Is it selfish to prevent people from commiting suicide?

[ScrubberDucky]

Every single time I've attempted (more than most people ever will), I realized I was glad I didn't go through with it, eventually, some time afterwards. I couldn't tell you what the RIGHT thing is to do or what you SHOULD do, but personal experience has convinced me to at least try and stop anyone who tries themself.

 

[William Ossiss]

fuck yeah it is. all the people ive saved from suicide was simply because
if i cant quit, then they cant either.

 

[Lukyo]

If a person's actually owned his/her own life then preventing suicide might be considered selfish, but only if you are saving them for your sake an not theirs.

Of course no person actually does own his/her life so I don't see how it is selfish. Your life is a gift and no one has the right to throw it away. Suicide is an act of selfishness.

 

[Yopaz]

Actually despite popular belief a lot of suicides aren't caused by years of depression. In fact a large perecentage of people who have been saved from a suicide attempt don't actually end up killing themselves.

So yeah, preventing someone from killing themselves is a good idea. Even if they still want to kill themselves afterwards at least they'll hopefully get the attention they need.

It's not selfish, and you know why? They once interviewed people who had jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge trying to commit suicide and survived. 100% of them regretted it on the way down, and thought of all the things that they had to live for. Not one said they felt okay with their decision. In that moment, they all just wanted to live. Suicide really is a cry for help

These 2 posts wrap this thread up completely.

It's not selfish. However I don't think suicide is selfish, considering the fact that suicide is selfish is. A person who's obviously feeling like there's no way out and doesn't know what to do does something irrational, irrational means there's no weighted thoughts behind it, is selfish because he didn't consider those who get hurt because of it?!Should we also say it's selfish to defend a country because of the knowledge that we might die and leave sad friends and family behind? When someone commits suicide you should think about what YOU could have done, not make it all about you! It's not like someone does it just to be an asshole!

 

[Callate]

If someone is in debilitating pain or down-spiralling dementia and their prognosis is that their condition will only worsen, I can understand if they want to make the decision to end their own life. And I grant that there could be selfishness in wanting to keep them around against their wishes.

In most cases, though, the desire to prevent suicide isn't selfish. In many cases, it's downright heroic. Depression effects an enormous number of people, and there's no nobility in standing back while someone who is, in fact, sick destroys themselves while there's every chance that they could get better, and brings grief to the lives of anyone who loved them. Even the vast majority of people who have "legitimate reasons" for wanting to end their own lives could see those lives get better if they had a chance and the help they need.

Countless people may die in accidents or murders every day, but that doesn't make suicide a meaningless or selfless act. Such a view is nihilism, and brings its own selfishness with it.

 

[Nocturnal Gentleman]

I think its selfish for people to suicide at all.

Everyone has someone that cares about them. To commit suicide is to say "I don't care about what you think, I'm taking this way out."

It's just a cowardly way to deal with problems.

This is the common perception but it isn't always the case. I'll give you a personal suicide story. A family member with a severe mental illness. It was an illness that could not be treated well and didn't improve from any drug taken. He wanted to kill himself because he was tired of being a burden on the life of his loved ones and he was tired of merely existing not living. He was too unstable to function on his own and he required so much care that it hindered his parents from living their lives to the fullest. He wanted everyone to let him go and live their lives to the fullest potential. He was given the talks but it was useless. He was tired of suffering and seeing his parents suffer. So he eventually shot himself in the head.

When he died the funeral was strange. It was depressing but also somewhat a relief. He was at peace with himself and no one could argue against his reason. You tell me, was he selfish? Shooting yourself in the face is not something a coward could even do, and his reasoning was just as much for his loved ones as himself.

 

[Jacco]

"Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem." So I think they should get help, and only the most hopeless people (e.g. terminal illness patients) should be allowed a quicker way out.

I would argue that that isnt really "suicide" per se as if their circumstances were different they would not otherwise want to die. With a terminal illness, you are going to die eventually, usually relatively quickly. Ending it that much sooner is just avoiding the horribleness of whatever disease you have.
Suicidal people who are otherwise healthy individuals want to end their life when they would otherwise live a long and productive one.

 

[somonels]

So me and this guy were talking today at work and the topic of suicide came up ( because someone decided to jump in front of his train which made him get to work late). One line he said kind of distrubed me he said : " I have nothing against suicide , but don't piss people off while doing it ".

Heheh, that's called black humor. The last thing he does is to inconvenience random people and a note in the newspaper, that's what his life was worth.
Though there are some who do it without notifying anyone and start smelling up the place.

 

[InfiniteSingularity]

Well...if people want to do it who has the right to tell them they can't?

 

[Astoria]

What's selfish is wanting to commit suicide. It doesn't matter how awful you life if I can bet there is a least one person who's life is better because you're in it. Taking yourself away from them is a horrible thing to do. They have to live with the guilt of not being able to help you and have to worry if something they did made that person suicidal. It would be even worse if they had been trying to stop them killing themself and failed. All this is in the case of someone killing themself because they're depressed though. If we're talking about someone who is in great physical pain and/or dying then I have different views.

