Comment by barry-cotter | Hacker News Reader

Comment by barry-cotter | Hacker News Reader

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I loathe your condescension. If someone wants to die and they still want to die a month later, let them. By what right do we force those who want to die to suffer a little longer? If it's their life why can't they end it if they will?

You know what's not a terminal illness that is bad enough that many with it would welcome death? Schizophrenia. For some the medicine works, the side effects are acceptable, they can lead a normal life. But there are plenty who can't. You know what else isn't a terminal illness that would make you long for oblivion? Surviving when the rest of your family didn't, surviving when the accident was your fault.

And you know what, if you think your life isn't worth living and you want out, you are suffering.

I've been depressed, I've been very depressed indeed and I'm glad to have seen the back of it but there are plenty who spend years and decades there and if they want out they should be let go, not locked up "for their own safety"

I'm not sure I saw the same condescension you did. I think the parent were simply pointing out that not everyone who wants to kill themselves is the same. Some people who want to kill themselves actually have solutions available to them that will make them not only not want to kill themselves, but also live fulfilling and enjoyable lives.

The grandparent was saying it should be easier for people to kill themselves, and I think the parent was trying to point out that this isn't a perfect solution since there are so many who think that suicide is their only option but there are really other options.

> By what right

You assume 100% self ownership of one's life, which I find silly. Society makes large investments in individuals and typically they have long term duties that cannot rightfully be abandoned.

Well in America anyway, the dominant culture is of an independent right to choose your own way. Especially in the arena of personal health and welfare.

> duties

We don't have a choice in being born, and we don't have a choice in dying either. This very thought alone can make quite a lot of people want to kill themselves.

The fact that society loses money and investment when a person dies is not the responsibility of the person. Society works the way it does without asking us for a say in it. Its been this way since ages, and will continue for ages. I as an individual cannot do anything to make society see me as non-existent. Or if I do, then this should be laid out as a series of steps. In this article, its mentioned the medical area loses $1 million per suicide, as if when I am in a state to kill myself I should feel guilty that I am 'owned' by society and by killing myself i will be 'stealing' from it. Pathetic.

So it's not out of compassion that you'd want to talk anyone out of suicide, but because they owe you/society something?

Also consider the chances that someone who wants to kill himself isn't too pleased with what "society" did for/to him.

On the contrary, I think people are most often suicidal because they fail to perceive their role in society as meaningful. To the extent this happens it is because of deep-seated problems in modern industrialism c.f. Ted Kaczynski. The cracks are just far too large in modern economic systems. Public social welfare programs play a large role in disconnecting people from their kin and neighbors; it becomes easy to feel irrelevant in supporting others.

The failures of modern industrial capitalism and social programs don't change the the underlying reality of suicide, however. It is a form of desertion, or dereliction of duty. This is more apparent in smaller scale societies.

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