Assisted Suicide, Good or Bad?

[Albareth]

Regarding suicide - vandorssen, you mentioned suicide being incomprehensible. I must get into this - as a person I know commited suicide not long ago, and I have suffered from depression myself.

 

"Trivial matters" as you called them can seem very large indeed to a depressed mind, depression is becoming a very spread disease and one which is the first and foremost reason for the alarmingly growing rate of suicides. This is no small thing, and a problem that must be dealth with swiftly. I have my suspicions about the reasons behind this growing rate of depression in our society - but quite aside from that matter, I feel it is quite understandable, and very sad, why they feel they must resort to this. Having suffered from continual depression wears you down, it grinds away your will to resist these feelings of desperation and hopelessness slowly. Things that used to be helpful in combating these feelings start to lose their meaning, everything becomes dull and pointless... when you reach the dark bottom of this pit, it is very hard to turn back.

 

This is a very real problem, with no real solution. But condemning the people who feel like this, as is often done, has not helped. Condemning suicide as wrong does not help. Putting gently forth the message that it is not the way to go about it, does.

 

BTW - sorry about the semi-OT, I'll try to keep more on topic on euthanasia if I post more... ;)

[vandorssen]

Regarding suicide - vandorssen, you mentioned suicide being incomprehensible. I must get into this - as a person I know commited suicide not long ago, and I have suffered from depression myself.

 

"Trivial matters" as you called them can seem very large indeed to a depressed mind, depression is becoming a very spread disease and one which is the first and foremost reason for the alarmingly growing rate of suicides. This is no small thing, and a problem that must be dealth with swiftly. I have my suspicions about the reasons behind this growing rate of depression in our society - but quite aside from that matter, I feel it is quite understandable, and very sad, why they feel they must resort to this. Having suffered from continual depression wears you down, it grinds away your will to resist these feelings of desperation and hopelessness slowly. Things that used to be helpful in combating these feelings start to lose their meaning, everything becomes dull and pointless... when you reach the dark bottom of this pit, it is very hard to turn back.

 

This is a very real problem, with no real solution. But condemning the people who feel like this, as is often done, has not helped. Condemning suicide as wrong does not help. Putting gently forth the message that it is not the way to go about it, does.

 

BTW - sorry about the semi-OT, I'll try to keep more on topic on euthanasia if I post more... ;)

I understand your point of view, and as I stated in my comment:

But it [assisted suicide] may not be suitable for only physical suffering, but emotional as well.

 

As that indicates, I am sensitive to that issue and people such as myself and yourself who suffer from clinical depression may only find release in that manor. When I mention "trivial" things I mean just that; things that really are petty and should not receive a response of the level as suicide. I myself deal with depression through humor (not at all healthy) to the point where no one, not even my own parents, take me seriously anymore. But that is the way I deal with it (I don't even like the idea of taking aspirin for a headache, let alone the medications doctor wanted me to take).

 

I hope that helps to put my statement in to perspective and relieve any offense I may have inadvertently given you or others.

[tyjet3]

I don't mean to sound insensitive but it happens and we can't keep living in the past. Instead what you have to do is fix things for the future. Suicide hurts lots of people, I know.

 

My cousin commented suicide not long ago. I know the pain. But I had to remember that he went through with it because he had pain too. It was his choice to end his life. Suicide is nothing else but a death, a wanted death.

 

In some ways you should be happy that they did it. They were so miserable in this world that they needed a way out. You can't take away someone's right to end their life because you don't want to feel sad. If suicides were more accepted in our society they wouldn't hurt as much. Ex:If you knew that someone in your family was going to a professional to have themselves killed and they talked to you about it, it wouldn't hurt as much as a surprise suicide.

 

People who are thinking about suicide are afraid to tell people because our society looks at suicide as a mental problem. We should just accept that it happens.