Thinking about Suicide isn't all that abnormal. At some point everyone thinks about it. Yet,thinking about suicide is generally speaking frowned upon and by itself is enough to result in involuntary "hospitalization" and so-called treatment in a psychiatric "hospital", particularly if the person in question thinks about suicide seriously and refuses (so-called) outpatient psychotherapy to get this thinking changed. The fact that people are detained by law enforcement and incarcerated in America for thinking and talking about suicide implies that despite what the U.S. Constitution says about free speech, and despite claims Americans often make about America being a free country, many if not most Americans do not really believe in freedom of thought and speech - in addition to rejecting an individual's right to commit suicide.
It could be argued that human beings have an inherent right to take our own life's. The fact that the state can take my life via the death penalty but i cant take my own or the fact that the Police can enter and physically harm me to prevent me from harming myself is redundent and fallacious. It's a position backed by philosopher Frederick Neitzche when he wrote " there is a certain right by which we may deprive a man of life but none by which we may deprive him of death"
The human race has not always held thier current views on the topic. The ancient greeks and romans had a relaxed attitude towards suicide,even considering it honorable. It wasnt until the beginning of christianity and the council of Arles in 452 that it became the work of the devil and gave you a first class ticket to the fires of hell. Unfortunately, we still hold fast to this unenlightened viewpoint when you remove suicide from a religious social and or psychiatric context. Its sheerly a matter of personal liberty. In his book why " suicide. " Dr. Eustace Chesser, a psychologist, questioned the way our society approaches suicide, citing that "The right to choose one's time and manner of death seems to me unassailable. In my opinion the right to die is the last and greatest human freedom" Herodotus , the father of modern medicine himself asserted "When life is so burdensome death has become for man a sought after refuge." In his book The Untamed Tongue, psychiatrist Thomas Szasz says "Suicide is a fundamental human right. ...society does not have the moral right to interfere, by force, with a person's decision to commit this act"
Amongst all these statements supporting the concept of suicide as a right i will add my own. I'm told I'm severely depressed but I don't know that I am. It could also just be that I legitimately just don't care, anymore why go through the strain of continuing in a society that I morally bankrupt and why continue to deal with people who wouldnt spit on me if i was on fire. So what if I would just "cut a little lower" when i shave? Who cares I walk across a bridge in St Paul I just casually jump off? Its not your problem. You can say you"ll miss me and go on and on about how much you care but we both know you really don't and In 6 months to a year nobody would even know i existed. Its a a temporary sting like that of a bee and society will keep moving as usual without without me. If I want to die. Who are you stop me? My Family,friends, the cops, judges, and "therapists" who interfere with what should be my decision in the first place wouldn't they all just assholes who are merely denying me the basic standard of human decency?
The first and foremost reason that people are against establishing suicide as a right is religion. The mantra usually goes something like "God gave you life;only he can take it from you. " In America where I supposedly have the freedom to choose my religion or even not to have a religion at all this is flat out unconstitutional.
Another reason is that some people believe it is unethical to allow a person to commit suicide citing mental illness. But in a lot of cases so-called diagnosis of "mental illness" is a value judgment about a person's thinking or behavior, not a diagnosis of bona-fide brain disease. So-called mental illness does not deprive people of free will, but on the contrary is an expression of free will (which reaps the disapproval of others). Those who say mental illness destroys "meaningful" free will or who call the beliefs of others irrational (and therefore necessarily caused by mental illness) are accepting the idea of mental illness as brain disease without adequate evidence or are merely saying it in an effort to refute the belief systems of others
You do not have to be mentally ill to take your own life. In fact, most people who do commit suicide are not legally `insane.' Yet To prevent you from killing yourself, doctors will stand up in court and say something to the effect that, by reason of a mental illness, you are a danger to yourself and need treatment. But in a matter of a few hours to a couple of days, you get up one morning and say, `I've decided not to kill myself, after all.' And if you can convince them you mean what you say, you can leave the hospital and go home. Question: Are you now completely cured of your so-called mental illness? Obviously not, since the chances are `mentally illness wasn't a factor in the first place.
