# Do we need the restrictions on suicide? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 5, 2009, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-the-restrictions-on-suicide/512721 "2009-10-05T20:30:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TheMadHun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@TheMadHun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMadHun)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-the-restrictions-on-suicide/512721/1 "2009-10-05T20:30:33Z")
My mother asked me this. She’s 87 today, been living in an elder care home since my father died some 7 years ago. Even if she moved to a place where it’s legal, she’s not sick enough to get assisted suicide. Just can’t walk, is incontinent, doesn’t hear or see well enough to enjoy much of anything. She is too hostile to live with any of her children, but her doctors say she is not depressed exactly, in a treatable way, just tired of living and we can’t expect that to change. Her husband and sister passed through the same stage, and everyone scolded them for talking that way, then they declined to being stuck to dialysis machines or endless chemotherapy and spent their last couple years in bed in pain. She is not looking forward to that. My sister subscribes to the suicide taboo, so I don’t dare tell anyone in the family that I agree with my mother, that suicide should not be restricted. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-the-restrictions-on-suicide/512721/2 "2009-10-05T20:52:54Z")
I certainly think an individual’s right to life encompasses their death as well and should be up to them if they think circumstances merit it. I think the downside is if you “ok” suicide then I think you can run into problems where family pressures grandma to off herself because she is inconvenient and/or too expensive and/or they want their inheritance sooner and bigger than it would be if she continued living. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-the-restrictions-on-suicide/512721/3 "2009-10-05T22:32:09Z")
I am a passionate advocate of suicide and euthanasia. I seem to be pretty much alone in my positions. My spouse says people just don’t want to talk about how they really feel. The Hemlock Society, Kevorkian, and that guy in Australia all have good things to say about suicide but most want them locked up. Watch some old Japanese movies if you want to study some very different viewpoints form what we in the US demand in our public discussions. ---
**Author:** ![Maia\_s\_Well](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Maia\_s\_Well](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maia_s_Well)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-the-restrictions-on-suicide/512721/4 "2009-10-05T22:38:52Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I think the downside is if you “ok” suicide then I think you can run into problems where family pressures grandma to off herself because she is inconvenient and/or too expensive and/or they want their inheritance sooner and bigger than it would be if she continued living. Yes, yes, this. The only reason I’m not more vocal in demanding that people be given the right to say, “enough’s enough”…the potential for victimization. I can also understand that idea that many times suicidal ideation can be a symptom of a (treatable) illness, and that’s a reason to discourage acting on suicidal impulse. Shame to throw the baby out with the bathwater like that. I have a progressive neuro illness, so it’ll be interesting to see how my own views change as my situation changes. But it pisses me off for the state to tell me I gotta lay in a nursing home bed, unable to move or communicate, ever how long it takes to get an infected bedsore or a bout of pneumonia to come along and put me outta my misery (if that’s where I end up). I also think it sucks for the law to tell us we have to live, but not provide a way to get healthcare to make it happen or at least keep more bearable. Sorry, on a course of steroids right now. Makes me da grumpy. :mad:😛 ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-the-restrictions-on-suicide/512721/5 "2009-10-05T22:47:15Z")
I think we clearly need restrictions on suicide. Otherwise it would be abused. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-the-restrictions-on-suicide/512721/6 "2009-10-06T00:55:40Z")
> [@janeslogin](#): > > I am a passionate advocate of suicide and euthanasia. > > I seem to be pretty much alone in my positions. You’re not alone, buddy. My only problem is when people make a big spectacle out of their suicides, using it to hurt and horrify others. This includes a lot of the “cry for help” variety of attempted suicides – you shouldn’t use your death as a tool to manipulate others’ emotions either. A friend of my mother’s got into a drunken argument with her boyfriend a couple of summers ago. She went inside to borrow a lighter from her teenage daughter and proceeded to douse herself in kerosene. “Don’t make me do it!”, she was shouting as her daughter, my sister, and her 10 year old son went out to see what the hell was going on. Then she lit herself on fire. Unfortunately, she survived. After six months in a morphine induced coma while she was growing her skin back, she now has no ears or hands and hardly any face. Her whole family, including herself, at least openly, believes it was an accident, and only the people who were there (and a few others such as myself who heard it second hand) know the truth. That’s where suicide needs to be regulated (don’t ask me how). You’re basically putting on a grisly horror show in front of an involuntary audience; it is especially terrible when that audience contains the people who actually care about you. Why do so many people put on a show when they commit suicide? To pretend for a second that they actually matter? That’s why I would support suicide booths or at least assisted suicide, where we make a peaceful setting and people can cleanly and discreetly end their lives if they so choose. