Thread: Should you have the choice

Originally Posted by crocman

The last thing a drowning man does is take a breath for life.

True. The "jumpers" also leave behind fingernails and other evidence of themselves scrabbling away to try get back to the base after finally committing to the launch..

It would be good to have an option if you have a terminal or totally-debilitating illness or injury though.

Originally Posted by Albert Shagnastier

Of course you should have a choice. 6 months of chemo, not remembering who your children are and not knowing when you need a piss - or The best send off any human could want. No Brainer?

Yes, people should have a choice. But you underestimate mans will to live. You say what you will do, but wait if your term comes. You like most people will fight to the end, it is built into pepople to do that. People who do otherwise are rare. BTW how to go about it? It is speculated that the relatively high rate of people who drive high speed into autobahn overpass pillars may be hidden suicides for the purpose of saving that life insurance for the family.

The normal suicide is usually not performed because there is no choice for life but out of a depression which is a disease.

And to add something deeply personal to it. My father when he died at age 91 and with Alzheimer, did it intentionally by reducing the intake of liquid until he died, and it was not depression, but a concious choice. When I told the people of a care company, who came to our house daily about it, they did not believe me. They said, no he would not do it, he is not depressive, we know the signs.

Letting him do it and not get him into hospital, where he would be forcefed and supplied liquid through tubes was one of the hardest decisions I had to make in my life. Even though I believed back then and believe now it was the right thing to do.

Can anyone confirm, has Thailand recently changed the law regarding suicide, and now if you survive the suicide they no longer prosecute you.? (no i am thinking of committing Harry)

Buddha's supposed teachings on the subject is if you have become enlightened, you can self sacrifice. possibly why we see so many Monks self immolating, can not think of anything worse than that.

Originally Posted by Yasojack

Buddha's supposed teachings on the subject is if you have become enlightened, you can self sacrifice

Maybe that is the definition of true spiritual enlightenment in its purest form. Using the power of self-reflection to apprehend your trivial human existence for the first time in its stark futility and utterly comical insignificance nanoseconds before being seized by the burning desire to cauterise your conciousness, extinguish your existence and take a running leap over the nearest balcony in a moment of ecstatic revelation.

Should be personal choice, keep it tidy tho!

When visiting a friend in hospital, there was a Paki in the next bed, being visited by his friend. Apparently they both made a pact to kill themselves by jumping off the top of a block of flats but the visitor opted out at the last moment, his friend lived but lost both legs above his knees. I'd have loved to have understood that heated conversation they had

(no i am thinking of committing Harry)


Harry Barracuda?

I think that most people are already dead. No need for special medications or mechanical assistance. People substitute outside resources as their example of living. They become engrossed in the matter of daily living. They become maniacal in their search to find meaning to their existence. They become "sports fans." they live their tiny lives in a world absorbed by sports and the ups and downs of their favorite teams and players. Its a form of suicide I believe.

Of course you could be a Priest and be absorbed into the church doctrines and all the charades of being religious. Even Buddhist Monks are the same. Absorbed by their concept of being what they imagine the path calls for them to be. Never just being what or who they are.

Are you who you think you are? Or are you some image that you've painted to make you have a "feel good," image of yourself? Introspection of your interior motives and exterior reality are quite different things. I perceive me to be one thing but the eyes of those around me see and read something entirely different from my own set reality. I suggest we're all dead, but trying to force life out of something that is unattainable. We create our world and in doing so can and do create our own realities.

Originally Posted by Yasojack

if you have become enlightened, you can self sacrifice.

i would bet my life that the buddha never said that.

I know this thread is a couple of weeks old, but I'm resurrecting it anyway. I firmly believe in the right to commit suicide.

My 95 year old maternal grandfather hung himself in his home in April of 2009. A couple of years before that, he had been diagnosed with prostrate cancer, but it had already started metastasizing and was too late to do much except give him a bit of radiation and palliative care.

He had been a foundry worker all of his life and was still strong as an ox at 70 when the foundry forced him to retire. Until he was diagnosed with the cancer, he had hardly been sick a day in his life.

He was still driving and doing everything for himself until the last six or seven months before he killed himself. But, near the end, he was so weak he could hardly stand most days.

My parents were going to his house in the mornings and evenings every day to look after him. On April 21, 2009, they went to his house and had trouble getting in the back door. My dad shoved the door open and they discovered that the reason it was difficult to get the door open was because my grandfather's body was up against it. He had hung himself, but the weight of his body must have broken the rope afterward, so he was lying on the floor behind the door.

As long as I can remember, he had always said that he would kill himself if he ever got to where he couldn't take care of himself. And he was always a man of his word, and was always proud of his strength and good health throughout his life.

I respect and admire him for making his own decision about how and when to die. It is an act any man of strength and character can understand. In ancient Rome, his descendants would have placed a bust of him in a niche and shown him honor as a worthy ancestor, and others would have spoken of him with respect and a desire to meet their own fates with similar courage and resolution.

If it is a decission calculated & gives a person time to put there arrairs in order 1st, i agree because the people who you are concirned about are the ones you leave behind,there is no rash decision actceptable leaving a huge leagle wrangle & mess for your family & friends to clear up,If time permits, but should there be goverment help or advise on this ? Almost impossable i would think ? Then after a lifetime of trying to stay alive & safe, going against human nature to take your life is it selfish & cowardly ? i dont think so, but it still holds a slight stigma even to-day , i just dont know but thanks to this forum & the input from members we are able to talk about this & understand more on the subject of Suicide,