Assignment 5, Suicide

Nov 4th, 2002

Assignment 5, Suicide

Suicide is a morality issue when it comes down to religious dogma and states involved punishments given to people who attempted to commit suicide.  Suicide is seen as good in some cultures and bad in others and it goes from one extreme to the next.  For example in Amsterdam euthanasia is legal because it comes down to issue of personal choice.  I don’t see why a person who wants to die cannot fulfill it by suicide because birth is not a choice and death should be one.  In some cultures, suicides are thought to be courageous and honorable.  In the story of Masada mass suicides was an act of dignity, instead of being captured by enemies and eventually be tortured, suicides is thought to be a chance of freedom. Of course there are many factors that one would argue about suicides or assisted suicides.  In a legal point of view, you are taking a life it doesn’t matter if it is someone else or your own life and it should be illegal.  There should be criteria to justify if suicide is a solution during a certain mental or physical state.

            In the case of a healthcare issue, a terminally ill old man is in pain and he will die with no chance for survival then there is a justification to let the man die in peace or let him die in pain.  It is about ending a suffering he is going through and I think that it is okay for the man to make the choice to have morphine injection.  In this situation the man is hooked up to a machine with morphine dispense only if the man pushes a button to release the dose.  But with similar cases, assisted suicide by physicians even with the patient consent could led to questions such as if the patient is actually sane to make a decision to end his or her life or should family members be involved to participate in making decisions too even if the family disagree with the idea of suicide. 

            With recent assisted suicide cases such as Dr. Jack Kevorkian who assisted a patient with Lou Gehrig’s disease, the doctor was charged with a first degree murder.  The reason why the patient chooses suicide was because he was afraid to die from the disease when it is at its worst.  The patient wants to end his life without pain and Dr. Kevorkian did that by injecting his patient with a lethal dose of controlled substance.  Most would disagree with what Dr. Kevorkian did with helping his patient to die, but if the disease would lead to a quality of life that is undesirable then why can’t the patient choose suicide and also be assisted for a painless death.

              Another argument is from religious point of view about suicide.  Christianity believes suicide is immoral because it violates the desire to live in choosing death to solve a particular problem.  There is responsibility you have to others around you, because if you die it is not just that you are dead, but it affects others. And also the fact that your life was given to you by God and God is the one who can take it away.  On the other end is a Buddhist monk setting himself aflame because of his commitment to his religious belief.  The monk’s action could be viewed as immoral under Christian belief, but yet it is okay from a Buddhist point of view.  The incident happened as a protest to a political regime that the monk as set himself on fire to sacrifice his life to make a prudent point.  From an outsider view it is a disruptive action, but only to those who is not involved in the political turmoil.  If there is any chance that one could interpret the monk’s action to be a noble act in wanting to stop suffering for a particular situation then it fulfilled that point.

            In a situation with a suicide-bomber attacking a busload of civilians verses a American soldier in his act of duty kills himself and Saddam Hussein plus innocent workers, there is no moral distinction between the bomber’s or the soldier’s actions. 

They are both under the same condition where they are doing their job in defense.

I disagree in the fact that the suicide-bomber could be labeled as a terrorist and not the American soldier.  If there is an argument of one action to be bad and one to be good, then the fact of killing is not a moral issue.  It is then about our perspectives that give in to the distinction on the issue of morality.  If you are a part of jihad and their conducts, you will see that what they do are in defense and if you are outsider looking into what the American soldier is doing then he can well be a terrorist to the innocent workers.  

            Suicide is not about morality or immorality, but it is about the point of view that holds the issue of morality.  If suicide can be avoid then it should be a good thing to see life to be something more than just leading to death.  To me it is like saying if a glass is half empty or half full.  There is always a person who would disagree with suicide as an immoral act, but then to what degree should it be considered okay rather than to completely disregard suicide.  I think suicide should be a choice for one to make in regards to their lives and not for people to judge if it is right or wrong.