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-the-restrictions-on-suicide/512721/7 "2009-10-06T00:59:04Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I think the downside is if you “ok” suicide then I think you can run into problems where family pressures grandma to off herself because she is inconvenient and/or too expensive and/or they want their inheritance sooner and bigger than it would be if she continued living. Japan has a suicide rate that’s something like 2X greater than the US, and having lived there for seven years of my life, I can’t say that this is something I ever heard of. Actually, I think most suicides are young people and businessmen. ---
**Author:** ![Never\_Say\_Dice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee59a6/32.png) [@Never\_Say\_Dice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Never_Say_Dice)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-the-restrictions-on-suicide/512721/8 "2009-10-06T22:28:34Z")
> [@janeslogin](#): > > I am a passionate advocate of suicide and euthanasia. I think the Eskimos and Indians had traditions of letting the old just wander off and lie down somewhere when they felt like it, or set sail with the tide and no oars. No stigma, it was one of the choices. What I don’t understand is the “assisted” suicide part. Can’t you just tell someone how many sleeping pills it takes? Or where to get a can of party balloon helium to inhale? Why mess with agonizing hemlock or disputed injections? ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-the-restrictions-on-suicide/512721/9 "2009-10-06T23:44:52Z")
There is a restriction on suicide. It is one each. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-the-restrictions-on-suicide/512721/10 "2009-10-07T00:22:07Z")
What about an immature 18 year old girl who just had her boyfriend break up with her and who decides that life isn’t worth living anymore? Same deal? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-the-restrictions-on-suicide/512721/11 "2009-10-07T00:26:32Z")
They can’t very well stop you from committing suicide if you want to. They can’t even punish you very harshly if you do it while it is against the law. So what’s the big freakin’ deal? Go up on a roof and jump. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-the-restrictions-on-suicide/512721/12 "2009-10-07T01:04:28Z")
Yes, anyone we know who will try to commit suicide must be restrained and given treatment. And yes I’ve heard of Japanese belief on suicide like that insane writer Yukio Mishima who was sexually obssessed with suicide and I frankly think those beliefs are morally equivalent to the beliefs of Aztecs on human sacrifice. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-the-restrictions-on-suicide/512721/13 "2009-10-07T01:49:30Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > There is a restriction on suicide. It is one each. Attempted suicide should be punishable by death. That will make them think twice before they try it again. ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-the-restrictions-on-suicide/512721/14 "2009-10-07T05:42:39Z")
> [@](#): > > doesn’t hear or see well enough to enjoy much of anything. OT but does she have ITE hearing aids or BTEs? ITE aids are basicly pieces of shit…Many old people with hearing losses wear them…but they don’t amplify enough. Maybe if she got BTEs she could hear better and enjoy life a bit more. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-the-restrictions-on-suicide/512721/15 "2009-10-07T06:17:04Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > What about an immature 18 year old girl who just had her boyfriend break up with her and who decides that life isn’t worth living anymore? Same deal? I think the issue is really about euthanasia for the terminally ill, and those that are so incapacitated that they need assistance to do the deed themselves. Besides, no one wants to die alone. Anyone can find an easy way to off themselves (if unpleasant or even messy), but it doesn’t give you much chance to say goodbye, or even be surrounded by your loved ones. It makes the difference between your final departure being an ugly negative thing, or a positive and meaningful thing. There are very humane ways to euthanize, and I’m for lifting the laws, somewhat. I’d rather not die a belabored, miserable death if I could have just ended the inevitable in a more humane and painless way, on my own terms. I do however think there needs to be some sort of psych evaluation, with written consent from the Dr. to mitigate any victimization. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-need-the-restrictions-on-suicide/512721/16 "2009-10-07T08:21:12Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I think the downside is if you “ok” suicide then I think you can run into problems where family pressures grandma to off herself because she is inconvenient and/or too expensive and/or they want their inheritance sooner and bigger than it would be if she continued living. This is why I have always opposed assisted suicide. But I think that if a law was brought in that people were forbidden in anyway to try to save a suicides life that there would be a huge decrease in the sympathy seekers so called “Cries for help”.