J
JesuXPIPassio
Guest
What are some of the other arguments against suicide and euthanasia? We all know the standard one: only God has the right to take life. But, that argument carries less and less weight in our society where agnosticism (and other areligious sympathies) are gaining strength. But I’ll also note that I know of one case where a woman wanted to be euthanised and her pastor (I don’t know what denomination) said it was okay. There must be more reasons than that.
I saw Frontline last night and they covered a professor who opted for physician-assisted suicide. He was an agnostic; religious reasoning wouldn’t work on people like him.
As suicide and euthanasia are indeed wrong, I believe there must be other social effects that show how wrong they are. When there are immoral things, it seems to me that God shows us they are wrong not only by saying so, but by putting hints in the world to show how those wrong things degrade society. Something as horrible as euthanasia must have visible negative effects, and there must be more reasons that lead one to condemn this practise.
I researched on the Swiss company Dignitas which provides euthanasia as a service, and one surprising thing I learnt was that a number of the people who seek their services aren’t even ill themselves. There are couples who choose to die by euthanasia when they find out only one partner is ill. For example one couple where the husband was blind and deaf chose to die together because the husband was so dependent from his terminally-ill wife. So opening up euthanasia to people in pain sort of slides the standard – today it might be for people who are terminally-ill. tomorrow it might be for people who aren’t terminal but in a lot of pain; further down, it might be for people who are just depressed. Actually even that has already happened: in Switzerland, physician-assisted suicide is legal for people with mental illness. How crazy is that.
But even then again, we could argue that a person has the right to commit suicide. Unlike abortion, suicide truly is something that a person does to him or herself (abortion is different – that “nobody’s body but my own” stuff is rubbish because it’s the baby’s body).
Another thing I saw was Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s comments that publicising euthanasia is bad because it may lead people to believe that they *should *kill themselves when they become gravely ill. It also illustrates, there is the potential for the standard to slide down; soon it’s going become commonplace. Something like abortion: it was once recognised to be horrible, but it became too accepted and too common, something that people actually pride themselves that they can do.
Other arguments I found (and I will rebutt, not because I am for suicide, but because I think it’s important to find rock-hard arguments that would work universally and can’t be torn down by other opposing opinions):
-Think of those you will leave behind
There are suicidal people who don’t have anyone to leave behind. Think of, say, the homeless; they might not have families (at least none with whom they maintain contact). Or the elderly, many of whom are all alone. You could tell them that they can make friends; but let’s say that they can’t because they have really bad social skills; or perhaps they are so depressed that they feel hopeless with regard to that and everything else. Besides, potential friends or family in the future wouldn’t remedy this argument of leaving people behing because it points to people who are in their lives at the present.
-About euthanasia, having doctors kill patients only legitimises suicide as an option for people, which would only mean more suicides, more acceptance of it.
But proponents of physician-assisted suicide will argue that greater acceptance of it is not a bad thing at all, the it would liberate people into thinking they can do this. And patients in this case who do want to kill themselves don’t care what the social effects are – all they are concerned with is themselves at the present. I don’t mean to say they are selfish, but their personal struggles which must be very deep if they are considering suicide trump the possible effects on the world they’ll leave behind anyway.
-There is so much to live for.
Well, depressed people don’t see it that way. All they see is pain, unhappiness, emptiness, etc. For them, this argument doesn’t work. And their depression might come with feelings of pessimism and hopelessness, so for them, circumstances will never change.
Some arguments for suicide:
-Person doesn’t want to be a burden to his or her family.
-Person is in so much pain, wants it to end.
-Person can’t afford medical bills so wants to end it already.
-Person has a nihilistic philosophy; doesn’t matter if they live or die.
-Person’s family can actually benefit financially from the person dying already (insurance money, for instance; or like Bud Dwyer who wanted to die while he was still in elected office so his widow can enjoy his pension, which totaled over a million dollars).
-About physician-assisted suicide in particular, a 1997 survey done by the American Medical Association showed that a majority of Americans think physician-assisted suicide should be legal; if you go purely by the democratic model, then the people’s opinion prevails and it should be legalised.
-Person might actually find it comforting to know exactly when death will come rather than waiting for the unexpected.
This is a fascinating social topic. I do wonder what sort of doctor actually makes this his life’s work, and there must be a sufficient number of them if euthanasia can become such an issue. If there were only just a few doctors on the fringe, it seems the scenario would be much different. It’s like abortion – what kind of a doctor actually makes it his speciality?
