>
> 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
>
on 4/20/07 10:29 PM, doc at doc.wikipedia(a)ntlworld.com wrote:
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.
Doc,
This is from my original post which started this thread:
"I work with the core of a person. This is the deepest, most fundamental
part that exists before the cultural, social and religious are superimposed.
This is a person¹s ³gut instinct²; that part that says, ³this doesn¹t feel
right². When a conflict exists between what a person feels is right and what
they have been taught is right; this most often, results in emotional pain
and, in extreme cases, the person decides death is the only thing that can
relieve this pain.
It is my commitment to this person to help them resolve this pain."
I just wanted to be sure you understood that I completely agree with what
you said. In fact I was starting to feel that I was the only one who
believed this.
Marc Riddell