I thought about this after reading the suicide thread in Great Debates. Now I personally believe everyone has the right to take their own life at least by the time they are a legal adult. Yet still if I happened upon someone in the act I don’t think I could bring myself to sit idly by I would probably have to stop them. Its ok if they do it on their own time but I don’t know how I could not react if I was witnessing it. Double standard?
Me: not interfere with their existential right to suicide. Only exception would be is if they were temporarily not of sound mind. Example: if they were very high on LSD I might intervene until they sobered up.
BTW, I faced such a situation long ago. And, I did not interfere with her right to existential self-determination. It was obvious she chose me because she knew my philosophy on the matter. (And also to agree to after her death to honor a last request. The last request was the morally difficult one for me, as it involved dealing with a matter regarding her, surviving sister.)
BTW, you wouldn’t have to watch it. You could walk away wishing them the best in the afterlife, assuming there is an afterlife. If someone suicidal insisted I watch, I’d wonder about their sanity or desire to really die.
My way of thinking is that anyone who is really determined can’t be stopped. If I’m in a position to intervene it means that they’re not serious enough about it and can concievable be talked down.
In other words, if I saw someone committing suicide I’d try and stop them.
But what if they are talking about suicide, but don’t actually have a gun already pointed at their head? You’re right if they really are determined at best you can delay them. Which is what makes doing so seem dubious to me. For somone who doesn’t think people care about them, interfering with their free will would just tend to reinforce that belief.
As far as I’m concerned if they want to commit suicide they’ll do it. If they’re talking about it they’re either attention seeking or wanting to be talked out of it, or both.
This is not a direct answer to the OP, but I thought it might be interesting given the
subject.
In the mid 60’s I was stationed at the Navy Prison on Seavey Island, ME. We were
required to attend a week long indoctrination before dealing w/ the prisoners. I think
there were about half a dozen in my group and one day was devoted entirely to the
resident psychiatrist. One topic discussed was dealing w/ suicide threats and the
doctor related an incident that had happened to him several years earlier involving a
new inmate. The new inmates are given several psychological tests and a brief
interview w/ the psychiatrist and apparently suicide threats are not uncommon. This is
probably because, as frequently happens in this kind of atmosphere, there are many
rumors floating around and one common rumor is that threatening suicide would get
you put on the hospital ward, which is preferable to the cell block where new inmates
spend their first month or so. This particular inmate brought up the subject and the
doctor, having already reviewed his test results, asked him a few questions on the
subject, including how he would accomplish the task. Apparently the guy was
somewhat vague and, taking everything into consideration, the interview, the tests and
the fact that extreme care was taken to eliminate any means of suicide, the doctor
released the guy to be put in the cell block. By happenstance this guy was assigned to
a cell on the fourth level and that same evening he managed to leap over a fairly
high railing and fall to the concrete floor about 35-40 feet below, killing himself. This was
in spite of the fact that he was being escorted by a Marine guard.
Shortly after, they installed chain link fencing all the way to the ceiling and instituted
stricter controls on inmates threaten to take their lives. The doctors point was that,
while most people who talk about it are likely just seeking attention, or special
treatment, there’s always the possibility that they are serious.
The shrink wasn’t a very good one. People who end up in prison tend to have good reason to want to kill themselves.
Pool, I agree with you. I support assisted suicide, but I would try to stop someone I saw committing suicide and I’ve worked dead hard to help someone who gave me good reason to believe he wa suicidal. Here’s why.
