[net.suicide] Opinion on Suicide

karl@dartvax.UUCP (Karl Berry) (04/04/84)

`Rational', `irrational,' and the general tone of the article seem to
indicate that it's ``wrong'' to commit suicide. Er, ``selfish.'' 
   Although committing suicide certainly affects more people than
just the suicider [-ee?] I don't think that makes it selfish. It is
likely, perhaps, that:
   1. Not all that many people would be affected -- empirically,
people with lots of friends don't commit suicide, they have other
things to worry about. ( Relaionships take time, after all. )
   2. The people who are won't care all that much, for all that long.
The same reasoning applies. And people do ``bounce back,'' rather
quickly, if someone close to them dies.
   3. If the suicider is serious, and not just trying to get
attention, it should be his choice to die, and people who do like him
will probably understand that. People who don't like won't care
anyway.
   I think that trying to elicit motivations for suicide is a
fascinating pastime, but not, in the end, very useful or helpful.
We're still alive.
karl@dartmouth    <>      {cornell,decvax,linus}!dartvax!karl

rccall@dartvax.UUCP (R. Christian Call) (04/05/84)

I agree with Karl.  I wish everybody would shut up about suicide
being "wrong."  For Christ's sake, if someone is going to commit
suicide, can't he at least be allowed to do THAT?

hutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison) (04/05/84)

<. . . kill myself . . . Headline news . . .>

| I agree with Karl.  I wish everybody would shut up about suicide
| being "wrong."  For Christ's sake, if someone is going to commit
| suicide, can't he at least be allowed to do THAT?
| (R. Christian Call)

I quite disagree.  The suicide is stealing something very valuable
from me and everyone else - a human life.  This may seem maudlin, but
the value of a life is in the good or evil it gives to other lives,
and in prematurely truncating itself, the possibility of further good
is abolished.

Hutch