Poll: Can suicide be rational?

[IronDuke]

I had sex 2 hours ago, and it didn't make me happy.

 

[LANCE420]

Yes.

Terminal cancer patient.
Chronic pain sufferer.
Dementia patient.

There are times when suicide is the best option...possibly even noble.

I agree with this one. However, dying over petty emotional problems is for quitters.
However, it might be a good thing to have your genes removed from the pool.

 

[LeeHarveyO]

I would only say under very extreme conditions that you can either face a life time of torture or suicide.

 

[ExaltedK9]

No. Never.

When a person is suicidal, they are the definition of irrational.

Agreed. And more often than not, they are drunk out of their mind.

 

[chronobreak]

suicide because of depression or money problem is murder.

You quoted me, but it had nothing to do with what I said. As far as I'm concerned, suicide is suicide, not murder. But, It's pointless getting bogged down in a bunch of wordplay. If I wanted to kill myself, nobody has any right to try to stop me, as it is not their life. It is mine. That may be hard to swallow, but a spade is a spade. I can choose to end my existence whenever I want.

 

[MarxonSR1]

I find this difficult to answer as I have not the confidence to commit suicide, furthermore life is precious and in my belief you should value and experience life to the fullest degree.

The majority of time suicide can be the easy option as opposed to actually dealing with the problem directly. But there are cases in which I can understand where the situation is so dire, and the rest of your life is so bleak that there is nothing to hope for. But I personally just couldn't justify myself in it unless in the direst of times.

However I appreciate that people's lives are theirs to live or otherwise, but this is without consideration as to the people who will be affected by their death. Also the suicide may be due to points of irrationality and these should be prevented so that every person has the best life possible.

 

[Guitar Gamer]

I say if you want to go out in a bang you should firstly learn to play insane guitar, invent a cordless hook up from guitar to amp that goes like 3 kilometers, then jump out of a plane into a city playing the said guitar on some very large speakers on the ground ......................................... but if actually didn't have any money or friends or family to do this then I guess you really could get your life back on track (exculding terminally ill people but if it took a month to die they might be able to do this)also if you amazingly just grew tired of living to such a point that not even exesive alcohol and drugs can give you any satisfaction this could be a possibility.

 

[MTNW]

It doesn't matter if its rational to someone on the outside.

I would say there are cases where it is rational and some where its not, but my say wont affect anyone who wants to commit suicide so its irrelevant.

And whats with all the people saying its selfish?

Life is the one thing you really own, its YOUR life.

If the person wants to end their life, they should have every right to do so.

Yea you leave people behind but, they do what they want with THEIR life and you do what you want with YOURS.

 

[Sneaky Paladin]

It is possible but for most situations... no.

I had suicidal thoughts before but not because I was depressed but because I was bored and had this annoying voice in the back of my mind saying "Go ahead and kill yourself. It will finally answer the question of what happens after death."

I dismissed it by telling myself that suicide is for weak quitters and I was neither weak or a quitter.

it tells you that to? me as well I'm curious and want to know not really suicidal

What if you living will cause thousands of deaths? Wouldn't it be a rational thing to kill one self? if it saved the lives of others?

true but you didn't see bush doing that when he decided we should go to iraq

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

"Where's the liquor cabinet?"

^ this is so much win

 

[jasoncyrus]

What if you living will cause thousands of deaths? Wouldn't it be a rational thing to kill one self? if it saved the lives of others?

Then it sucks to be those thousands of people.

Personally Suicide is for weak people who can;t handle what life throws at them. The only people allowed to top themselves are those who are crippled in some way, like people with ALS who will eventually be entombed in their own bodies unable to do anything. Hell I'd put a bullet in these people myself to end their suffering.

 

[XMarshmallow]

Yes.

Terminal cancer patient.
Chronic pain sufferer.
Dementia patient.

There are times when suicide is the best option...possibly even noble.

^This

I can't agree more.

