Poll: Suicide... Is it really our place to tell people whether or not to kill themselves?

[Samurai Goomba]

I didn't make the decision to be born, I don't feel I have the right to decide when to die. That's my opinion on the subject.

Awesome logic, on the other side of that, if your parents chose to give birth to you (ie; weren't an accident), do they get to choose when you die? No?

They only get to choose when to TRY to have a kid. Sure, annually the odds of having a kid around about 85%, but they can only make the effort. And no, choosing when somebody else gets to die is generally called murder. My "right" to life takes precedence.

Perhaps I should have just said, "I don't believe people should commit suicide."

 

[capin Rob]

Ah. I guees you can talk to them about it, But don't go too far. But I don't like people who say it is selfish for you to commit suicide. Is It selfish to end your suffering? Or is it Selfish to tell someone to Go through More Suffering just because you want them to be around? And The "Cowards way out." Excuse. Umm, I don't see how it's a cowards way out. It's human nature to avoid death at all costs, And they go against that and try to make their death happen. I wouldn't excatly call that cowadly.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

I don't remember the exact details, but around 500 people were stopped from jumping off the Golden Gate bridge between the 70s and now. Some guy tracked them down, to see what happened.

Around 90% (something like that) never even tried to kill themselves again, they realized they didn't want to die.

They changed their mind.

So I think we have the right to ask people to wait for a few days, really think about it.

 

[Marik2]

Suicide is not the way. It's a coward's way out, and it deprives the world of someone that could be a great part of it. Suicide always negatively effects the people around you. It's selfish and hurtful. If you care about him, stop him. That's all it comes down to.

Yes my thoughts exactly, he gave him a place to stay and helped him out and hes going to take his life because he doesnt want to be a burden?

Hes very fortunate to have a friend and a roof over his head. Many people dont have that and yet there still living, if a third world child can make it through living without parents and shelter than anyone can.

 

[Queen Michael]

I think it's people's own choice. We're all gonna go someday; you might as well let people pick a time they're happy with.

 

[Marik2]

I think that you should be able to talk someone out of it, but I think suicide and assisted suicide should be legal.

I think the only thing that makes suicide the only answer is when a person is a vegetable, there basically dead cant talk or move and cant think.

I wouldnt want to live like that since your basically dead.

But when your still breathing and alive with everything intact than suicide is wrong.

 

[Tdc2182]

Commiting suicide at an age before your life really has time to go anywhere is a bad idea.

I don't view suicide as a proper way out. No one wants to die, they just want a better life.

Edit: it is just kind of sickening, this new youth revelation that we are part of. We are forgetting what makes a person a person.

The day we let idealisms die is the day that we have no right to call ourselves Human Beings. Its astounding to see how many would let a person kill himself instead of trying to help him.

 

[flangleelgnalf]

its their choice, if they decide to kill themselves it means the line's i stand in are one less person long.

 

[EchetusXe]

You did the right thing obviously. You made him feel better, you made him not WANT to kill himself.

Neither of you will regret it because even if life only gets worse for him he still has that option. He has his youth and I'm guessing his health. Thats all one needs to go out and build a life worth having. Not saying its easy, but its more fun than suicide.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

I would say that it's a good idea to make sure that commiting suicide really is the best option before going ahead with it. I believe that alot of people have commited suicide when they shouldn't have. They had reached a low point in there life but missed the fact that they had yet to really hit rock bottom. Sometimes life can seem like shit, but other times it can be really, really good. You don't know until you continue on.

That being said there are times when suicide doesn't seem to bad to me. When you know that ahead of you lies pain the likes of which you have never known and the only way of escaping that fate is through taking your own life... suicide might be a good idea. Plus martyring yourself for a good cause is very noble in my eyes.

In the end though I don't believe that we have the right to tell people how to live. This includes telling them that they can't take their own life. If they want to, that's their decision. I just think we should help them make sure that it really is the best decision, because its not one we can take back.

 

[Kryzantine]

I'd say it's our place. Tell them that they should strive to be the ideal human, a person that makes the hard choices in a dark place. Oftentimes, people think about their situation and simply don't want to deal with it, and it'll sink them deeper. The people that society respects are the ones that wake up and barrel through those problems.

So in your friend's case, it was right of you to stop him. Now tell him he has to do this, he has to do that and get his life on track. If he needs to cut off his family associations, he should do so. In the end, he will be respected, and that's where life starts getting less stressful.

 

[Hashime]

Yes, most people who are suicidal are under the influence of brain chemistry changes, depression et. al. These can be cured. Don't quote me on this statistic, but I read somewhere that as soon as they started patrolling the golden gate bridge to stop jumpers, 96% of those stopped did not commit suicide later in life.Basically they were in a bad spot and needed a little help to get back to living.

 

[Gilfareth]

Ugh, morality strikes again.

