Suicide is a waste of life.
How is it a waste?
All the ideas and potential of an idividual are thrown away.
Well, you could also argue that you are saving the world from a possible terrorist.
Most people don't end up as terrorists. Besides, life is precious.
Why?
It was given to us by God; He didn't have to do it, you know.
That's just what a suicidal person wants. And I don't believe in a creator, so why should life be precious to me?
Wouldn't you be sad if everyone you knew murdered themselves?
Yes, unbearably so. But that doesn't make life sacred.
I think you'll have difficulty finding anyone "pro-suicide", sweetie. There are people who believe deeply in euthanasia - for those who have next to no quality of life and who have usually lived a long life - but I don't think anyone would support a young, reasonably healthy person taking his/her own life and if they did the vast majority of people would find it morally questionable, to say the least.
ReplyDelete>>All the ideas and potential of an individual are thrown away.
She could have been a poet or she could have been a fool ... (Smiths song)Shouldn't we give the world a chance to find out?
>>Well, you could also argue that you are saving the world from a possible terrorist.
Hey, what if he/she *is* a terrorist, a suicide bomber?
But you're right,
>>Most people don't end up as terrorists.
>>life is precious. Why?
Aren't the lives of those you love precious to you?
>>Wouldn't you be sad if everyone you knew murdered themselves?
How would you feel if everyone you knew was murdered by someone else?
>>But that doesn't make life sacred.
Sacred has religious connotations but wouldn't you say life is very, very important? Wouldn't you say your life is the most valuable thing you'll ever have?
You wrote about an article the other day which suggested most people who try to commit suicide if thwarted won't (immediately) try again. I hadn't thought about it in those terms before but I agree absolutely. I've tried three times so I know it's an incredibly hard thing to do - it's definitely not the coward's way out - but if I really wanted to die then I'd be dead by now. Why doesn't the man jump off another part of the bridge when he can't jump off the part he wanted to? Because the moment has passed. No matter how much a person wants to die in that moment, it is just a moment and it will pass. Perhaps it will come again and again but those moments too will pass. Sadly, some people succeed in that moment and it is so very sad because they've lost their entire life for the sake of one fleeting feeling.
I'm making a lot of generalisations, I know, but I do believe that someone in chronic, severe, untreatable pain (incl emotional pain) who makes the decision to die cannot be compared to someone who takes their life because in that one moment they want to die - and I think the majority of suicides fall into the latter category, unfortunate successes if you will.
Hope that all makes sense and gives you something to chew on. I'm very tired *yawn*
Perhaps life isn't sacred. Does it need to be for it to be important anyway?
ReplyDeleteDoes that need to be an absolute for us to say that we have some measure of responsibility to act with charity, love, compassion, sometimes even duty (of care and other things) towards those we hold dear?
It's partly a trust thing, right?
If I make a friend, or love someone I want to be able to trust them. Part of the basis of being able to have close relationships of any kind is that trust, which is in part built on the knowledge/understanding that the people involved will do their utmost to be there for each other.
And sometimes that means there is a tacit agreement made by that very bond that each will simply stay alive if they possibly can.