Quote:
Waychel:
> I think that to make suicide legal would be to make euthanasia legal,
surely we have the choice of whether to make one legal or both, no? |
In my opinion, this would be a very difficult thing to do, and an even more difficult thing to defend from having activists of euthanasia amend upon. Keep in mind that there are more people actively in the support of euthanasia (more for economic than emotional reasons) than there are in support of having suicide itself (regardless of circumstance) become legal.
I believe that such wording would come down to a person having the right to choose death so long as they are in their right state of mind; regardless of whether or not they are in control of themselves physically. However, this would bring into question whether a person was in a healthy psychological state to be demanding their right to suicide in the first place (considering that it does, afterall, go against the most basic of human drives; the will to survive)... a Catch 22.
Who knows, theoretically I suppose the chance exists that we could make suicide legal and euthanasia illegal... but from my own prospective, it is just highly unlikely.
Quote:
> I abhor suicide and find it one of the most dispicable and selfish acts that anyone can commit...
I think its more a question of how much a person can take. People arent made of steel, and even steel has its limits. And how much one has to endure depends on how one deals with problems: suicidals are often not very good at that. Note that does not make it a genetic weakness, since many go on to learn how to live more succesfully. |
I do not despise people for having suicidal thoughts, because it is natural when we are dealing with the most desperate of times to have the most desperate of thoughts occure to us in the hope of escaping our conditions. But the key point that you have made here is that, "many suicidals go on to learn how to live life more succesfully." This, to me, is key point as to why suicide should never be allowed to become legal. If we can have such an optomistic mindset regarding something so morbid as the legality of suicide and the illegality of euthanasia, then how can we not hold that same optomism for the majority of those with thoughts of suicide? As long as the possibility exists that these people can be helped, I believe that it is more humanitarian for this to remain illegal so that people may be restrained, counseled and given that help.
EDIT: Yikes, what's with the boards today? I was afraid this would end up as a double post because I had to enter it about 5 times. o_o;