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hot_pastrami · 06-11-2003, 01:51 PM

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.

06-11-2003, 01:51 PM	#5
hot_pastrami I am meaty Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 1,119	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. __________________ Hot Pastrami!