Is suicide an act of selfishness or is it less black and white than that?

Question

I mean, we all have bad days right? Your thoughts please :)
oxox

Answer 1

thats a good question. i had a step son hang himself just 2 years ago. honestly i do think its selfish and chicken s h it. his baby was born just 3 months to the day after he died. he did have mental and drug problems, and somewhat of a b i t c h for a wife. maybe he just didnt think he could handle it anymore and took the easy way out. he about killed his dad though.

Answer 2

No it is not selfish. It is desperate and a cry for help. The last thing a person who has the potential to commit suicide should be hearing is more about how bad a person they are.

Death always leaves people behind. They will be hurt but they will be more concerned about the loss of YOU and for not seeking the help you need while you were alive.

People that say suicide is selfish are only thinking of themselves and not the person that needs to be thought of in life. The selfish ones are the ones that answer yes to this question.

Answer 3

Suicide is an act of extreme desperation. It is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, but the problem has usually compounded itself to a point of seemingly no return. I think several of us have thought about committing suicide at one time or the other. Take it from me, that massive personal problems can turn themselves around in time, and that suicide then becomes only a fleeting memory. It isn't a matter of black or white, it's all grey. Finding solutions, loving and caring for others, and paying attention to certain signs in a depressed individual is the way we can help someone when they feel so desperate to even try it.

Answer 4

The way I see it, to fake being suicidal for attention is an act of selfishness, and completely inconsiderate. I've known people who've done it, and it irritates me that they could be so childish and self-centered.

Suicide, on the other hand, meaning one actually goes through with it or intends to, is the result of many complex factors. Obviously, for one reason or another, the suicidal person has decided life has nothing to offer them. Odds are, they've exaggerated the severity of one or more of the problems they're experiencing, to themselves, and feel that there is no solution, and that things will never clear up. I wouldn't call it an act of selfishness, I'd call it a particularly severe result of irrationality. Assuming we're talking about what one commonly thinks of, when one hears "suicide", and not a situation where the only alternative to suicide would be a slow and painful death.

Answer 5

suicide is a desperate and last resort situation for a human to take. Think how difficult it is to hurt yourself. Your mind makes you stop before it really hurts. So imagine how much emotional and distressed pain a person must be in to actually over ride that sence of self preservation and actually end their own life.

I would have thought differently until last week, when I saw Parkinson!! They talked about suicide. There was Steven Fry on their, very intellegant, very articulate, who thought about suicide a few years ago. He described it as feeling the most emotional pain, that the pain was so bad it becmae physical, and that suicide would be the only way to end the suffering. To end your own life goes against all rational thinking, everything animal instinct dictates. You do not think about others as you're not in a normal state of mind. Peple saying it's the ultimate selfish thing to do do not have any understanding of mental illness.

Answer 6

I think an act of suicide is the final act of a person who prior to doing it, had been sending out warning signs that went unnoticed. When someone kills themselves, that person must be pretty desperate, and the people around that person, in a way , failed to pick up on the warning signals. But, as far as suicide bombers, they are brain washed by some zealot into doing it, so I have mixed feelings on that one.
oxoxox

Answer 7

I don't think most people who kill themselves are thinking clearly at the time, or they wouldn't do it.
Who really knows for sure what goes through that person's head or what they have been through that leads up to suicide. We will never know.
Some women who have been raped have committed suicide. That can't be considered an act of selfishness, they obviously just couldn't live with the horrible memories of it.
Think about it. I would guess in most cases of suicide the people were mentally and emotionaly disturbed and could no longer cope with their life because they couldn't change it.
Then there is the selfish one who threatens to kill themselves and use this as a means to control another person or get attention never meaning to go through with it and dies by accident.
So, no it's not alway black and white!

Answer 8

Suicide=silly

Answer 9

It's normally less selfish than that...a bad day doesn't make someone want to die but a string of events and the feeling that you have nothing left to live for,does.

Answer 10

Tough question..if a person is healthy otherwise and is all self obsorbed with how pityfull and sad and how the world sucks and they are all against me and I will just show them...
pretty selfish.
If a person is physically suffering day in and day out and medical science has absolutely no hope....life really is a burden.....
conundrum
if either kills themself it hurts others that are left behind.
the first example is selfish to me...the second needs relief but is still selfish because it is me,me,me...and there are drugs that would let him go naturally relatively pain free.
Suicide is basically murder,you being perp and victim.
Murder is murder so yes it is selfish.

Answer 11

Although it may not seem selfish to the person contemplating it, it really is. It will be painful for their friends and family and inflict unnecessary hurt on them. The person taking their life will also be responsible for taking the lives of all who love them, maybe not physically, but emotionally. The death of a friend of family member can take years and years to get over. And life is never so horrible that suicide is the only choice.