23 November to 30 November

Is suicide sensible?

Recently Gavin Fairbairn posed the question: 'Is suicide morally acceptable.' My view is that self-destruction is morally wrong, in all of its forms: suicide, abortion, assisted suicide and even acts of altruism. Despite this, some people defend the idea that we have the right to die if we want to. But what about our responsibilities? We do not live separate and isolated lives; and hence our actions will always affect others. To commit suicide is not only morally wrong, it is also egoistically wrong.

We need to ask 'What motives, feelings and thoughts could lead a person to try to finish with his own life?' Normally those feelings are sadness, hopelessness and deep anguish; everything is seen from a negative point of view and pessimism is at the front of all their thoughts. For the potential suicide, life is so miserable that it feels the same as dying. Some people might think that death will be then, the end of suffering, but it is also the end of pleasure, of happiness, of being alive, of sharing life with the people who love us and who we love. Given this, I have another question to add to Fairbairn's: Is suicide sensible?

Ayeray Medina Bustos, Centenary PhD student Peace and Development. Leeds Metropolitan University.

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