Would you consider suicide to be selfish...?

Question

You end your suffering only to leave behind others who suffer because of it. Kind of a follow-up to previous question. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Al.3q89r3V9kDgkN6AuOw3rsy6IX?qid=20060816210054AAA71KH

Answer 1

My Aunt was in a lot of pain, she killed herself. I know deep down she was not trying to be selfish. but she was. she didn't think about her Family.

I Loved my Aunt and really looked up to her. to me she was the most Wonderful women in the world. when she died it almost killed me. how could she leave me? how could she hurt me like she did? why didn't she Love me enough to tell them me how much pain she was In? I may have been able to help her. these question will haunt me the rest of my life. and yes I hated her for a long time for hurting me and not loving me enough to let me try to help her.

Maybe I an the selfish one. I Just Loved her so much the pain nevergoes away. and to me to put your Family and Friends through this kind of pain Is being selfish. Sorry it's the way i feel. get help talk it out let the people you Love help you. in the long run your Family and your Friends will Thank you.

Answer 2

It depends. If the person committing suicide has a family, especially dependents such as children or elderly parents, then committing suicide for reasons of depression is selfish.
If the person is a nobody, say a homeless person with no family, or a convict sentenced to life imprisonment in solitary confinement, then suicide is a personal decision and is not selfish, as it neither harms nor benefits society.
If the person is dying for a cause, then their suicide may not only be unselfish but even courageous. For example, I don't think the Japanese kamikaze pilots in WWII were being selfish. They may have been misguided in their beliefs, but they were dying for their country, in the most literal sense of the word. That is the epitome of selfless courage.

Answer 3

No! Originally I used to think yes but after working with severly mentally ill adults for years I changed my opinion to NO. I'm not saying it's the right thing to do (I have helped people get out of desparate situations),but when a person is really suffering either phsycially or mentally and things don't/can't improve then family members should not think of it as a selfish act they should be happy that their loved 1 is no longer in such pain. I wish people didn't have to resort to that but unfortunitly sometimes it's justified(even if it goes against their religion).What a :( ?

Answer 4

I agree with christian, there are some who feel so much despair in their life that the thought of being selfish to them would seem inadequate compared to the pain they are feeling. Yes it is selfish I agree because you are hurting the ones that love you by doing so. But some people feel that they are beyond any sort of help. If you knew someone that was going to or wanted to commit suicide you should never tell them that they are selfish. Because its not going to talk them out of doing it. Compassion Love and Understanding and how willing you are to help them can be the only help that you could provide to someone, because this is what they need. I have attempted suicide many times and I have been talked out of it or I chickened out after talking to someone. Im glad that I didnt but I had others around to tell me that they loved me and showed compassion rather than calling me selfish. Im not saying that you would do that Im just saying that this would only have a negative impact on the situation. Was I selfish perhaps, but more along the lines of being desperate to get the help I really needed and I was lucky enough to have others there to get me through. The want for suicide is almost always a plea for help. Suicides that are commited are because when they needed someone to help them no one listened or cared. Or perhaps maybe they thought no one cared.
Ps. Dont judge others for what they do out of desperation offer help support and love. its the only thing that will help

Answer 5

Some people are suicidal due to many reasons and we cannot regard it as selfish as no one wants to be depress and suicidal. I am a christian and do not believe in taking one's life, but my long-term and complicated ailments (read : 15 years) left me depressed for a long time. For years i tried to be cheerful but when i am seriously ill, I felt that death is better than living. My ailments had caused my education and almost my future and my condition was worsen due to lack of knowledge and many other factors. Thankfully, it was a long time before I realised it was lack of many nutrition that has left me with severe problems. Think about it if i hve not been fortunate to find a remedy, until now i may have taken the easier route to end my suffering with suicide. i would say to the suicidal not to give up finding a solution to your problem. I waited 15 years and I found it!

Answer 6

SUICIDE=SELFISHNESS I don't care how you look at it. It is the most selfish decision you can make. I had an uncle commit suicide, how dare him think of himself over his family, think that whatever he thought was so bad was something that was even worse than what he did to his family?!?! I also worked with this guy a couple years ago who shot himself after him and his wife got separated. The worst thing about it??? He left his 9 year old daughter with out a father or an explanation about why his life was so much more important than his relationship with her. Not to mention any financial help that she would need he took with his life when he shot himself also. Yes, I am mad about both these situations. I think it is SELFISH to the extreme!

Answer 7

oh my god, no! in no way.

Its the last ACT of a desperate mind. ALL LIFE IS CONDITIONED FOR SURVIVAL, self destruction is not a "natural act" in any way. It takes extraordinary bravery to pull this off, and to be so so tired and confused and hopeless. Your at your bottom and things will never get better and you just want to sleep forever because theirs just no point to going ON. NONE. Even if it got better, how could it?

I lived with suicidal tendencies for almost 40 years so I totally understand their thoughts, however I used every EXCUSE I could find to stay alive, I was just to chicken to carry it through. IT WAS SO FINAL. Now, after 14 years on anti-depressants, anti-psychotics and therapy, I can't imagine wanting to take my own life, BUT I REMEMBER! And that memory helps me understand. When I was only 5 years old, I would use the "now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the lord my soul to keep, let me die before I wake" yeah, at 5 I had changed the words, so that I wouldn't have to live with my father anymore and be abused. But I never died and I go away from him a few years later.

So, it being selfish, maybe one in a million. The rest is just plain old PAIN, TIREDNESS, FEAR, ANGER, HUMILIATION, and seeing NO OTHER HOPE. Fear that if their "families" knew the truth about "what happened", or "who they were" or "what they had done" or whatever, they would no LONGER BE LOVED UNCONDITIONALLY and no longer BE ACCEPTED.

Answer 8

I don't think selfish is the right word. When a person gets to a place in their mind where suicide is the only remaining option, it's true that they aren't thinking about others. But sometimes they're thinking that the world, their family, their friends are better off without them, so is that selfish thinking? Suicide is just so sad.

Answer 9

No, it’s not selfish. Those who consider it to be so are the selfish ones. Most of the “yes” answers I see mention hurting those left behind. If those loved ones cared so much for the person, how did they not see the pain, the depression and the desperation? You have to wonder how someone with all these loved ones get to that point without anyone knowing?

Answer 10

I have attempted suicide before and at the time, I honestly believed that my family and friends were better off without me. I was useless and helpless, unable to work or even bathe myself. I wanted to spare my family having to support me and take care of me. It was not so much a selfish act as a misguided one. Perhaps, if a person commits suicide in order to hurt someone else or without considering others at all, that would be selfish.