I make no secret of the fact that I suffer from clinical depression. I’ve been suicidal before and I’ve attempted suicide. I know how my mind is operating at the point I become suicidal and I’ve learned what effect suicide has on the families and friends of the person who commits suicide. When I’m suicidal, I think I’ve got perfectly good reasons for committing suicide, including relieving family and friends of the burden of putting up with me. A few years ago, I was laid off for several months and, not surprisingly, I became severely depressed to the point where I was considering suicide a few times. My rationale was that I couldn’t support myself, that there were too few jobs going in my field, that what jobs there were should go to those with people depending on them, and that I was a leech on society who did not deserve to live. Fortunately, I was seeing a very good therapist at the time. When I told her this, she asked me if I thought homeless people should be executed. Shocked and horrified, I told her, “Of course not!” She then asked me why I was willing to subject myself to a harsher penalty than I would subject others to. I’ve been out of work, had an engagement to a man I swore I’d love forever end, have friends dump me or move, and even, at times, come to the rather refreshing reason that the reason I’m depressed at that particular moment is because my life stank! It was rather nice to know there was a *rational * reason for my depression. (Unfortunately, I still do sometimes get depressed for irrational reasons. Nowadays, I’ve got a job back in the IT field and I’ve been seeing a wonderful man who’s very much in love with me and can’t fathom how I could be a waste or a drain on society.
I’ve been suicidal. I know first hand how distorted one’s thinking can become and that life can improve with treatment and time. I know how rational suicide can seem to the person considering it, even while it looks completely irrational to those who know her. While suicide may, arguably, be a natural outcome of untreated depression, dpression itself, I think, does not have to be fatal any more than say, diabetes does. That’s why I’d stop someone from committing suicide, but support assisted suicide for those are terminally ill.
CJ
I used to be a psych nurse and have cut people down from hanging themselves, pumped their stomachs after ODs of pills, Narcaned away their opiate load and kept the matches away from the kerosene soaked potential suicide. I have also spent many hours on night duty talking to people “planning” suicide. One woman rang 4 or 5 times. She used to talk for hours, drinking vodka with two bottles of benzodiazapoids if needed, while her husband slept in the next room.
Although Silentgoldfish is right, people who really want to die generally get it done, most people who offer someone the chance to intervene aren’t ALL that serious. String yourself up when no-one is looking for you, take an overdose last thing at night or self imolate in the middle of nowhere rather than in a parking lot.
So if I see someone commiting suicide I know that they chose for this little drama to have a cast of at least 2 and I better not miss my cue.
Of the incidents I quoted above, only one (to my knowledge) had subsequently suicided when I left nursing. He did it after 2 more attempts, after his 33rd admission to hospital for depression or self harm.
Given the OP stated what she would do if she “happened upon someone” attempting suicide, it is reasonable to assume that the individual may not be of sound mind at that instance.
So intervening is the right thing to do, by your own criteria.
If that person was then able to convince you that he was indeed of sound mind then the situation changes, but it is (IMO) enitrely reasonable to assume that someone in the process of killing themselves may not be of sound mind, making intervention the morally right (and consistent) course.
I too support assisted suicide and not just for the terminally ill. I think everyone should have the right for a dignified end to life for whatever reasons they choose.
Then again, it’s quite plausible that not interfering could reinforce the belief that nobody cares whether the person lives or dies. It seems like that one could go either way.
No cites, but it’s my understanding that a significant number of suicide attempts are in fact cries for help. Since very few people are mind-readers 
it can be rather difficult to know quickly whether the suicide attempt is “legitimate” or whether some part of the person attempting the act wants to be rescued. On that basis, I think it’s reasonable to treat it as a cry for help on the basis that if you’re wrong, the person will take better care next time to ensure that no one can intervene.
And, yes, I believe that if some one seriously wants to commit suicide, then there is nothing wrong with them doing so.
A bit morbid, so I apologize. But what if the cops think you did it? So wouldn’t talking them out if it benefit both of you? You get to leave the scene, and their last thought won’t be thinking they may have framed you.
So mention that before they do the deed.
I am (as folks on the board may be tired of hearing ;)) a participant in the psychiatric inmates’ liberation movement, aka mental patients’ rights movement, etc.
One of my favorite comments on the OP subject of all time came from movement leader Judi Chamberlin, who on being asked the “what would you do” question about suicide, said “You have the right to kill yourself, but you don’t have the right to commit suicide in my living room”.
No, I actually don’t think it’s a double standard.
(I would need to make exceptions and/or think things out very carefully if the person in question were incapacitated to the point of being unable to leave or get off on his/her own to do the deed, etc)