My take on suicide is that anyone committing it is almost always under so much pressure of one sort or another that it is very difficult to make any kind of moral judgement about it. If it were possible to take it on its own, as an act of free will, then I would say it is wrong; I don't believe there is anyone on this earth who would not seriously hurt someone else by committing suicide. But I think I have only ever read of one case in my life where it appeared to be a true act of free will, and that was so bizarre that it has stuck in my head since. Normally, I believe the closest moral parallel to suicide is that of a person who commits a crime under duress. If you give the robbers the key to the safe of the bank where you work because they will kill you if you don't, it would be ridiculous to argue that you were as morally responsible for your actions as if you were in league with them and performed the act of your own free will.
The exceptional case which stuck in my mind happened in India, as so many strange things do. A young couple, from Mumbai I think, both IT consultants and earning good salaries, committed suicide by hanging themselves together in their flat. Before they did so, they carefully drew up a joint will and deposited a sum of money in a separate account to pay for their funeral expenses. They left a note saying that they were completely satisfied with life, and were committing suicide because of this.
That boggles my mind entirely. I don't know - maybe they thought things couldn't get any better for them, and if they continued to live things could only get worse? But in this case, and this case only, I can be quite definite about saying they did something morally wrong. There was no pressure on them at all (as, sadly, there is on so many less fortunate people in India; the number of poor farmers who commit suicide in that country because of insurmountable debt has reached epidemic proportions), and they will have inflicted pain on their relatives and friends which will take a long time to heal.
Postscript: my uncle, who was what was then called manic-depressive and is now called bipolar, committed suicide. I didn't, and still don't, blame him in the slightest, but I still miss him and I truly wish he could have been better helped.
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Date: 2011-10-29 03:21 pm (UTC)From:The exceptional case which stuck in my mind happened in India, as so many strange things do. A young couple, from Mumbai I think, both IT consultants and earning good salaries, committed suicide by hanging themselves together in their flat. Before they did so, they carefully drew up a joint will and deposited a sum of money in a separate account to pay for their funeral expenses. They left a note saying that they were completely satisfied with life, and were committing suicide because of this.
That boggles my mind entirely. I don't know - maybe they thought things couldn't get any better for them, and if they continued to live things could only get worse? But in this case, and this case only, I can be quite definite about saying they did something morally wrong. There was no pressure on them at all (as, sadly, there is on so many less fortunate people in India; the number of poor farmers who commit suicide in that country because of insurmountable debt has reached epidemic proportions), and they will have inflicted pain on their relatives and friends which will take a long time to heal.
Postscript: my uncle, who was what was then called manic-depressive and is now called bipolar, committed suicide. I didn't, and still don't, blame him in the slightest, but I still miss him and I truly wish he could have been better helped.