Posted this on another board, thought it was interesting, gotta post it here ;)

Suicide is an interesting topic, a very touchy one too. Fully realizing this, I will give my ideas on it.

I do think it is wrong for a person to do. I mean, sure, its wrong in a theological sense if you believe that (somthing I don't) but its also wrong in an ethical sense. It hurts those around you, it is a selfish thing for you to do, because (barring your belief in theology) the only people you affect is those around you.
I, as some people know, am a subscriber to Immanuel Kant's catagorical imperative. I feel its the only universal law that there is (with a few modifcations with Kant made semi-clear later on.)
His imperative states "Act only on that maxim whereby thou canst at the same time will that it should become universal law."
Or, in a language we can understand, only do things that you'd think would make sense for other people to do as well. This is your duty as a human, as a creature of nature.
In giving his reasonings and examples for this, the very first one he chooses is sucide. I'll type what he says in "The Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals". Yes, I'll type, as in I'd like it if people actually read what I said before calling me wrong/whatever.

A man reduced to despair by a series of misfortunes feels wearied of life, but is still so far in possession of his reason that he can ask himself whether it would be not contrary to his duty to himself to take his own life. Now he inquires whether the maxim of his action could become a universal law of nature. His maxim is: From self-love I adopt it as a principle to shorten my life when its longer duration is likely to bring more evil and satisfaction. It is asked then simply whether this principle founded on self-love can become a universal law of nature. Now we see at once that a system of nature of which it should be a law to destroy life by means of the very feeling whose special nature it is to impel to the improvement of life would contradict itself, and therefore could not exist as a system of nature; hence that maxim cannot possibly exist as a universal law of nature, and consequently would be wholly inconsistent with the supreme principle of duty.

As is clearly outlined, sucide in itself goes against our duty has humans, and against the very system of nature itself, thereby making it, in a sense, immoral.

Now, I do say this on a couple of conditions. One being that the majority of people who do actually kill themselves, while prehaps suffering from some sort of mental depression or the like, do understand fully the meanings of their actions. Sucide isn't somthing that people normally do in a state of full self-loathing, mainly becausre sucide is a concious act that requires the mind to be fully "on board" with in order to follow through. As such, most people are in the state of mind, or near enough to the state of mind to ask themselves that sort of question.
For those who are fully insane or not cognitant of their actions, then there is an allowance because they are unable to question themselves in such a matter. Otherwise, I do hold them to the catagorical imperative, at least in my mind.

I'm just going to copy and paste my posts from IF if you don't mind. :P


Everyone is saying how it's the person's choice.
But do you really think it's okay for a 15 year old kid to kill themselves over a girl or bully? That's emotion causing them to feel that way. They don't like how their life is going at that moment so they decide to kill themselves, which is permanent.
The fact that a friend or family member has killed themselves doesn't justify anything. Suicide is wrong and it should be prevented. The only time I can personally understand it is if they're dieing from a terminal disease and they'd rather finish they're life before everyday becomes physically torturous until they die anyway.
Emotions can be torturous as well, but then again it can be torturous one day and totally fine the next for a year, and then totally fine for the rest of your life. Do you really think anyone who attempted suicide at 15 because they were upset about a bully for four hours was dissapointed they didn't go through with it as 35? The emotions one feels at a certain time of their life don't justify taking it away. And it isn't a choice, because when a person attempts suicide they aren't in the correct state of mind to make that decision anyway, they aren't themselves, they think and act differently.




Ultimately it's also my decision on whether or not to bring a gun to school and kill everyone who's last name starts with a 'K'.
Ultimately it's my decision on whether or not to go down to Virginia Beach and rape every person wearing blue.
Ultimately it's my decision on whether or not to kill myself.

Why don't I do any of those? Because one, I'm not a psycho. And two because they are the wrong things to do. Just because it's a decision you can make doesn't make it right. There are a lot of things in this world that are ultimately our own decisions. What protects the world from complete and utter chaos are morals which stop people from doing those things. Everyone has morals, you don't even have to be religious to have them. Regardless of your beliefs, everyone knows wrong from right.
Is suicide the person's fault. No, because anyone who would kill themself is in such a state of mind to not fully comprehend what it is they're doing. They're mind is playing such a deep trick on them that all it's telling them is that it'll prevent whatever is happening that they don't like from continuing, without telling them all the other bad things that will happen. What is wrong is people condoning it, because that's when it becomes out of control. Because even suicidal people can be saved, you can't simply say "if it's really what they want, then let them do it" because it isn't truly what anyone wants, other than a terminally ill person, which is a whole different topic of discussion.



They might seem a little out of context. I'm not sure.