Anyway, what are the other arguments for why suicide is wrong?
I saw Frontline last night and they covered a professor who opted for physician-assisted suicide. He was an agnostic; religious reasoning wouldn’t work on people like him.
As suicide and euthanasia are indeed wrong, I believe there must be other social effects that show how wrong they are. When there are immoral things, it seems to me that God shows us they are wrong not only by saying so, but by putting hints in the world to show how those wrong things degrade society. Something as horrible as euthanasia must have visible negative effects, and there must be more reasons that lead one to condemn this practise.
I researched on the Swiss company Dignitas which provides euthanasia as a service, and one surprising thing I learnt was that a number of the people who seek their services aren’t even ill themselves. There are couples who choose to die by euthanasia when they find out only one partner is ill. For example one couple where the husband was blind and deaf chose to die together because the husband was so dependent from his terminally-ill wife. So opening up euthanasia to people in pain sort of slides the standard – today it might be for people who are terminally-ill. tomorrow it might be for people who aren’t terminal but in a lot of pain; further down, it might be for people who are just depressed. Actually even that has already happened: in Switzerland, physician-assisted suicide is legal for people with mental illness. How crazy is that.
But even then again, we could argue that a person has the right to commit suicide. Unlike abortion, suicide truly is something that a person does to him or herself (abortion is different – that “nobody’s body but my own” stuff is rubbish because it’s the baby’s body).
Another thing I saw was Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s comments that publicising euthanasia is bad because it may lead people to believe that they *should *kill themselves when they become gravely ill. It also illustrates, there is the potential for the standard to slide down; soon it’s going become commonplace. Something like abortion: it was once recognised to be horrible, but it became too accepted and too common, something that people actually pride themselves that they can do.
Other arguments I found (and I will rebutt, not because I am for suicide, but because I think it’s important to find rock-hard arguments that would work universally and can’t be torn down by other opposing opinions):
-Think of those you will leave behind
There are suicidal people who don’t have anyone to leave behind. Think of, say, the homeless; they might not have families (at least none with whom they maintain contact). Or the elderly, many of whom are all alone. You could tell them that they can make friends; but let’s say that they can’t because they have really bad social skills; or perhaps they are so depressed that they feel hopeless with regard to that and everything else. Besides, potential friends or family in the future wouldn’t remedy this argument of leaving people behing because it points to people who are in their lives at the present.
-About euthanasia, having doctors kill patients only legitimises suicide as an option for people, which would only mean more suicides, more acceptance of it.
But proponents of physician-assisted suicide will argue that greater acceptance of it is not a bad thing at all, the it would liberate people into thinking they can do this. And patients in this case who do want to kill themselves don’t care what the social effects are – all they are concerned with is themselves at the present. I don’t mean to say they are selfish, but their personal struggles which must be very deep if they are considering suicide trump the possible effects on the world they’ll leave behind anyway.
-There is so much to live for.
Well, depressed people don’t see it that way. All they see is pain, unhappiness, emptiness, etc. For them, this argument doesn’t work. And their depression might come with feelings of pessimism and hopelessness, so for them, circumstances will never change.
Some arguments for suicide:
-Person doesn’t want to be a burden to his or her family.
-Person is in so much pain, wants it to end.
-Person can’t afford medical bills so wants to end it already.
-Person has a nihilistic philosophy; doesn’t matter if they live or die.
-Person’s family can actually benefit financially from the person dying already (insurance money, for instance; or like Bud Dwyer who wanted to die while he was still in elected office so his widow can enjoy his pension, which totaled over a million dollars).
-About physician-assisted suicide in particular, a 1997 survey done by the American Medical Association showed that a majority of Americans think physician-assisted suicide should be legal; if you go purely by the democratic model, then the people’s opinion prevails and it should be legalised.
-Person might actually find it comforting to know exactly when death will come rather than waiting for the unexpected.
This is a fascinating social topic. I do wonder what sort of doctor actually makes this his life’s work, and there must be a sufficient number of them if euthanasia can become such an issue. If there were only just a few doctors on the fringe, it seems the scenario would be much different. It’s like abortion – what kind of a doctor actually makes it his speciality?
Anyway, what are the other arguments for why suicide is wrong?
