A Poll on Death

I chose monthly for the first question but the reality is somewhere between monthly and yearly. I have a few relatives that are old enough where if the phone rings after ten PM you think it could be time to dust off the funeral suit.

If you think your situation is bad enough that suicide is the answer I would suggest that you spend a day with kids with cancer.

Re suicide, it's not that my life is that awful - it's just that sometimes I don't think it's worth the upside. I sincerely doubt I would ever do it, mostly because of commitments I've made to others, but I can't say that my life excites me all that much.

[PokerAce]

I think suicide is the single most selfish thing a person could do.

The silly little problems that the average person has are so trivial. To think that some people would actually consider taking their lives because of them is ridiculous.

Your wife/girlfriend/etc leaves you? Big deal. You lost your job? Big deal. Have more debt than you can pay off? Big deal. People pick on you at school? Big deal.

Whenever I hear of someone killing themselves, I don't think "that poor person." I don't feel a thing for that person because they were stupid and made a poor decision. I feel awful for that person's family though. That one decision destroyed the lives of so many others.

If a person is miserable, or thinks their life isn't worth living, then they need to change things. Life is constantly changing. I had a miserable life while going to school. I'm sure there are millions of others with similar experiences, and some of them felt it was bad enough to take their lives. Now my life is terrific and so could theirs had they not made that decision.

[rwanger]

I've known many people who have gone through suicidal periods in life, and all of them have pulled through to a point where they can't believe how many wonderful experiences they would have missed out on if they went through with it...

[ QUOTE ]
I think suicide is the single most selfish thing a person could do.

The silly little problems that the average person has are so trivial. To think that some people would actually consider taking their lives because of them is ridiculous.

Your wife/girlfriend/etc leaves you? Big deal. You lost your job? Big deal. Have more debt than you can pay off? Big deal. People pick on you at school? Big deal.

Whenever I hear of someone killing themselves, I don't think "that poor person." I don't feel a thing for that person because they were stupid and made a poor decision. I feel awful for that person's family though. That one decision destroyed the lives of so many others.

If a person is miserable, or thinks their life isn't worth living, then they need to change things. Life is constantly changing. I had a miserable life while going to school. I'm sure there are millions of others with similar experiences, and some of them felt it was bad enough to take their lives. Now my life is terrific and so could theirs had they not made that decision.

[/ QUOTE ]

I answered "I'm immortal" and "Never think about suicide", but I find your reply to the question interesting. First I don't really think suicide is "the single most selfish thing a person could do." We are leaving off many other things. Raping a grandmother, more selfish. Killing someone, more selfish. Blowing your family's entire savings to play poker, more selfish. In a severely depressed person's state of mind, they are not thinking of others. And even if they are, why should they need to continue their misery just for the sake of people around them? We did not qualify who the suicide people were. What if they are 80? Terminally ill? A paraplegic? I don't think there are many suicides caused by a boyfriend leaving. I DO think many suicides could be prevented if instead of chalking it up to teen angst or a phase, people would actually help and get the depressed person to a shrink. Or any other support system that would help them pull through. Sorry, didn't mean to jump on your post.

[Roy Munson]

Be wary of making blanket statements such as "suicide is selfish". Everyone who considers suicide has different reasons for doing so.

Once one reaches an advanced age and they run out of stimulating things to do, their body deteriorates ever more rapidly, people bore the hell out of them and vice versa then suicide can appear to be a viable option.

Life fatigue and monotony can test many people's resolve. My grandmother lived to 100 and in the last years of her life she spoke of the loneliness of outliving contemporaries and loved ones. This combined with the physical limitations of aging will challenge even the heartiest of people.

Suicide is so -EV. Chip and a chair is all you need.

So many things that we think are major catastrophes in our lives turn out to be just bumps in the road in a year or two. As long as you can draw a breath then you have the opportunity to turn it around.

In the Declaration, it says "that all men are endowed with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is my belief that if one has a right to life, one also has the right to terminate it. Your life belongs to you, not the commonwealth, and it is within one's liberties to do what they wish with their own life, including ending it. Along the same lines, if one has the right to the pursuit of happiness, then it would follow that one has the right to take his own life. There are those who live in agony, in excruciating pain, those who have forsaken all hope. To deprive these people of the right to take their own lives is wrong.

"I think suicide is the single most selfish thing a person could do."

What a close-minded view, no doubt you are a Sunday Christian.