Is suicide selfish?

[NotWorthLiving]

I was talking to a cop a while ago and he was saying that suicide is the most selfish thing you can do especially if you have a home and a family. What do you guys think about suicide being selfish?

 

[Faulisdead]

I mean, I can see how it might be considered selfish. At the same time, people that choose to off themselves are going through such pain and anguish, that it makes me think, who the fuck are we to judge, ya know?

What if a family man were to have some kick ass life insurance and offed themseleves? I wonder if that cop would consider that to be selfish.

 

[DoneBlonde]

I can see how people could think that. However I've been pro choice since 15 , I had to write essays on both euthanasia for physical and mental illnesses. I've also lost 3 friends to suicide in a 1 year and 6 month period and I believe they are finally at peace.

 

[TheCrow]

Cops also have a high suicide rate, so he can keep his judgement to himself.

 

[Circles]

It's just as selfish expecting someone to stay in their own personal hell.

 

[21Neberg]

I hate people who call suicide selfish. It just makes me angry! Why do we have to live in this hell just for others? It doesn't make sense!

 

[stellabelle]

Cops also have a high suicide rate, so he can keep his judgement to himself.

No kidding, a Kansas City cop just committed suicide two days ago.
I've heard others call it selfish before too...but forcing someone to stay alive and suffer is also selfish. Hell, eating could be considered selfish. I guess it all depends on the circumstances and how it is done. Wanting to live forever can also be considered selfish. I guess it's all about perspective.

 

[Plankter]

It's at least far less selfish than forcing people into an agonizing existence

 

[WayOut]

Suicide is selfish, and it's not selfish. Choosing to live is selfish, and it's not selfish.

Any of the above can be true or false depending on how you define and measure "selfish" as opposed to "selfless" actions.

A person who kills themselves could be seen as selfless, even heroic, in a situation where more harm would result from their living. The religious concept of "laying down your life for your brother" is saying suicide is the ultimate good if the benefit to another is great enough, yet these phony religious ideologues are always the first to the guilt party, and worse, the ones most likely to conceal the act as a shameful thing.

Basically, the common way the term selfishness is used with suicide just refers to the loss and grief other people would experience with your suicide. That just means they're the ones being selfish if you think about it in wanting you to live against your choice for their own peace of mind.

So, any negative value judgements are nothing more than fabricated guilt and probably not worth worrying about imo. You can just as easily argue, or more easily argue, that suicide is selfless. It only has the meaning someone gives it, or accepts it as having.

 

[lost_soul83]

I was just speaking to my mom about suicide yesterday. We both agreed that there are two types of people; the ones who try to ctb and the ones that do. We were also talking about how usually it takes just the right set of circumstances to converge to result in a person's suicide. For me, I believe I've reached that point. My brother died of an OD 4 months ago and something in me just broke. It literally felt like "the straw that broke the camel's back." I don't know how else to describe it. So now I'm not letting anyone know what my true intentions are so no one can stop me when the time comes, which I hope to be in the next few weeks.

Do I believe suicide is selfish? Not at all! I believe that the people that expect you to live in hell every day, just to help them out are the selfish ones. People that want to ctb are suffering immeasurably. How can one expect them to continue on, just for the benefit of others?

 

[therhydler]

Wow, you're suffering so much I can't even imagine a state like that. And you want it to stop? You fucking selfish prat.

 

[Memento Mori]

I hate people who call suicide selfish. It just makes me angry! Why do we have to live in this hell just for others? It doesn't make sense!

I think it's selfish, no matter if someone else gets hurt or not. Nothing wrong about that fact though, drinking water or actually living is kinda selfish too :D

 

[Vegrau]

Every decisions. Every single thing we human do is selfish. No one can judge. No one have the qualifications.

 

[Redt2go]

I was talking to a cop a while ago and he was saying that suicide is the most selfish thing you can do especially if you have a home and a family. What do you guys think about suicide being selfish?

Of course it's selfish the most selfish thing you could do. I as accept that though

 

[Redt2go]

Suicide is selfish, and it's not selfish. Choosing to live is selfish, and it's not selfish.

Any of the above can be true or false depending on how you define and measure "selfish" as opposed to "selfless" actions.

A person who kills themselves could be seen as selfless, even heroic, in a situation where more harm would result from their living. The religious concept of "laying down your life for your brother" is saying suicide is the ultimate good if the benefit to another is great enough, yet these phony religious ideologues are always the first to the guilt party, and worse, the ones most likely to conceal the act as a shameful thing.

Basically, the common way the term selfishness is used with suicide just refers to the loss and grief other people would experience with your suicide. That just means they're the ones being selfish if you think about it in wanting you to live against your choice for their own peace of mind.

So, any negative value judgements are nothing more than fabricated guilt and probably not worth worrying about imo. You can just as easily argue, or more easily argue, that suicide is selfless. It only has the meaning someone gives it, or accepts it as having.

I like this argument

 

[Othermind]

I think we've been over this.
Your loved ones shouldn't guilt-trip you into staying alive seems to be the consesus here, and I agree with it.
However do realize that you will hurt a lot of them possibily beyond recovery, that's something you need to accept. But then again, as most of us here knows, you can't avoid pain in life and somebody in your life dying is something that could happen at any moment so it's unreasonable to expect to be shielded from that just because.
Basically, you know the consequences but the choice is yours, and it's fine either way.

