suicide and morality

[smurfitup]

do you consider the act of suicide to be immoral? i know camus' myth of sysiphus argues that it's immoral (i don't have the essay on me and i forget his exact logic). intuitively, i think it's fundamentally an amoral act, but when you take into account the effect on loved ones, etc. things change. what do you guys think?

There are a few special cases, but in general, when a person has a family that loves them, I consider suicide to be immoral.

It depends on who you ask...It's sometimes considered an almost noble act (The only example that comes to mind is in "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe)...But in almost all situations, I think it's not the best choice out there, and generally immoral. It's sort of selfish in a way (Especially if you have a family). You can't take the pain or whatever, so you relieve yourself of that pain, but you cause so much more pain to your loved ones.

Suicide is only committed by mentally unbalanced individuals (note: I have a very broad definition of "mentally unbalanced"), so I wouldn't dislike someone for doing it. I think most of us will agree that doing what you feel is the "right thing" is correct (not being results-oriented [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]), and if you feel that suicide is the "right thing", then that is a shame, but you aren't doing anything wrong, as such.

[BigSoonerFan]

Suicide is the one of the most selfish acts a person can do.

[J. Stew]

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It depends on who you ask...It's sometimes considered an almost noble act (The only example that comes to mind is in "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe)...But in almost all situations, I think it's not the best choice out there, and generally immoral. It's sort of selfish in a way (Especially if you have a family). You can't take the pain or whatever, so you relieve yourself of that pain, but you cause so much more pain to your loved ones.

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What if nobody loves you?

Wow, it is the ultimate hubris that humans think their lives are so important. If someone kills themselves, it is not such a big deal. Truly. we dont care if 6000 people die in an earthquake. We dont care if a rapist dies. Maybe he kills himself. Is that immoral? I bet a lot of suicides are people who have guilt over terrible things they have done and thus are helping society overall.
It doesnt matter though. The idea that we really care whether someone else kills themselves or not is a joke.
We simply dont wish to die ourselves, and the notion that someone else doesnt value their own life is horrific to us.
-g

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Suicide is the one of the most selfish acts a person can do.

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While I agree that suicide out of self pity is a selfish act, there are situations where it is considered a noble and heroic act.

Warfare comes to mind. The Kamikazee pilots of Japan were regarded as brave heros fro taking their own lives to defend their country.

Even today those in the Middle East that strap on a suit of dynamite or the piolts of the 9/11 attacks are hailed by some as selfless heros.

The Samuri of Japan used suicide as a way to repent for a dishonorable deed. They would take thier own lives in order to protect theur relatives and relatives to come from the shame of the thier dishonor.