# Ethics of Suicide (tangent from "van lifer goes missing" thread) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 26, 2021, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-of-suicide-tangent-from-van-lifer-goes-missing-thread/955159 "2021-11-26T04:16:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 38
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2021, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-of-suicide-tangent-from-van-lifer-goes-missing-thread/955159/38 "2021-11-28T22:45:25Z")
> [@Esprise\_Me](#): > > There are a few cases of people with fatal and painful diseases who opt for physician-assisted suicide with a clear head, and I am very much in support of their right to do so, even if their families disagree. That is an instance where I am willing to concede that my general characterization of suicide as wrong may not apply. > [@Esprise\_Me](#): > > I would take a harder pro-right-to-die stance and say I support anyone’s right to shuffle off this mortal coil at a time and manner of their choosing, were it not for the undeniable fact that many, perhaps most people who try to off themselves, are not in their right minds at the time. ^ This. MOST people who are suicidal are NOT “in their right minds” or legally competent to make decisions. If you aren’t competent to run your affairs then you are competent to make a life-or-death decision. As I’ve said all along (although some choose to ignore what I say) there are exceptions. But they’re just that - _exceptions_. > [@Esprise\_Me](#): > > But that doesn’t necessarily impose upon him a moral obligation to stay alive, and therefore doesn’t render his suicide a selfish act. No, he does not have an obligation to stay alive for the sake of other people. It’s his decision. And I have my own _opinion_ of his decision. He’s a selfish asshole, and not just because of how he murdered himself, but also because he most likely murdered Gaby Petito. > [@Van lifer goes missing on cross country trip with fiancee](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/van-lifer-goes-missing-on-cross-country-trip-with-fiancee/950604/1354): > > Go teach at a high school in a small town after a kid has killed himself. What, you think I have not experienced suicide in my family? An uncle, my oldest sister, suicide attempts by my mother, an attempt by a boyfriend, a college roommate, a stranger who chose the train I was riding to end it all (that one resulted in the driver becoming completely hysterical and needing to be sedated and taken off the train on stretcher). Again, don’t try the sob stories. **I’ve seen the wreckage left behind, experienced it, and that is precisely why I say suicide is a selfish act that inflicts great harm on other people.** Sometimes directly - as in the case of the suicide on the train tracks - and sometimes simply because a loved one has died when they didn’t have to, and the murderer is also the self-same loved one, which generates all sorts of contradictory emotions. > [@Van lifer goes missing on cross country trip with fiancee](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/van-lifer-goes-missing-on-cross-country-trip-with-fiancee/950604/1354): > > The refusal to indulge in a blanket condemnation of everyone who’s committed suicide is not synonymous with disregarding the emotional toll on others. Again, I have stated multiple times there can be exceptions. Stop straw-manning me. > [@Van lifer goes missing on cross country trip with fiancee](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/van-lifer-goes-missing-on-cross-country-trip-with-fiancee/950604/1354): > > I guess it’s obvious that this is a painful and deeply personal subject with me. And likewise with me. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethics-of-suicide-tangent-from-van-lifer-goes-missing-thread/955159)._