Incarcerating suicidal people is deliberate dishonesty, even by the definition of mental illness that exists in the minds of the professionals who make the allegations of mental illness. They make these allegations of mental illness even though they know they are false because involuntary psychiatric commitment laws require a finding of "mental illness" before involuntary commitment may take place. Making deliberately false accusations of "mental illness" under oath in a court of law to satisfy commitment laws for the purpose of discouraging suicidal thinking or preventing suicide is a way to avoid coming to terms with the fact that incarcerating people only because they happen to think their lives are not worth living or because they have attempted to end their own lives is sheer authoritarianism and a form of despotism. It reminds me very much of " thought- crimes" in George Orwell's 1984.
The usual justification for involuntary incarceration and so-called treatment of those considering or attempting suicide is alleged dangerousness to oneself : dangerousness to themselves in the eyes of who? To those observing, of course suicide may seem to be harmful to the person ending his or her life. But that's not how i see the situation. I'd commit suicide more as a matter of pragmatism, at the point in which continuing to live is causing me greater harm to myself than death. With the Government essentially sanctioning bullying and degradation of people like me, it looks more appealing everyday. Would it be such a travesty to end it all an fade into the dark and finally get then rest that I've wanted since I 3 when mommy dropped me off on a doorstep and never came back. Is it that even a real choice?
I'm coming to the conclusion more and more everyday that one should always have an exit strategy. A stash of lithium. A building tall enough to kill, not maim, I say not maim because one needs to goes out in suicide, you wriggle or shake for a bit and the light goes out. You shouldn't come back merely smashed up or worse maintain the ability to feel.
Sure, Suicide has consequences. It will hurt people who care about you. It'll probably make a mess on the sidewalk but in all reality its the only guaranteed, surefire way to end, blitz, and detonate a critical mass of suffering. Suicide, in short is the method that moves one from pain to the absence of pain. The Government let's you take Aspirin or Tylenol but god forbid you slash your wrists.
The U.S. Supreme Court addressed the question of whether the U.S. Constitution protects the right to die in 1990 in the case of Cruzan v. Missouri, 497 U.S. 261. In this case the U.S. Supreme Court declared for the first time that a right to die does exist. Of the nine justices, all except Justice Scalia acknowledged the right to die is a federal constitutional right. In his concurring opinion, Justice Scalia argued vigorously against the reasoning of the majority and dissenting opinions, both of which acknowledged the right of self-determination is a constitutional right and that it includes the right to die. Justice Scalia opposed the view of the other eight justices, arguing vigorously against what he called the right to commit suicide. But in this respect he stood alone on the Court.
Since the rationale of these cases is that people have a right of self-determination that includes the right to die, they support my assertion that suicide is a civil right even though, at present, the right to die has been upheld only in cases involving physically ill or disabled people who are conscious enough to express their desire to die or who when healthy enough to express an opinion indicated death is what he or she would want in the circumstances, but everyone knows this justification is an excuse to rationalize the real reason. If the sole reason for allowing death as an option desired by the terminally ill or permemently disabled person, involuntary psychiatric commitment of suicidal people wouldn't exist. The legitimate unacknowledged reason ill or disabled people are allowed to deliberately end their lives is they have become a burden to other people. In other words, just as suicidal people are incarcerated for their own supposed benefit i.e to prevent suicide. The real reason is selfish concerns of others essentially saving society the burden of caring for them.
However, the common theme of the courts in upholding the right to die usually revolves around personal autonomy and self-determination as the basis for the decision, which supports my conclusion that each person is the sole owner of himself or herself, of his or her own body, and of his or her own life and that the right to commit suicide is a civil right.
If you are a legislator who supports limited government, personal choice and liberty you should introduce legislation to delete references to "dangerousness to oneself" in your state's psychiatric commitment laws. If you are a judge or lawyer working with constitutional law, you should make efforts to strike down unconstitutional laws that imprison or as some say "hospitalize"people for supposed due to a desire dangerousness or harm to oneself. Whoever you are, you should recognize that people have a right to self determination and to be autonomous and you should support a right for me to take my own life if so choose to do so.
