Assisted suicide is one of those things that makes perfect logical sense, but is hamstrung by a common lizard brain reaction we all have. One of those things people don't like, or feels icky, and they have no idea why they feel that way.
There is always the potential for those mechanisms to be abused, making it taboo instead is the best prevention you can have for this.
There is also the problem that suicide is a very final decision; people regret their choices (often years later) all the time, opening the suicide-door would lead invariably to cases where people throw away the rest of their life even though it would've had immeasurable value to them later had they lived on.
Normalizing suicide in general could also lead to societal changes where death is the expected/desired outcome, and people are basically compelled by group dynamics, even in situations where we would absolutely not see this as justified or desirable currently (i.e. people suiciding because they killed their child in an accident).
It isn't the case that people on a bad day can just walk in to die. It takes months or years of therapy.
I think that's the right approach. Dying is final, but there are also good reasons why someone might want to die early.
I can see that you have never worked in suicide prevention.
And I think I agree with your comment. Making it taboo might among other unintended things, increase the allure through rebellion or breaking the rules of those who inspired the will to die.
This much is well known: making ANY topic "taboo" for discussion is bad for mental health generally, and prevents people (specifically suicidal people) from seeking the help they need.
It's not a big mystery why: attaching guilt and shame (or legal penalties) to some thought or speech or act will make people much less likely to discuss it. Even when it's burning up their mind from the inside.
Admirable. And difficult I presume.
Recognizing something as so bad as to be "out of the pale" does not mean that people will not talk about their desire to do it. That depends on a different societal measure - how willing are people to be open about who they really are and what they are experiencing in the moment.
They assume that half the population isn’t below average when it comes to intelligence.
It’s similar to the analogy that crime would go down if every human had a gun, but the analogy fails because of human flaws.
Assisted suicide will always be abused; mentally ill will be killed; kids who want more tax savings will push the button, etc.
Most mentally ill people are still perfectly capable of making decisions and you need the approval of 2 doctors.
You clearly missed all the discourse about MAID in Canada, where people accused the government/medical care system of pushing people into committing suicide so they'd be less of a burden on the medical system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia_in_Canada#Criticism
If they are equally distributed then it's unlikely to be coercive in nature but if there is coercion then the proportion of usage by demographic is unlikely to match those demographic's respective proportions in the total Canadian population.
How would you distinguish between the government coercing a demographic into suicide and that demographic just having a higher-than-average predisposition for it? E.g. people with depression or chronic illness/pain.
In terms of contemporary Canada, what if First Nations people end up using it much more often because they have much higher rates of poverty and drug abuse in their communities? On an individual bodily autonomy level that feels like fair game, but on a societal level the injustice is blatant.
Are you using an extremely controversial source on purpose, to prove some sort of point, or are you genuinely unaware of his cultural position?
Personally, I don't find myself not watching the content of someone just because they say things I disagree with or the world has tried to cancel them. Every now and then I'll watch Peterson's podcast if he's interviewing someone I'm interested in hearing from, but it's not like he takes up a large part of my attention.
I'm still a little bit taken aback that I'm here on HN having to account for merely posting a YouTube link.
A lot of "intelligent" people get caught up in this way.