For all those who find suicide selfish, cowardly, etc., I've got a few observations and questions.
Someon's terminally ill with cancer and is suffering immensely. Someone battles mental illness and depression. Both people are in constant agony, so I would like to know if you're okay for a terminally ill patient to kill themselves but not for someone who isn't? Is it just the fact that they have a terminal disease and are going to die anyway? Well in that case we're all dead one day. And if you are against taking one's own life in both cases, something tells me you wouldn't be so hasty to judge the person with cancer. If that's the case, why not? They're not at fault? Well neither is someone with Bipolar or Schizophrenia.
And if suicide is selfish, aren't both situations equally so, regardless in the manner or under the circumstances it occurs? The person killing themselves is doing so to cease pain with disregard to everyone else's. The people who look down on suicide demand that the other suffers so that they themselves won't feel pain. Difference being that the people who commit suicide don't wish pain upon others (though some suicides are committed to inflict pain), they simply want it to stop for them. People who aren't in pain want the other to endure it so they won't have to. So tell me again who's more selfish? How are both not at least equally so in this regard? As for cowardice, I don't see the act to be so at all. The reasons behind it may be to some people, but the act itself takes tremendous strength, commitment, determination and conviction.
The way I see it, if someone is suffering, they are suffering. I don't see how that suffering comes about holds any bearing on the morality of the act of killing one's self. The degree of pain is a point that's hard to determine and argue as there's no barometer to measure the amount any one person deals with relative to another, and even if there were everyone has different tolerances for it. What may kill someone in twenty years may kill me or you in one, and vice-versa. The person you judge as weak may well be able to last longer through something than you ever could dream of. So by what grounds do people have to hold anyone to any standard? Everyone has different breaking points, and everyone has different life experiences. You're judging those who kill themselves based on YOUR experience. These are no grounds to judge by at all. The only reason people claim suicide selfish and cowardly is to make themselves feel better, stronger, and courageous. Nothing more than selfish proclamations to boost their self-esteem at the expense of another who is obviously in great pain. Yea, real courageous.
And no, sometimes things will not get better even if help is sought, so the saying "it's a permanent solution to a...." (which I agree with in most
cases actually) is not always applicable. There are chronic mental illnesses that never go away but are (cruelly) unable to kill you outright like
terminal cancer eventually does yet suicide for the former is looked down upon while it's not so much for the latter. Both are terrible illnesses and both are not the fault of the one who bears them.
In the end, suicide is a sad situation any way you cut it. I feel equally bad for all parties involved, and yes, that includes the dead. But I would love to hear what the difference is of the two situations I mentioned above, and in addition on what foundation do you judge pain, suffering, and the tolerance to be able to endure it? The truth is, these things are subjective and you have none, therefor your judgments are based on ignorance and nothing more.
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