I do. I was referring to the scene where Alex is put in front of a topless woman. He wants to grope her and can be seen struggling to reach at her breasts, then becomes nauseous due to the operant conditioning imposed by the government. The priest stands up and objects that the government has not made Alex a good man, they have merely taken away Alex’s moral choice.
There is also a scene in a library where the priest asks Alex directly: ‘does this therapy really make you a good person? Goodness is chosen, when a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man.’
Fiction it may be, I agree with the priest. I think I remember Captain Kirk arguing the same thing in one of the StarTrek episodes.
The point is that forcing someone to do something removes their moral choice, and hence has no place in a correctional system. For this reason I do not support involuntary pharmacotherapy, involuntary electroconvulsive therapy, etc. Psychotherapy (talking) is fine - the patient must choose to accept advise. I would only support permanent involuntary commitment in extreme cases such as when there is a danger to others. I might support temporary involuntary commitment paired with psychotherapy following a suicide attempt, depending on the circumstances.
I’m with Broomstick on this, most doctors and nurses will not want to participate in assisted suicide (possibly excepting terminally ill patients). Neither would most hospitals. From the Hippocratic oath:
Organ harvesting isn’t too bad, but tissue harvesting? Tissue harvesting is an ugly, ugly business. Even doctors will have a hard time skinning a cadaver. People who would willingly flay a corpse to harvest skin and bones day in and day out are far and few between.
Neither will everyone want organs from a suicidal person. First there is a small portion of the population who would refuse the organs on principle. Just like the pro-life/anti-abortion people who refuse MMR vaccines due to WI-38, or Hep-A vaccines derived from MRC-5 (WI-38 and MRC-5 are lineages of aborted human fetuses).
Nasty diseases can cause depression which factors into suicide. What if the suicidal person had a transmittable disease or cancer? That organ is getting chucked or the FDA will shut your hospital down.
Even if the organ is clean, potential recipients might think the organ is ritually impure. Superstition runs deep.
Finally, it is possible that a person committing suicide wants to be buried whole or otherwise objects to the harvesting of their organs.
If suicide was legal everywhere, globally, is there an estimate of the % of the world population that would off themselves? If it was significant, it might make a dent in climate change.
On two occasions I have been transported to my local psychiatric ER for attempted suicide. Both times the police showed up a couple of minutes beforehand, I assume in part to make sure that the environment was safe for the paramedics to enter. Each time the cops were compassionate and helpful, and I was never made to feel like I had broken the law.
This. I’ve made attempts in several different jurisdictions, and if you call 911 after a suicide attempt law enforcement will show up a few minutes ahead of the paramedics to ensure the environment is safe, but they’re there to help, not judge or make an arrest.
Suicide (and therefore attempted suicide) is generally illegal under two theories:
Suicide is an offense at common law and states which observe the common law and still prosecute common law crimes could enforce it.
Homicide laws don’t have a “consent” exception and assisting someone to commit suicide is identical to attempted murder. Further, an attempt to kill yourself is still an attempt to kill “a human being” and therefore akin to attempted murder.
That being said, I know of no jurisdiction which would actually prosecute such a thing other than that case in Massachusetts.