Ethics of Suicide (tangent from "van lifer goes missing" thread)

[Esprise_Me]

@Broomstick

@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.

But that doesn’t make sense. How can someone who has no obligation (not just no legal obligation, but no moral/ethical obligation either) not to do X be considered selfish for doing X? If you think, for example, that it’s selfish not to help one’s child pay for college, or not to help one’s elderly parents with their financial struggles, doesn’t that mean you think that such help is a social obligation, even if it’s not a legal one? And in cases where we can agree no such obligation exists–say, a wealthy 50-year-old twice-divorced career woman wants her elderly mother who lives on social security checks to pay for said 50-year-old daughter’s third lavish wedding-- you wouldn’t call the mother selfish for refusing, no matter how much the daughter’s feelings were hurt. Right?

@BigT

The one saving grace about your current position is that you seem to have redefined “selfish” to mean something other than “self-centered and doesn’t care about others.” Best I can figure is that you’re defining it as “hurts other people.” But that’s not how people use that word. My mother’s death hurt a lot of my family, but in no way was she being selfish. Similarly, someone else with an illness that unfortunately ends with their death is not being selfish, either.

This seems to hit the nail on the head. Thank you.