing my humanity. It is my fundamental right to control my life. I am human because I understand the difference life and death, the fact that I know that I can end my life when I so choose gives me perspective and means to see the goods sides of this world. I know that If I get in to a situation which I can not bare or do not want to bare I can end it all. It is my fundamental right. Just as I have right to life, I have right to die - and taking this away from me is declining my right to live as I see fit.

I suffer from severe pain condition caused by my dystonia and doctors do not promise that it will get better or that it wont decline. But if my condition would start to decline and the drugs are not enough to control it anymore, I would want to end my life. Human life is not supposed to be wasted by lying on the bed and being unable to do anything else than suffer, unable to experience life and enjoy it. In my opinion that is against the idea of living, it is not living, it is dying slowly without the ultimate death in the end. Death waits somewhere in the future, but it is not because of my condition, it is because it is the ultimate end, but I do not want to suffer and wait for it. I want to be able to live or to die. And I am in control of my life, it is not in the hands of anyone else.

But it's not your fundamental right to control your life. Guide your life sure, but not control. There are things that happen to us all every single day that take decisions out of our hands or encumber us with extenuating circumstances. To think we are in some sort of omniscient control of our existence is false. You can kill yourself, you have that ability, but nothing says it will ultimately work the way you want. There are a ton of botched suicides out there, and some of them are due to some very odd and coincidental things. Does that mean those people lost their humanity? No, but you do lose your humanity if you do kill yourself. You absolutely lose it when you cease to live. However bad we hurt, to decide to end it is pure self centered thought. The only way a person can decide to kill themselves is if they truly care only about how they feel. To live for others is selfless and something to be admired. To help each other to reach that is the highest honor we can bestow each other. However, it is no better if you only live for yourself either. When you choose death though, you remove any possibility of life getting better. You remove anything that could have made your life meaningful. Tomorrow you could save someones life, or a miracle cure could come out for your condition (which btw I am very familiar with, having a friend with it too.), that may be a long shot but there are a trillion things that can happen every day to change our conditions and outlook on life. Your freedoms end where an others begin, and nobody has the right to burden others with a lifetime of sorrow and regret because they want to destroy themselves. I can't believe that anyone who has actually dealt with a suicide in the family or close friend could feel otherwise.

I think the amount of opinions in this article that are purely concerned with it being a persons right are a result of the "me" society we live in. It seems the only society cares about anymore is promoting self centered thought. We are now entitled to everything, everything is now at our convenience. As a result, the society in most first world countries is becoming incredibly selfish. We seem to all now believe we can do anything we want regardless of its impact on others, which is a shame considering how far the smallest kindness goes.

 

[Nihilism_Is_Bliss]

Should people have the right to take their own life? Yes.

Should we actively attempt to stop someone from attempting suicide, even if they're a complete stranger? ...Probably. People can go through serious mental relapses that may cause them to take actions they would normally rationally avoid. Just letting someone around you commit suicide is probably not a good idea. Chances are, if they're doing it with other random people around they're probably not thinking straight anyway.

And yeah, if you know someone is completely mentally together, but is still intent on taking their own life, then it is selfish to take measures that force them to live.

 

[akeldama1984]

Is it selfish? i don't know.

In the end i think if you can prevent someone from doing themselves in you should and they should get all the help they need. Though if someone is determined to commit suicide they will find a way.

You may not be able to stop the inevitable but it doesn't hurt to try.

 

[Nikolaz72]

So me and this guy were talking today at work and the topic of suicide came up ( because someone decided to jump in front of his train which made him get to work late). One line he said kind of distrubed me he said : " I have nothing against suicide , but don't piss people off while doing it ".

Shocked by this comment i asked him what he meant by the fact he has nothing against suicide, because it was the first time i heard anyone say something like that, usually people want to prevent suicide and think it's a terrible act.

He explained to me that he thought that any person living should have the right to take their own life. That anyone that tries to prevent someone for doing the act is selfish . He said that in a world where countless people are murdered or that die by "accident" why shouldn't someone be able to take his/her own life? That people often talk about the family memebers and friends of the person that commited suicide , and how they are sad and heart-broken and wish that said person did not go through with it. That stopping someone from suiciding because themselves or family/friends would be hurting is selfish by not considering the fact they the person who died , wanted to in fact die , thus commited suicide.