 

[Deleted member 847]

Your parents made you because they wanted a human pet to entertain them. They knew the world we live in is cruel and hard, but they didn't care. You owe them nothing.

 

[Othermind]

Your parents made you because they wanted a human pet to entertain them.

Oh, comeon.
I'm anti natalist but this statement has the emotional maturity of an edgy 17 year old.

 

[Deleted member 847]

Oh, comeon.
I'm anti natalist but this statement has the emotional maturity of an edgy 17 year old.

Why do you do anything Othermind? Because it makes you feel good, because you get rewarded by it. Why is it edgy to assume that we're endorphines driven animals when that's just a fact?
My parents are selfish
I am selfish
And idealists who believe in unconditional love are selfish too

 

[Othermind]

Why is it edgy to assume that we're endorphines driven animals when that's just a fact?

Because it's an overy simplistic worldview stemming from cherrypicked information.
I suggest you read more philosophy other than Nietzsche quotes online.

 

[waived]

Why you would ever willingly talk to a cop is beyond me imo but what's selfish is when people take a position without putting in the work. How could you say someone's decision is selfish when you are unable to even articulate a choice to live and specifically in relation to the person's life who you are addressing.

 

[VoloFataliDoce]

Suicide is no more selfish than the people around us who beg us to stay because they would feel bad. You see this in terminally ill patients all the time. They are obviously dying and in pain, and yet their families keep them alive for as long as possible because they want another few days, weeks, maybe months. It's selfish on both ends, but I fail to see how the argument that suicide is selfish has ever truly helped anyone.

 

[Deleted member 847]

Because it's an overy simplistic worldview stemming from cherrypicked information.
I suggest you read more philosophy other than Nietzsche quotes online.

Let's word it this way, alright? Your parents' core intention for giving you life was to satisfy a desire, to fill the emptiness in their life at that time. How is that any different than taking a dog by force from the street or nature and imposing 4 walls and a yard on him. Your ego will talk you out of the ethical problem by convincing you that you're just doing business, that the dog will benefit from it too. But the dog can't say yes or no. And then you will also expect the dog to do things for you, and if he doesn't you might punish him. But the poor dog was just living his life in the wild, and then you came and imposed this "deal" on him. The dog is a victim, he knows it, and he doesn't give a cookie about your expectations because he never consented to your deal in the first place. He might want to go back to his old life, but he can't now and you won't let him run away from your yard. That's oppression right there.
Being selfish is not bad, it's human nature. We all use each other. I am selfish too for wanting to ctb, because I know that my parents will suffer because of it, and lose money. But I don't care. I love myself more than I can give any marshmallows about my parents' needs of me staying here.

 

[Othermind]

Let's word it this way, alright? Your parents' core intention for giving you life was to satisfy a desire, to fill the emptiness in their life at that time. How is that any different than taking a dog by force from the street or nature and imposing 4 walls and a yard on him. Your ego will talk you out of the ethical problem by convincing you that you're just doing business, that the dog will benefit from it too. But the dog can't say yes or no. And then you will also expect the dog to do things for you, and if he doesn't you might punish him. But the poor dog was just living his life in the wild, and then you came and imposed this "deal" on him. The dog is a victim, he knows it, and he doesn't give a cookie about your expectations because he never consented to your deal in the first place. He might want to go back to his old life, but he can't now and you won't let him run away from your yard. That's oppression right there.
Being selfish is not bad, it's human nature. We all use each other. I am selfish too for wanting to ctb, because I know that my parents will suffer because of it, and lose money. But I don't care. I love myself more than I can give any marshmallows about my parents' needs of me staying here.

 

[TheGoodGuy]

No one asked to be born so everyone should have the right to die nothing selfish about that, what is selfish is asking someone to stay alive JUST because of your egocentrically needs

 

[Deleted member 847]

The point is that If bob and Katie don't give enough fucks to spare their future son Jimmy the adversities of life, then Jimmy after growing up and going through those adversities, because Katie felt lonely, has all the right to kill himself and not give a fuck about Katie's suffering.

(This is the too long , don't want to read version)

If people want to believe in the fiction of unconditional love and giving and cool rainbows, that's their choice

 

[Othermind]

Welcome to Sanctioned Suicide.

 

[Deleted member 847]

Welcome to Sanctioned Suicide.

I tried so hard not to use the f word, I'm sorry I have failed you (marshmallows and cookies)
There was some emotion behind my posts, but you can't deny that they make sense.
It's the "you hurt me, I hurt you" type of thing. Even if you don't realize that you're hurting me, it doesn't make any difference. The parents think that they're giving their son a gift, the son has all the right not to accept that "gift"

 

[Othermind]

Might be that my mind is addled by not drinking, but it seems threads like this have been popping up all day and they've all been belabouring the same tired points that everyone pretty much agrees on. Hell, a pro-choice attitude towards suicide is the very reason this website exists at all.
Pardon me if I'm a little fatigued.

 

[LastDay]

Suicide is both selfish and not selfish. Selfish because it hurts your loved ones and not selfish because you don't owe anyone anything and you should be able to choose to do with your life as you please.