Suicide should be illegal

I'm torn. Most people who want suicide do need medical help, and I don't think you should let someone in their wrong mind do something that in their right mind they wouldn't want to do. Example, my brother had a friend who got drunk and thought driving into the ocean would be awesome. He was stopped. He probably was quite glad when he sobered up. I believe that was right.

However, what if suicide is a rational choice? What if it truly is what the person, in their right mind, wants? Then I think it should be legal. But how do you make sure they are? Tricky, tricky, tricky.

I have the most problem with ethics when dealing with people who possibly should have partial rights: mentally ill, whatever the current most polite word is for IQ-challenged, and children. They should still have rights and be able to make decisions that are respected, but not necessarily the full range... but balancing protection with respect is very difficult. And I know from having been a child just how much getting it wrong hurts, and is wrong.

I've dealt with a terminally ill parent. I strongly support a person's right to choose when and how they die.

I thought it already was?

wasn't a claim about what is; only about what should be.

Hyar. People should have to donate their bodies to science! Like in that one flash film... Yeah, and they take away their psyche and make them into zombies. That's what we oughtta do.

It was illegal in Ireland for years. People still did it. What are you going to do to someone who commits suicide? Put them in jail!

Assisted suicide is another issue.

Suicide generally effects someone else and almost everyone has someone that cares about them even if they don't realise it.

Also being suicidal could well be a curable psychological problem in many cases so allowing someone to do that to themselves when they have no way back is not a good idea IMO.

Since you can't stop someone from killing themselves, I don't see the point in making suicide illegal.

Once again, suicide is illegal so that people who attempt suicide but fail can be forced to get medical help. If suicide were legal, there wouldn't be an easy way to force someone to get help they didn't want.

The question is: should someone who wants to kill themself and tried it once be forced to get help or be allowed to not do so?

Psh, psychological treatment? Who needs it. Just hire a really hot hooker and your good.

If an 8ball and some hookers can not cure it then you deserve to die.

"If suicide were legal, there wouldn't be an easy way to force someone to get help they didn't want." -- I don't see how that's true. It seems to me there are people who have been involuntarily locked up without breaking any laws, and even if not, that could be arranged.

but then what about those people who have actually tried to get medical help, only to find that they weren't taken seriously. My cousin Neil was suicidal and turned himself into an emergency ward. He was sent to a specialist who gave him pamphlets and then sent him home.

huh, that was just so stupid of them & he died 3 days later. It makes me think that when people actually do stand up and say "hey, i'm sucidal here", doctors don't quite know how to deal with it. the only thing they can think of is giving them happy pills and locking them in an institution. Medical help isn't always the solution.

no; but i don't think the sorry state of the medical system is much improved by anti-suicide laws.

Yeah that was kind of my whole argument.
To make suicide illegal won't make a difference they'll still kill themselves if they really want to go.

interesting that so many people thinkt hat suicide should not be illegal, but it is immoral to kill someone else even if they consent.

I agree with the claim only in its given terms. I believe that suicide should be legal if assisted, and after being thoughtfully discussed. A silent suicide is hurtful to family especially, and often is the result of a premature decision.

and if it is "illegal".. what kind of penalty do you think gonna fit ?!
and to whom is gonna be the penalty?? to heirs !!

committing suicide is illegal so that attempting suicide can be illegal. (and in case you can't read English without extra punctuation, here's a few marks to toss in at your leisure: ??!!)

I was having a discussion with someone the other day about this very topic, My friend was arguing about how when animals are in pain we have the right to let them go peacefully, but when humans are in pain what happens to us??? Nothing, we're not allowed that sort of treatment, but then I argued if we didn't have the laws there would be no safe gaurd for the people that really have nothing to die for, like all those teenagers under the influence of drugs and 'stuff'.

The two different scenarios full under the same law, and that got me thinking, they should somehow split it into two different sections. Meh, I'm just thinking alowd here. :S