the only reason i can see for baning it lies in religious dogma and doctrine....

essentially keeping a person alive just for the sake of doing it....

but isn't the right to trully choose to end ones life the ultimate in freedoms ?

the ultimate human right ?

after all we don't choose to be born, we have no power over our own births? but why not our deaths ?

afterall choosing to live in agony is not as absurd as choosing to die in bliss.

...

It's only illeagal if you fail.

But the punishment is worse if you succeed.

More examples of suicide near-death experiences

um

Because otherwise it would spread the idea that life isn't as valuable as you think, which generally isn't a good idea.

"Why treat old people for their illnesses?, they're going to die soon anyway" That perhaps would be a common thought throughout a society that doesn't frown upon suicide.. Can you imagine what the attitude towards teenagers who self-harm would be like?

It's a good line to draw...i.e a good societal moral guard, even if it seems like it doesn't serve a purpose.

I am sure that it is some ethical thingy. I have always heard it spoken of in religious circles as "self murder".

A few years ago I took care of my father who had been a farmer, logger, pulpwood contractor and various other jobs befitting to the rural locale. He got up before the sun rose until he was 83 years old. And was hardly ever in bed prior to 1000pm.

Worked very hard to feed his family all his life. He was still able to drive his tractor well into 82 even though we had to help him get onto the tractor. He still loved to take rolls of hay over into the pasture to feed his cows that he also saw after up till 83.

Alzhiemer manifested at 83 in his short term memory. And a hip replacement started going bad on him. His hip problem was so bad until he could not step down 6" from the door stoop to the ground without excruciating pain. He was basically confined to the house until we took him out for drives or to sit out in the yard or to a doctors appointment.

We got him one of those scooters and he was all over the highway with it so we had to take if from him.

I saw the saddest man in the world just deteriorating before my eyes. A once strong and virile man was reduced almost to a shell of himself. He asked many times for me to give him his pistol. I could not do it. I did understand why he would think such thoughts. At the end the nurse had given me morphine to help him with the pain of his hip. I was tempted to dose him up but never gave him more than the dose allotted.

It was really tough seeing him go through what he did.

I would not wish it on my enemy.

most teenagers who self harm do it not to commit suicide but because either they want the attention or because , ironically, it's the only thing that makes them feel alive.

most old people that reach the age of dependence, most of their major organs have started to fail any way. and more than likely will be dead or severely debilitated. if as a very old man i will one day choose to take my own life because of senility, well the final choice should still be mine.

those circumstances could certainly be ahead of anyone of us, but it is difficult to digest. i have been in fields where i saw suffering.

almost as bad is when a loved one refuses to allow death to come within reason. I have seen people hooked up on life support. and i know of cases where people have revived. personally i have instructed my children as my parents did me to let me go.