Is suicide selfish?

Dalimyr

It's quite a pity reading through this thread how many people can be so naïve with their responses :sad:

What's naive about that? I think it's a perfectly valid theory.

Some suicidal people feel exactly as edanon said. It might not apply to all, but some. When you're that broken in the head that you want to kill yourself, how you would normally feel is long gone. Some people are so broken they don't even realise it, they think that it makes sense. They're operating on a different set of morals, priorities, logic etc. Some people really do not give a damn, or have at least subconsciously repressed any doubts which would further complicate their mind.

Yeah, some people do it because they think they're ridding loved ones of the burden or something. But I suppose what's really naive is assuming that every case is the same.

Reply 62

GeorgEGNT

Killing yourself when you have loved ones there for you, who do love you, is extremely selfish in my books. Simple as.

Reply 63

Cobbïns31770

9

It is only selfish when they make my train delayed or cancelled :fatcontroller:

That's happened thrice this academic year :stomp:

Reply 64

GeorgEGNT

Simple as.

No.

Reply 65

electrix

It is possibly the most selfish act you could possibly inflict on a family member, who will be forever haunted by their loss, while you will be down in your cold grave.Get help for your problems and dont cause pain for others. Majority of suicides are desperate acts for attention

Reply 66

edanon

11

electrix

It is possibly the most selfish act you could possibly inflict on a family member, who will be forever haunted by their loss, while you will be down in your cold grave.Get help for your problems and dont cause pain for others. Majority of suicides are desperate acts for attention

But thats from the perception of the living people.

If they kill themselves they don't give a ****.. thats the point... or at least they don't care enough to not kill themselves.

If they don't care about how selfish their act is then anyone telling them it is selfish is meaningless to them.

Reply 67

Incidentally, a good article by Ben McIntyre in The Times today:

Suicide remains a baffling and frightening renunciation of hope. Self-preservation is, along with procreation, the strongest human instinct. Yet suicide occurs, to greater and lesser degrees, in every society, and is almost always regarded as a violation of nature and instinct. [...] But there is nothing inevitable about suicide. It is a moral tragedy to see the early warning signs, and do nothing about it.

Cannot be judged by normal standards. My point exactly.

Reply 68

Searchlight

I somehow do not happen to think that suicide is selfish. Some people may think so. I think it requires a lot of courage to take away your own life and it should always be avoided. It can leave your kith and kins in a lot of pain. :frown:

Reply 69

Nambi

11

Stomm

You need to get him sectioned, simple as that really. Speak to your GP about it, indeed write them a letter and then if anything goes wrong there is a paper-trail, so IoW they will try to ensure that nothing goes wrong.

You can't treat stuff like this with 'kid gloves'. If you really care for your dad you'll get him taken away by the men in white coats and he'll receive the care that he actually needs.

I have tried. I've phoned everywhere including his doc and wrote a letter. they all say nothing can be done unless he does it himself.

Reply 70

That's rubbish, the signature of a social worker and a GP is all that's needed to get a person sectioned under the mental health act... Since he's talking about topping himself, I'd say that sectioning him for his own personal safety is pretty much a given...

If all else fails write to your MP...

Reply 71

HappinessHappening

4

I think it depends. If they are leaving behind a family then I can't help but feel that way sometimes.

Reply 72

Just_Izzy

At the end of the day, its selfish yes, but isn't that the whole point? Its YOUR body, YOUR life, YOUR choice. Yes, you might upset a lot of people, but frankly, if you've got to that point where you want to commit suicide, I don't think being "selfish" is going to be on the top of you concern list.

Reply 73

3105

THAT is selfish.

Not at all. Suicide is just about the most irrational thing a person can do, short of murder-suicide. Put quite simply the mere serious contemplation of suicide is obviously indicative of some sort of mental health issues, never mind openly threatening to carry them out...

It's a mad world we live in, but you really must be mad to want to leave early...

Reply 74

Stomm

Not at all. Suicide is just about the most irrational thing a person can do, short of murder-suicide. Put quite simply the mere serious contemplation of suicide is obviously indicative of some sort of mental health issues, never mind openly threatening to carry them out...

It's a mad world we live in, but you really must be mad to want to leave early...

Yes but from someone else's point of view, you'd be mad to want to stay. They think they're seeing clearly, they think they're understanding what their life really is, and they can't hack it. It goes against how most people are programmed so yes we call it irrational but to them it's the only thing that makes sense.

And I think most people have thought about killing themselves at some point. Maybe not actually planned it or wanted to do it, but sometimes thought "I wouldn't care if that car just hit me" or "what if...?"

Reply 75

common_person

Yes but from someone else's point of view, you'd be mad to want to stay. They think they're seeing clearly, they think they're understanding what their life really is, and they can't hack it. It goes against how most people are programmed so yes we call it irrational but to them it's the only thing that makes sense.

And I think most people have thought about killing themselves at some point. Maybe not actually planned it or wanted to do it, but sometimes thought "I wouldn't care if that car just hit me" or "what if...?"

Precisely, which is why they are mentally ill, just take Islamic suicide bombers for instance. They have firstly rationalised their actions as not being suicide, but martyrdom, thus ensuring their position in heaven, and that the more non-believers, etc... that they take with them the more secure their position in the afterlife is.

If you can think of a more insane and indeed murderous rationalisation of the irrational, well I'd very much like to hear it. Even MAD had rather frighteningly sound, if very cold indeed logic behind it, well except when confronted by Mao...

Now of course not all situations where suicidal thoughts are entertained are the same. For instance a teenager despondent at their romantic advances being rejected, compared to a terminal cancer patient where the symptoms of their cancer has caused great loss of mobility, speech, sight and so on...

For one, it is fairly obvious that there is indeed better yet to come, so the 'suffering' is very much of a transitory nature. For the later, you have real quality of life issues to consider, and it brings into question the whole self euthanising question, which there really is no easy or simple answer.

Reply 76

LinzyLoo

17

I don't think suicide is selfish. Somebody who feels so low, and that they have nothing worth living for, and is so completely unbearably unhappy... I'd imagine they would be so completely engulfed in their unhappiness that they wouldn't be able to think of anything else.. or see a way out..
As someone who has suffered from depression in the past I can honestly say that if it was a recurring thing which plagued my life forever, I think I would probably do it. I couldn't cope with that unbearable unhappiness, year after year after year, for the rest of my life. That's not a life.
Sure, your friends and family would be upset, but isn't it more selfish of them to want you to keep living, dispite knowing how miserable you are? I think wanting somebody to live like that forever just so that you dont lose them is the most selfish thing imaginable. It's like keeping a dying pet who is in permenant agony alive just because you don't want them to go.

Reply 77

Apparition

It depends on the situation.

If the person did it to avoid suffering more pain on a personal level I wouldn't think so.

If the person did it to avoid facing the consequence of his/her actions that have affected others then it certainly is selfish.

It depends.

Reply 78