As strange as it might sound, his argument made sense ! I mean, who better than onself to decide when and how to die ? The guy i was talking to firmly believe in the freedom of choice, no matter what choice it may be, therefore he believes that someone should be able to take their own life regardless are what people close to them think .

So what do you escapists think ? Is preventing or trying to find help for someone that wants to commiting suicide, selfish ?

P.S I'm not talking about assisted suicide , that another topic all together.

EDIT : Some people mis-understood my question. It's not about if suicide is right or wrong. It's about if it's selfish of prevent someone for killing themselves. It's basically like taking away their freedom of choice. The choice to end their own life. And also i am NOT talking about helping someone with a terminal illness kill themselves.

Its not selfish to prevent suicide. Its selfish to commit suicide. You put a large burden not only on your family, but also on soceity if you commit suicide. Therefor even if you think yourself worthless, you are 'less' than worthless is you take your own life as you are gonna affect those close to you and those of your country in a negative way by your death costing something to them. Keeping yourself alive is the only way of not being a burden.

 

[EternalFacepalm]

It is.
Then again, I believe absolutely everything is selfish in its core. Both suicide and prevention of suicide are selfish, for instance.

 

[Harlief]

How about re-phrasing the question to "Is it selfish to spare everyone who knows a suicidal person a lot of grief, heart-ache and guilt which will haunt them all until the day they die?"

 

[Nihilism_Is_Bliss]

Its not selfish to prevent suicide. Its selfish to commit suicide. You put a large burden not only on your family, but also on soceity if you commit suicide. Therefor even if you think yourself worthless, you are 'less' than worthless is you take your own life as you are gonna affect those close to you and those of your country in a negative way by your death costing something to them. Keeping yourself alive is the only way of not being a burden.

I don't like this argument. Depending on circumstances, sure it COULD potentially be considered selfish for someone to commit suicide - the most obvious circumstance to me is a single parent committing suicide.
However, I believe unless you have some kind of natural responsibility over something ie. a young child, we should all live for ourselves. So if life is seriously worse than the alternative, we should be able to die for ourselves too.
Suffering and staying alive just so others don't have to deal with your death is ridiculous. We all die eventually anyway, people are eventually going to have to clean up after us either way. Guilt-tripping people who are already seriously depressed isn't fair.

 

[Nikolaz72]

Its not selfish to prevent suicide. Its selfish to commit suicide. You put a large burden not only on your family, but also on soceity if you commit suicide. Therefor even if you think yourself worthless, you are 'less' than worthless is you take your own life as you are gonna affect those close to you and those of your country in a negative way by your death costing something to them. Keeping yourself alive is the only way of not being a burden.

I don't like this argument. Depending on circumstances, sure it COULD potentially be considered selfish for someone to commit suicide - the most obvious circumstance to me is a single parent committing suicide.
However, I believe unless you have some kind of natural responsibility over something ie. a young child, we should all live for ourselves. So if life is seriously worse than the alternative, we should be able to die for ourselves too.
Suffering and staying alive just so others don't have to deal with your death is ridiculous. We all die eventually anyway, people are eventually going to have to clean up after us either way. Guilt-tripping people who are already seriously depressed isn't fair.

Guilty-tripping people into being depressed because you felt bad aint fair either. Tough luck for those left behind. 'Im not loved, im hated, im gonna commit suicide because nobody loves me' When this is rarely the case. Most people committing suicide are ehemn. 'Old people feeling they are a burden on soceity' 'Mentally challenged people who feel they are a burden on soceity' 'People who are depressed' 'Angsty teenagers who think they are depressed' I can see there are many different cases and some people might find more justified than others. But I see in most of them as scenarios where people are left behind. The more if you are younger than if you are older. For example, you work on a hospital ward right? And the old guy you serve food to just hanged himself and 'you' were the one who saw it. You have just been scarred for life, because 'someone' was bound to find that guy hanging. So even if he had no family he just harmed an innocent because of a pretty selfish action. Same with the mentally challenged. The depressed and the angsty teenagers are usually pretty young (Average age is around 18-40) They are gonna leave family behind. And trust me, thats a whole lot of hurt for pretty selfish reasons.

 

[Nihilism_Is_Bliss]

Guilty-tripping people into being depressed because you felt bad aint fair either. Tough luck for those left behind. Its not like they can tell him that after he died.

Huh? Could you explain what you mean?