Is suicide a human right?

Yup. I wanked to the store and crossed two busy streets and could have offed myself at any time.

How do you punish the act of suicide? I assume the suicider (George Bush word, not recognized by Firefox) failed and you have someone to punish.

But a kid with a razor blade that doesn’t know it does get better being punished is as stupid as Trump and his women being punished for getting a abortion nonsense.

Yes, I think people should have the right to choose when and how to end their lives (it’s not like we’re not dying anyway… why shouldn’t we be able to exercise some measure of control over it? Why should we act, to the last minute, like death is the worse thing possible, and like it can somehow be avoided, like it shouldn’t be thought of?)

On the other hand… at least so I’ve heard, most people turn to suicide as a way to get out of a situation, or experience, or psychological state that has become particularly unbearable; they’re choosing suicide not because they want death, so much as they want to get away from the pain and can’t see a solution beyond oblivion or whatever is after life… Someone (whose boyfriend committed suicide) indicated to me that suicide is made “illegal” so that government officials can require those who attempt suicide to get help. By not having suicide as a legal right, other people—people who could offer the person other solutions to the pain—can intervene in ways I don’t think they could if it were a right… they can help the person find a less absolute way of dealing with particular pain. If those are the majority cases—people who don’t want to die but don’t see an alternative—maybe it’s better it’s not a right. I have no idea if that is the case or not. But since I’m not an expert on this subject, I don’t want to assume it is—seems like it’s assuming that someone who’s considering suicide can’t possibly be thinking clearly; I think in some cases they might not be (as in everything), and in some cases they might be.

I agree with @johnpowell that punishment doesn’t really work with successful suicide. Legal ramifications no longer exist for someone who is dead.

If—this is purely speculation—if the goal of making suicide illegal is in fact to help people work through issues that might lead them to suicide—it seems like a counterproductive response. Wouldn’t it make people less likely to seek help? At least, when I was in therapy, I didn’t even feel comfortable talking about my feelings on mortality (lest the psychologist interpret it as suicidal tendencies) let alone the times I was imagining ‘what if I did’ without intending to act on the thoughts.

And it might make the ways someone can end their life more dignified (for them, and for their loved ones; after not hearing from her boyfriend for a week, my friend found him hanging in his apartment…). I’m not quite sure how, but I feel like it might.

I can’t help but thing of Amy Bloom’s “Silver Water” when reading this question….

If there is one life that someone has the right to end, it is his own.

If you want to end it there is not really a humane way to stop you from doing it. I do think there are only a few circumstances where someone in their right mind would want to do it and we all stand behind the decision they make.

Yes.

It should be. It isn’t, in most jurisdictions.

I, too, believe that humane suicide should be a human right.

Yes, it should be a human right but I also believe that one should, if one is mentally able to, consider the feelings of dependents or loved ones who will be left behind.

Yes, and Belgium allows right to die for mental illness and suffering as well.
It is high time to lift the taboo on this and allow people to stay or go as they so choose.
Ironically just knowing one has the choice often shifts things around, case i n point a 19 year old Belgium girl suffering from long standing clinical depression who was given the green light and then, changed her mind 24 hours in advance, for the time being anyway.

Because so many suicides are the result of major depression or other mental illness, I think the answer has to be no.

It depends. There is a difference between a 14 year old who is temporarily distraught and has been bullied and told, “You just need to kill yourself!” and actually tries to follow through, and a terminally ill 60 year old.

I agree that very young people suffering from situational depression should be given counseling opportunities and encouraged they can overcome their angst, however, longstanding depression or other mental illnesses that cause extreme suffering should be treated just as a chronically or terminally ill person. Chronic mental illness causes just as much suffering as a painful or terminal condition.

Damn Skippy.

No one asked me if I wanted to come into this world and I don’t think anyone has the right to prevent me from leaving it if that’s what I want.

This will never be a simple yes/no question

@ARE_you_kidding_me why not? Things are either human rights or they are not.

Well, I have to agree with @ARE_you_kidding_me. There are so many different circumstances that could arise.

Remember that 17 year old girl with some relatively easily treated cancer, who didn’t want to undergo the treatments that would save her life? Pretty sure she’s glad the damn state intervened now.

@Dutchess_III so the state should be able to force young people to undergo medical interventions against their will? should we disregard the autonomy of young people?

It depends on the case:

In this case, she had NO IDEA what she was doing, and her parents were dumb enough to back her up. She’d be dead now, for no reason.
As you can see from the article from last year, she has totally changed her mind. If it wasn’t for the intervention of the state, she would never have even had a chance to change her mind.
Now she says, “I miss my life so dearly, especially my mom, my cat and my boyfriend,” Still immature, but at least she can keep maturing now.

On the other hand, I saw case on 60 Minutes about a young boy, about 10, who’d been battling cancer for 3 years. Just when they thought they had a grip on it, it would come raging back.
The parents gave him the say so on the final round because it was so horribly grueling. He thought about it for a long time, then said, “Yes.” He said if there was a chance, he wanted to at least give it a try.
In that situation, though, since he’d been through it, and everyone knew the chances were slim that he’d really make it, I would have backed his decision too.
He died anyway.

As AreYouKiddingMe said, it is not a simple “Yes or No,” kind of question.

I agree with @johnpowell but I would like to point out that he should really be paying more attention to his surroundings on his daily outings instead of “wanking” to the store and I would like to commend him for holding it for so long instead of “offing” it at any time during the trip and perhaps creating a slip hazard.

…@rojo…..?

@rojo I noticed that too. The mental image was scary.

….Just yesterday my 12 year old granddaughter and a friend were bullied by some asshole at school, calling them sluts and whores and telling them to just go kill themselves.
What a god awful world we have created for our children. We got bullied, but not like that. Not systematically and viciously like that.

Sometimes I walk, sometimes I wank, autocorrect doesn’t give a fuck.

Which is why you have to wank, I guess.

Or waka.