 

[Sharky200]

I don't think its selfish. It could be a side effect of a medication. Looking at it from that perspective. Is it truly the person's choice to end their life if its only a side effect? I think not. I have heard enough Law firm adds on TV about "If your family member committed suicide after taking such and such medication we can help." Sure they took the risk of taking a medication that may cause the side effect. And you may not know they are taking it when you hear about someone trying to commit suicide. Either way I will help them. Call me selfish if you will.

 

[Nackl of Gilmed]

What is selfish is killing yourself, because everyone who knew you will spend the rest of their lives wondering if something they did drove you to it.

 

[bauke67]

No. You're not doing it for yourself. That's what selfishness is.

If not for yourself, then why bother doing it at all, if you didn't do it for yourself, that would mean you didn't care for the other person at all, and probably saved him by accident.
If you save someone, you do it because it makes YOU feel better. You wouldn't have done it if you thought you'd feel bad about saving him later.

OT: Yes, but everything is, and they'll probably be glad you were selfish, afterward.

 

[alinos]

So me and this guy were talking today at work and the topic of suicide came up ( because someone decided to jump in front of his train which made him get to work late). One line he said kind of distrubed me he said : " I have nothing against suicide , but don't piss people off while doing it ".

Shocked by this comment i asked him what he meant by the fact he has nothing against suicide, because it was the first time i heard anyone say something like that, usually people want to prevent suicide and think it's a terrible act.

I think everyone should have the right to kill themselves if they want.

However i believe if your going to do so you should do it in your own home.

Standing on a bridge over a train line threatening to jump inconveniences a bunch of people and most of the time the person doing so is more of an attention seeker.

I've also seen a guy step off a platform into the path of a train arriving at the station. He done it at 8am. So the platform was full of people and kids on the way to School. Now this guy has just exposed all of them to a horrific event that could have scarred them for life.

Which is where i see the logic in preventing people from Public Suicide. If the person actually goes through with it, that's it there pain/suffering/whatever else has got them to the tipping point where they view life as not worth living, has ended. Yet the ramification's it can have on other people's live is astounding and no one no matter how much their life sucks has the right to cause that sort of impact on other's in order to end their own pain.

 

[Phisi]

I think that if someone wants to commit suicide then they should be allowed. Mostly due to philosophical reasons that even if we have free-will, we don't as not all options are available to us however if free-will is the freedom to choose then we do not have free-will as we could not choose whether we wanted to be alive or not. I think I will lose my sanity if I come to believe that I can not stop myself from existing. And mostly due to that I would not say I am for suicide, but I do not have a problem with it. I would not say it is selfish to stop someone from committing suicide but it can often be if you are a family member and are doing it because you don't want to deal with the trauma or if your religion is against suicide which is not really selfish unless your religion says that you will suffer if you do not try to stop sins or something oh well time to get back on track, it can be selfish but often it is not. Just poeples gut reactions. Just like if I were to ask you to change a switch to stop a run away train from killing five people to only killing one and if I asked you to push somebody of a footbridge onto the tracks to stop the train from killing five people. The first seems logical but for the second most people have a gut reaction that that is terrible and that they wouldn't even though they are essentially the same just your level of involvement.

 

[Phlakes]

No. You're not doing it for yourself. That's what selfishness is.

If not for yourself, then why bother doing it at all, if you didn't do it for yourself, that would mean you didn't care for the other person at all, and probably saved him by accident.
If you save someone, you do it because it makes YOU feel better. You wouldn't have done it if you thought you'd feel bad about saving him later.

OT: Yes, but everything is, and they'll probably be glad you were selfish, afterward.

The same goes for everything someone does. If you hold the door open for someone, it's because it makes you feel better about yourself. But selfishness is more like hurting someone else for your own good, but talking someone out of suicide is trying to help them, even if subconsciously it's for yourself.

 

[bauke67]

No. You're not doing it for yourself. That's what selfishness is.

If not for yourself, then why bother doing it at all, if you didn't do it for yourself, that would mean you didn't care for the other person at all, and probably saved him by accident.
If you save someone, you do it because it makes YOU feel better. You wouldn't have done it if you thought you'd feel bad about saving him later.

OT: Yes, but everything is, and they'll probably be glad you were selfish, afterward.

The same goes for everything someone does. If you hold the door open for someone, it's because it makes you feel better about yourself. But selfishness is more like hurting someone else for your own good, but talking someone out of suicide is trying to help them, even if subconsciously it's for yourself.

Alright, I guess I can agree with that.

 

[Gustavo S. Buschle]

Funny thing about selfishness: If the person kill itself, the person is selfish because of the sorrow its family will go trough, if the family prevents the person from killing itself then the family is selfish for the sadness the person will have to go through. I say we star giving actual arguments rather than saying "x/y, because it's selfish".