Listen, other people's opinions can be entertaining. Some people can make genuinely valid points for their argument, and maybe make you change your mind about a subject. For the most part, though, answers to moral questions are going to fall into two categories: smacktards and lenience.

Anyone who answers 'nobody should kill themselves, it is against God/my religion' is religious, and I have a massive distaste for religion and those who adhere to it. I won't argue against it here, since I've gone blue in the face doing so before and been given no better answer than 'you'll understand when you're older', but suffice it to say that anything based purely on a religious belief is as important to me as whether you squeeze the tube from the middle or the end.

Most people who answer 'it's their choice, even if I don't like it' have a somewhat more sensible point of view, though in my mind still not entirely accurate. Certainly I am important to myself, and someone else whom I have grown an emotional attachment to committing suicide is going to hurt me a fair bit. I should know, my mom did so not very long ago. But the thing is, there is no objective 'right' or 'wrong' choice in suicide. Killing yourself might be entirely necessary in someone's mind, say for some insane cult, or because a crazy person has promised to kill someone you care about more than yourself if you don't. The rest of the time, it's to escape pain, and one would hope that others can help you in most situations. Alright, there's euthanasia and vegetables and terminal patients in there, but that's just a few of many different situations.

What I'm saying is, it depends on the exact situation, as it always does. Emotions are strong things, and we may want to escape them, and suicide may be the fastest way to do that. Some people might not be missed as much as others. Whatever you do, it's ultimately up to not just you, but the people around you; there are ways to stop someone, even temporarily, and there are ways people can help in a lot of situations, if you let them know you need it.

Alright, enough soap-boxing out of me. Time for the shorter, less tl;dr responses.

 

[Common Knowledge]

When I was 19 through to my mid 20s I was seriously depressed due to one reaosn and another, eventually it came to a head one night when I was in the park by myself and I thought "maybe I should just end it."

The only thing that stopped me was because I decided to phone the Samaratins as I wanted someone to talk to. The thing about phoning them is that they never tell you not to commit suicide - even if you tell them you're going to - they just calmly ask why you want to. Nobody had asked me that before I found that just by talking about it I could face the next day. It didn't get any easier but over a few months it went by and I managed to carry on living my life. The one thing that really made sense to me with regards to suicide was this:

If death is the absence of everything then there is no relief to be held in suicide.

 

[Jumplion]

It's true, to don't have any "right" to stop him. You don't really have any true "obligation" to keep him from taking his own life.

But you're his god damn friend. If my friend told me that he planned to commit suicide, you know what I'd do? I'd tell his family, I'd tell his friends, I'd do whatever it takes to influence his desicion because he's my friend. You don't have an obligation as a person, no. But you have an obligation as his friend.

Personally, if I would want to commit suicide (it has crossed my minds on the low days, I admit), of course I'd say "You have no right to decide what I should do with my body," but I'd pray to god that I would have friend's that cared enough to keep me from making that decision. It'd your body and it's your decision to do what you want with it, but that doesn't mean your friends and family shouldn't prevent you from doing it.

In the basic sense, he's right, you don't have any right to tell him what to do with his body. But I would think he'd be even more inclined to kill himself if his best friend didn't bother to talk him out of it.

You are a good friend for caring about him and keeping him from committing suicide. Don't doubt yourself because he said that you have no right over him. He was thinking of killing himself, most likely in a depressed state (Which I've been in, and it's not a pretty picture), so of course he's going to rationalize his decisions as much as he can. You are a damn good friend for caring about him when everyone else has abandoned him, and hopefully he realizes that.

 

[vento 231]

It's fine,I think that you should try to convince them other wise, but not physically stop them, one less person isn't that bad.

 

[Hashime]

I would say that it's a good idea to make sure that commiting suicide really is the best option before going ahead with it. I believe that alot of people have commited suicide when they shouldn't have. They had reached a low point in there life but missed the fact that they had yet to really hit rock bottom. Sometimes life can seem like shit, but other times it can be really, really good. You don't know until you continue on.

That being said there are times when suicide doesn't seem to bad to me. When you know that ahead of you lies pain the likes of which you have never known and the only way of escaping that fate is through taking your own life... suicide might be a good idea. Plus martyring yourself for a good cause is very noble in my eyes.

In the end though I don't believe that we have the right to tell people how to live. This includes telling them that they can't take their own life. If they want to, that's their decision. I just think we should help them make sure that it really is the best decision, because its not one we can take back.

Suicide bombers?

 

[Commissar Sae]

Suicide is a cowards exit in my opinion. So your life sucks, do something about it. Find people you love and hold on them them. Find a reason to live even if its just showing that queen ***** that is the world that she can't take you out that easily. I was pretty much borderline suicidal at one point when I was younger. But I spit in the face of that depression, picked my ass up and went right on living. It wasn't easy but I overcame. So can anyone else.