[2623] in Depressing_Thoughts
Re: suicidal thoughts
bcb@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (bcb@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Thu Dec 12 18:08:30 1991
>Helping a suicidal person is always preferable to watching them kill
>themselves.
Why?
Our society has the notion that everybody should live, whether or not they
want to, whether or not there are sufficient resources available to them,
whether or not they are good or socially useful or responsible or anything
else. Why is this the case?
Is it not at least as rational (if not as emotionally satisfying) to
suppose that if a person wants to kill him/herself, then he/she should be
allowed to do so in peace?
Note that I am not making statements here, I am asking questions. I am not
trying to say that this notion in our society is wrong; I am only trying to
see why it might exist. Please accept this in the spirit in which it is
asked; I am not advocating killing all suicidal people.
