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From this and other threads I am faced with the conclusion that Hacker News is shockingly pro-suicide. I want to present an alternative viewpoint, one which I t
by rexpop 3y ago
From this and other threads I am faced with the conclusion that Hacker News is shockingly pro-suicide. I want to present an alternative viewpoint, one which I thought was obvious, accepted and mainstream but which I am dismayed to find absent from these comments:
Suicide is the fatal symptom of a treatable disease. Death by suicide is no less tragic--and no more noble--than death by endocarditis, diabetic ketoacidosis, or a traffic collision.
If a loved one is killed by endocarditis, we do not criticize mourners' "somewhat a selfish point of view". If a loved one dies of acute diabetic ketoacidosis, we do not say "Did the author consider the fact that his friend was living in their own, personal dystopia?"
I cannot understand the mindset that views suicidal depression as unique among--or even absent from!--the set of deaths by disease. I find all these defenses of suicide to be perplexing and, frankly, revolting.
Suicide is not the conquest of autonomy over pain, but of pain over autonomy.
- momirlan 3y agoi think people reflect on what would be their choice faced with acute and incurable pain, like terminal cancer. depression, being curable, is not on top of people's minds. i doubt that any pro-suicide person would prefer suicide to treatment. that said, one was never prevented from committing suicide even before these laws came out. having it institutionalized is a cowardly way out.
- barbs 3y ago> Suicide is the fatal symptom of a treatable disease. Not all suicide is a result of depression.
- rexpop 3y agoIn a medical technical sense, perhaps not, but I can't understand a definition of "suicide" which is voluntary and not forced by adverse circumstance. There is no sense applauding--nor deriding!--folks who succumb to adversity.
- barbs 3y agoIf I were of old age, living in constant pain, unable to do anything I wanted, wholly dependent on others, with no chance of improvment I would probably want to die. That's got little to do with depression and more to do with accepting the inevitable whilst having some choice in the matter.