Is suicide ever ethical?

[ZenRaiden]

You are the one that puts value on your life. If you dont value it then commiting suicide is really easy.

 

[nicoda]

I would greatly advise you to read "The power of now" by Eckhart Tolle.

 

[peoplesuck]

related-ish http://intpforum.com/showthread.php?t=19720

 

[Puffy]

I think asking whether suicide is ethical or not is a redundant question in most circumstances that fails to try and empathise with or understand what the suicidal person is/was going through. Rather it presumes that person is making an ethical decision within the realms of the consensus mentality, or philosophy 101 class, that that question is raised within. The question prioritises the needs of the person who asks it.

A few people close to me have attempted suicide or contemplated it seriously in the past, two of my close friends have commit suicide, and one of my sister's close friends has, who I also knew. Universally they were all in highly disturbed (sometimes unreachable) mental states in the midst of great hardship. I've sat with people all night through such episodes.
Life becomes a (potentially short-sighted) tunnel-vision of pain, and at a certain point rather than see that tunnel through to the end there arises the need to abort it. It's an action made out of a necessity of ending the circumstance. The action has a destructive consequence, but it's not an action I can subscribe an ethics to, as it appears to me like it's made outside of the context in which normal ethical decisions are made. Rather, in saying "they acted unethically for they hurt me" I make an ethical judgement on something foreign to me that prioritises my (lesser) pain over theirs.

Personally, I am hesitant to ever recommend suicide, as I think intense suffering is usually temporary and can improve with changes in circumstance (which I've observed a few times). If that's not the case and that level of suffering is permanent then it's euthanasia and not suicide.

 

[bvanevery]

Thinking you are entitled to judge, for someone else, whether their own suicide is ethical, immediately leads me to a more important question. How does one objectively prove that a system of ethics is actually unethical?

 

[QuickTwist]

I think asking whether suicide is ethical or not is a redundant question in most circumstances that fails to try and empathise with or understand what the suicidal person is/was going through. Rather it presumes that person is making an ethical decision within the realms of the consensus mentality, or philosophy 101 class, that that question is raised within. The question prioritises the needs of the person who asks it.

A few people close to me have attempted suicide or contemplated it seriously in the past, two of my close friends have commit suicide, and one of my sister's close friends has, who I also knew. Universally they were all in highly disturbed (sometimes unreachable) mental states in the midst of great hardship. I've sat with people all night through such episodes.
Life becomes a (potentially short-sighted) tunnel-vision of pain, and at a certain point rather than see that tunnel through to the end there arises the need to abort it. It's an action made out of a necessity of ending the circumstance. The action has a destructive consequence, but it's not an action I can subscribe an ethics to, as it appears to me like it's made outside of the context in which normal ethical decisions are made. Rather, in saying "they acted unethically for they hurt me" I make an ethical judgement on something foreign to me that prioritises my (lesser) pain over theirs.

Personally, I am hesitant to ever recommend suicide, as I think intense suffering is usually temporary and can improve with changes in circumstance (which I've observed a few times). If that's not the case and that level of suffering is permanent then it's euthanasia and not suicide.

I agree for the most part except for 2 things left to discuss. The first is Seppuku and Jigai. I sure you can see how seppuku can be considered ethical suicide. (I had completely forgot about seppuku so that is the only reason I am bringing it up now.) The second is the matter for which euthanasia is performed. IIRC euthanasia is suicide is performed by someone else. The only real difference that I see is that suicide is taking ones own life and the other is where you ask someone to take your life. As far as that goes, what is different about that than say, suicide by cop?