How far should we go helping suicidal people?

Then you'd have to oppose masturbation as well, not to mention wet dreams.
Those are potential persons being wasted every time.

Birth control isn't perfect. Look I'm not in favour of aborting on a whim, but ultimately it's the choice of the woman. She has to carry the child, with all associated risks and pains.

But this thread isn't about abortion so let's not derail it any further than we already have.

 

I think you're quoting the wrong post.
I never said anything about making it a public act.

---------- Post added 27th Sep 2013 at 10:31 AM ----------

Yea, I didn't meant to imply you were against it, just mentioning that said point get's abused to stifle any discussion of euthenasia.

 

No I don't, because there nothing developing there, sperm and eggs just contain DNA.[/QUOTE]
They are potential human beings. You're arbitrarily drawin a line at conception.
There's a reason the Christians church established the sin of Onan.

There is stil the potential to form a human out of every ejaculation.
But let's save this for private messages or a seperate thread, so we don't derail this one.

 

I felt the same way for quite a while. Funnily enough I was also depressed at the time.

I now feel differently about it and have come to realise that there is quite a difference between suicide and euthanasia. The former is treatable and making the decision to commit suicide is based on a lot of unrealistic thoughts and beliefs.

If you are suffering from a terminal illness from which there is no potential for recovery and you are in a great deal of pain because of that illness, then, with the supervision of a medical practitioner decide to end your life then I believe this has a sound ethical basis.

Like Aussie said, I think suicide needs to come out of the dark and we need to stop viewing those who are suicidal as bad people who are committing some kind of transgression.

 

I have been thinking a bit about this, even though it is legal a failed suicide attempt will almost certainty get you admitted into a Psyche ward against your will

 

While a good intention, any state run psych hospital may as well be a prison...

But funding for mental health services is a whole other issue.

 

My mother gets many, many patients who try to commit suicide, and once they're healed, they're generally very glad to be sent to the psychiatrists. Failed suicide attempts can bring life back into people when they realise what they'd miss in life.

I'm not saying that all suicidal people want to live, but most will be able to relish life if they're taken care of and understood. Suicide-shaming will only lead to more suicide. We need to open our arms, our minds, and our hearts, and say that though it isn't the answer, that we still love you.

 

I've always thought that if it was because of the continue pressures that brings on deep depression why would a person want to feed into what some one else has done, to put them into such a state of depression. why let them win. turn it around and stay alive and not give them the pleasure that they succeeded. every one of us in one form or another, even in this community, are brought to this point by some homophobic idealism that some religious moron feels from their interpitation of the bible. society is in general a basket full of idiots. I have thought about it many a time, but I guess I'm a fighter because I am not going to let some moron get his or her way. I am what and who I am and the rest of this friggin world can kiss my bare tan ass, because all that is important to me is that I love my self and who and what I am, (while their at it rim job wouldn't hurt either) someone that is letting it take over their life really needs to see someone about. Life is to dam short in the first place why would we want to make it any shorter, anything can happen from a plain falling from the sky's to getting hit by a drunk driver
Sorry guess I'm kind of pro life.

 

I'm of the opinion that people have the right to take their lives, and physical force shouldn't be used to prevent them (specifically, institutionalisation. Pushing someone out of the way is fine), however, in appropriate situations, you should try to reason with them, and the state should offer counselling etc. Because while taking your life is a right that shouldn't be taken away, most suicidal people go on to value their life again.

 

I agree with this statement. While we may not like that some people choose to take their lives, it is no more our decision than it is the person next to you (Unless it happens to be the suicidee) That being said, I would hope that the person talks about it or thinks about it. Because if you kill yourself on the first whim, then you leave alot of doors open in yourself and others minds.

 

I support assisted suicide, but not euthanasia. Christians never say "assisted suicide" but they call it euthanasia. The difference is that with assisted suicide, the doctor prescribes you a lethal dose of medication, but you're the one who has to administer the drugs and sign all sorts of papers and make a video where you say in your own words that this is what you want. Euthanasia is where they just put you out and you're done.

I only support assisted suicide if you're terminally ill and that's what you want to do. If you're just depressed, it's a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

 

I had a couple of days inside one, it was more like a hotel than a hospital. Still a scary place to be but to be fair the staff there did want to help me and did their best to look after me.

This is the UK mind which has a very good mental health system

 

I agree as well. I think it's terrible how especially old, terminally ill people, have to go through SO much hassle before being "allowed" or helped to end their life. My father works with such people and he says that he finds it inhuman that they are somewhat forced to stay alive. He also says that if he ever ends up like them, he wants to be dead because there's no use in living.

What I found especially interesting is what he said about the expense of taking care of these people. If every one of those people, that are not conciously living for example, would in some way to be possible to end their lives (by having relatives make that decision for them, for example), it would save society loads of money. That's what really got me thinking about the whole subject. I don't see how it's such a big deal. Some people just are better off not living than being forced to stay alive.

 

The issue with suicide because of mental health issues is that the person who wishes to commit suicide at that time in their lives cannot see the scope of their life and existence beyond suicide. As I said, my work in mental health has people change their minds about their lives, the worth of their lives and their capability to enjoy life. I cannot share specific details but I have worked with someone who was raped at the age of 14 by a family member, became pregnant, forced a miscarriage and hid the baby's body in the wardrobe for three months before it was discovered... When she arrived she had every intention of committing suicide and who could possibly blame her for feeling that way? For two years she tried constantly to kill herself whenever she could but then things began to change for her and she was able to find herself becoming a bright, humourous, person enjoying her life and having ambitions for her future. She left a completely different seeming person from the one who arrived. I have no doubt that the terrible pain of her experiences is still with her but it no longer defines her and I know that she is now someone who wants to live and who values her life. That version of her is an important person who will go on to support others to come through the experience of wanting to end their lives and is a very important person - and this version who means so much and will help so many people wouldn't even exist if the utterly lost, traumatised and 'broken' person who came to us had been allowed to die.

This person is only one example but is the one who comes to mind because recovery seemed so unlikely at the start. It is true that legally in the UK people have the right to end their own lives if they are not diagnosably mentally ill and they cannot be sectioned simply for wishing to end their own lives. But that choice at time comes from the darkest and most unpleasant of places and may have so little to do with the person that someone has the potential to become. At the risk of sounding trivial, I often think of "The Princess Bride" quote - "life is pain, anyone who says differently is selling something" but life is also joy, humour, lust, irony, fun and a whole host of other things and to give it all up for oblivion is never worth it.

 

I've had horrible pain for about a year some time ago, without a good diagnosis (Because the doctors who treated me failed really hard). It wasn't terminal or life-threatening (apart from the strong urge to end my life with each pain attack), but I think in this case I had every right to euthanasia or suicide (If I had decided to end my life I'd try to go for euthanasia and if it wasn't allowed, I'd have held a goodbye-party and ended it afterwards regardless of the law).

So I think euthanasia/assisted suicide should be allowed (if you've had medical support first), but I think that suicide is always a bad idea.

 

Suicide shouldn't be criminalized, shamed, or kept secret, but neither should it be encouraged, idealized, or joked about. I think it should always be a last resort, but while the person in question is still alive, and especially if they're making an effort to get better, we should do everything in our power to ensure they recover and the chance of relapse is minimized.

Yes, technically, we should have the "right" to take our own lives, but that's a limited way of looking at it. Take into account, for example, that one family member committing suicide increases the chances of another doing the same. It's definitely not the type of choice you'd want to make on a whim, and unfortunately, a lot of times it is, since they feel hopeless and alone.

Suffering from severe depression, I've been there before, many times.

 

I think we should help people get a good life oppose to ending their lives.