Suicide is an irreversible choice. All I am saying is to provide an avenue for the person contemplating this act to talk with someone about it. If, after having done this, they still want to die - that choice still exists.
Marc Riddell
I have lost friends to suicide. I have seen children orphaned and wives and mothers left in total despair. To suggest that suicide is just another rational life choice, and collapse the debate into the euthanasia debate is ignorant and offensive.
Most people do not commit suicide by rational choice - they are often mentally ill, clinically depressed, or driven to it in despair in a time of often temporary crisis. Many are ill and need treatment - not rights. Many are young men with little life experience. Many 'suicides' are simply self-harmers crying for help, but going too far.
Perhaps there are cases of rational, sound choice decisions, somewhere. But to suggest that this is the norm and debate from there is just libertarian piffle that puts abstract notions of right above the welfare of real hurting and vulnerable people.
Suicide isn't just an individual's choice. Suicide is devastating, it wastes lives and affects whole families and communities. It is certainly not a debating point for civil libertarians of individualism.