a cheerful subject I know, but I was just thinking this last night and I can't see why it would be illegal.
if you successfully commit suicide they can't exactly arrest or fine you or anything and if you don't successfully commit suicide then technically you haven't broken the law.
if you commit suice it's harmign yourself not others so how is it breaking the law?
I can understand if you were committing suicide in a way that would harm others or something for instance a few years ago there was a man who clambered out onto a ledge coming off a bridge in Edinburgh and they had to close the road off to talk him down and the road was a main road into town so it caused lots of traffic jams and slowness etc. but if you were just in your own home and tried to overdose or something why would it be illegal? unless maybe you had a family to support, but aside from that, why?
sorry if I sound like a complete idiot asking this but I really don't understand why it's illegal.
suicide* harming*
I'm not sure that it IS illegal.
Although aiding and abetting a suicide certainly is.
another thing I don't understand being illegal
is wanting to be taken off of life support if you feel you have nothing to live for, usrely if it's your choice to end your life you should be able to do it, no?
if you are on life support
chances are you wont be able to communicate that wish. You also have to consider the ramifications, who turns off the switch? are we allowed to 'play god'. Theres a lot of moral issues that need to be considered beyond simply i want to die, so i will.
there was a play
I read in english a while ago about a man who was practically completely paralysed except possibly from the neck up or something and basically he wanted to die but there was a big legal battle about it. I understand someone would essentially have to kill this person but I think really it should just come down to, if someone wants to die then they should be able to.
oh, oh! i think i read that!
what was it called again?
I have no idea :(
I read it in standard grade though, and I think the front cover was white? yep that helps!
yes i would be inclined to agree with you
but a lot of people would take the approach of sanctity of life, and beyond that if it was to be legalised it would open the floodgates to a lot of cases, which could be problematic in that where do you allow it, what if people are pressure, and a whole lot more that i just cant think of right now.
shh
stop being logical and thinking all the points of the argument, jeez.
ah well I suppose it's one of those things that could be debated forever and when it should be up to the person, everyone else wants to get their say on what they think is right or not.
yes but like ive said
we do not live in an ideal world and i fear in some cases that i would not be up to the person, or there would be influences upon them, as well as knock on effects for others.
sorry to be logical again :P
so you should be!
basically I just mean that it should be up to the person and I know it's not and I see your points about it, though, like you, I don't think it should be like that.
yeah ideally it would be as simple as saying yes people should be able to die if they want
but things are never that simple!
I think
we should run the world, it would make things simpler, albeit possibly slightly more chaotic with me in charge...
Fair point. I don't understand either why it's 'illegal' based
upon the points you outline up there.
Murder doesn't harm the person who's killed
Not *really*.
So let's legalise murder
stoopid
it stops them living out thier life naturally and doing all the things they want to do.
also alot of murders are brutal, that is *harming*
i'd be WELL pissed off if someone murdered me.
i want to liiiive!
No you wouldn't
You'd be dead. You can't be pissed off when you're dead.
maybe its left over from more religious times
when suicide=going to hell, or maybe its because someone has to clear up the mess
you are
denying the goverment of taxes which you would be paying if you were alive, and you are a valuable part of the work force which they will then have to replace.
by that logic then
it might as well be illegal to be unemployed!
silly
there are too many people already
that's why
it's legal now....
hm
well, two arguments are:
1) the laws basically represent what our society deems an acceptable moral code to live by (or die by). suicide represents a failure of society, and therefore for it to be unrepresented in the laws would be fairly awkward. this kind of relies on viewing laws as a set of values by which our society lives.
2) if you try and fail to commit suicide, and end up in hospital, you are placing a strain on our already croaking health service that could be avoided.
by failure of society
i mean, the idea of a cooperative society in which people are content to exist. of course, this ignores the fact that real depression is something that can lead to suicide. this is a very complicated area i don't feel i can discuss, because i simply don't know enough about it.
Suicide
is not illegal anymore.
^
euthanasia is though
whasss the difference, d'you think?
i was just including myself in this for the sake of debate, anyway.
because old people who feel like they are a burden
may feel pressured to do it
I think it should be more likely
that euthanasia would be legal before suicide, though I think both should be legal. well, not legal, just not illegal, which I know is the same thing, it just looks a bit odd saying that suicide should be legal.
Euthanasia
is different to suicide. Euthanasia is when someone assists you in dying.
alright!
When Im old and fading away, I can throw myself down the stairs with contentment.
hmm
but there's people who place a strain on the health service by eating poor diets and not exercising, although of course there is this concept of taxing the fat which would help prevent this.
Suicide hasn't been illegal since 1961
although it is still illegal to assist in someone else's suicide. As far as I know, suicide used to be illegal for religious reasons - "your body is a temple", ie it belongs to god and it is not yours to destroy
^ Exactly this
gosh I'm stuck in the past
has it really been legal since 1961?
IT'S NOT ILLEGAL!!
It was made legal in about 1960.
Ever since Judeao-Christian moral dictums have generally been removed from English law, and the legalisation of suicide was arguably a turning point on this.
bf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_Act_1961
And there you have it.
christian basis to law
In my opinion
I'd say it's in regards to laws existing as a way to define what is 'good' and what is 'bad' on a basice moral/economic/political etc etc level. In simple terms if something is illegal it is generally accepted to be a negative thing and if it is legal it it generally seen as acceptable or positive. Hence if suicide were illegal it would send out the message that is is either acceptable or even preferable for people to engage it. Seeing as suicide can be seen as nothing but detrimental to society and laws are generally based on what is in the best interests of society on such a base level it makes sense for it to be illegal. Of course there is the liberal argument that it is your body and you can do what you want with it but it is not in the best interests of anyone to promote this and much better to promote getting help for whatever issues are troubling you and eventually re-integrating yourself into society as someone who is happy to live in it; this is based on my belief that there are no reasons for suicide that can't be dealt with and overcome given the right help.
Whilst we're on the subject of death
and law, I find it interesting that there is no defence of necessity or duress to murder (although it is a slight moot point due to the case of Re A (conjoined twins).
Essentially this means that if someone was pointing a gun at you and said that they would kill you if you didn't kill X, the law says you are supposed to give your life to save X's and that necessity or duress would be no defence to the murder of X.
goes against
the will to live a little.
Re A
is one of "those" cases. I was *this* close to choosing it as my topic for my dissertation this year. In fairness to the Court of Appeal it's not like they had any time to decide it, though that doesn't make one of the judges appearing to accidentally legitimise euthanasia any less grimly comedic :-P
sanctity of life?
old hat
life has been second to cash since 1982
I read down
still waiting for someone to say it's not illegal in this country and then someone did and then some more people did and now this post is pointless.
..
Probably because if it was legal, everybody would be doing it. I kid, it's not really illegal.