 

[Agayek]

What do you think? While I realize that it may be a hard topic, given the subjectivity involved in justifying something like suicide, think about it; in a case where a completely sane individual decides to kill him/herself, do you think rationale and logic can be applied? Is it destined to stay forever objective, mind-independent and only understood by those who have actually gone through the thoughts?

Grand displays of suicide discounted (jumping out of a train, shooting yourself on webcam, etc.). We're assuming that, since the subject would be sane, they'd use a convenient, quick method (poison et al.) that wouldn't traumatize everyone close to themselves. Too much, at least.

My view: yes, it could be rational. Sometimes, things become bad past the point of fixing them, and the benefits of death (to both oneself and loved ones) outweigh those of life. Of course, that's hypothetical, I've never seen this happen in real life.

Poll included for you folks who'll shout "TL;DR" unless you've got the Cliffs notes. Oh, and respect opinions and all that jazz.

I didn't read more than the first couple posts, so apologies if I'm repeating anything.

The way I see it, suicide is/can be rational and a somewhat logical step if things are really bad for someone.

That said, I see it as the ultimate display of cowardice. All of existence is defined by conflict. Be it with yourself over doing/not doing something, with a friend over some issue, or with some random nobody that you bumped into. The entirety of the human experience is conflict, and if you kill yourself, you're admitting defeat in the strongest possible terms. If shit happens, make yourself some lemonade. You can always improve your life, no matter how good or bad it happens to be. It's entirely dependent on how much you're willing to put into it, just like everything else.

 

[wewontdie11]

I suppose it can be in the cases of people with debilitating or terminal illnesses.

But I'm not going to lie, I have contemplated suicide before in a self perpetuating spiral of depression once, and I was being completely irrational. Unless there really is something desperately wrong with you suicide should not be an option.

 

[jasoncyrus]

nope.
isnt suicide a one way ticket to hell?

Only if you are christian or some other pointless religion.

 

[TheFacelessOne]

Suicide is NEVER rational in my opinion. It just yells,

"I'M A LOSER AND I CAN'T DEAL WITH MY LIFE, I MUST KILL MYSELF! BLAHH..."

There's always something you can do about an ordeal, really.

And frankly, nobody was put on this world just to shoot/hang/burn/drown/cut/decapitate/etc. themselves.

 

[GothmogII]

What if you living will cause thousands of deaths? Wouldn't it be a rational thing to kill one self? if it saved the lives of others?

Then it sucks to be those thousands of people.

Personally Suicide is for weak people who can;t handle what life throws at them. The only people allowed to top themselves are those who are crippled in some way, like people with ALS who will eventually be entombed in their own bodies unable to do anything. Hell I'd put a bullet in these people myself to end their suffering.

That's an interesting thought...what makes a person willing to take their own life weak?

I mean...isn't a matter of perspective? Just so, I'd consider taking your own life one of the toughest things you can do, not least of all because of the ramifications, theology aside, it really is quite permanent.

But, going along the same line of thought, taking another person's life is supposed to be difficult, and yet you open up a daily newspaper and read about how someone just murdered their family, or someone who got knifed to death in an alley...so, clearly, it doesn't take a particularly strong person to do killing of that kind does it? Or rather...that killing someone else often comes off as the easier choice, if only because it's not you.

 

[jthm]

Suicide and Depression to a larger extent are supremely rational. As someone who's been there, you don't think in terms of insane thoughts (I kill myself to stop the aliens), you go from one very true premise (I am miserable) to the next step which seems right (there is no path towards not being miserable) to the next (If I remain alive, I will always be miserable) to the obvious conclusion (If I die now, it spares me the pain of living in misery and pain). There are often many steps between, but it can go something like this.

You can't argue with a depressed person, because they will always win it. The problem is a flaw in the logic in one of the steps (in this case "there is no path towards not being miserable")

Suicide is generally rational, and the decision to do it is reached rationally.

 

[Glerken]

Well, say a person is in constant pain and forced to live in a hospital always on medication and running up a huge bill that his/her loved ones have to pay. In which case, it may be a rational decision to pull the plug.