Discussion Is Suicide Cowardly?

[ARW3N]

Suicide is not a cowardly act but rather one that takes great fearlessness to accomplish. I don't mean to romanticize suicide, but instead simply to represent it accurately.

 

[WhyIsLife56]

It's the most bravest thing you can do in your lifetime.
It's your life therefore you should have the right to commit suicide if you desire to.
The right to life implies you have the right to end it any time as well.

 

[Nemeshisu]

Pro-lifers say that suicide is cowardly because they perceive it as escaping from ones responsibilities. They see it as lazy road to happiness so to speak.

I however personally believe that suicide requires a lot of courage. In order to commit suicide you need to prepare mentally, overcome Survival Instinct etc. which requires a lot of effort. If invidual has considered every other option and believes that suicide is the only solution then suicide is responsible decision that requires one to get rid of his/her fear.

I however do not advocate suicide if you do this on impulse, without proper preparation and without considering any other option.

 

[chris8000]

It's not cowardly your right, desperate yes, but not that. I think your profile picture is cool, next to the sea.

 

[Fly🦋]

It's no where near cowardly.
it means your so fucked up with life that your actually going to do something about it and thats bravery. Not trying to make suicide sound like a heroic act but we dont know where we will end up after death and to be able to take that chance and want to take that chance makes you pretty brave.

 

[Manja]

I kind of think it is...unless you jump from the hight or infront of a train...you have to be a little crazy to do that

 

[Jean Améry]

The part about the supposed 'cowardice' start at around 10:42.

Conclusion: it seems like suicidology has finally caught up to the obvious. Killing oneself takes considerable courage. Which is probably why it's a still relatively rare phenomenon in this rotten world where an awful lot of people would probably be better off dead. It's probably also the reason why so many attempts fail: most people aren't terribly courageous so to summon up the courage to do something like that is likely too much for most. Even if they actually would want to die/wanted to die at that time.

 

[ARW3N]

The part about the supposed 'cowardice' start at around 10:42.

Conclusion: it seems like suicidology has finally caught up to the obvious. Killing oneself takes considerable courage. Which is probably why it's a still relatively rare phenomenon in this rotten world where an awful lot of people would probably be better off dead. It's probably also the reason why so many attempts fail: most people aren't terribly courageous so to summon up the courage to do something like that is likely too much for most. Even if they actually would want to die/wanted to die at that time.

Thanks for this! Thomas Joiner is my favourite suicidologist. His father stabbed himself to death. Dr. Joiner has made it his mission to understand and find the solution to his father's death.

 

[BPD Barbie]

For me, suicide is the greatest act of self care I can give myself. It's putting my needs first.

 

[TAW122]

Absolutely not! Suicide is one of the bravest and most difficult decisions one can take in one's life. It requires tremendous fortitude, conviction, courage, to go through with it and succeed. Furthermore, it is difficult to do in this day and age, especially when having to secretly go about it without being caught. Starting from ideation, to method research, method acquisition, waiting for the right conditions and time, and then finally overcoming the last hurdle, the SI to go through and see it to the end. It requires tremendous courage, adeptness, and stealth in order to do so successfully.

@Nemeshisu Yes, many pro-lifers see it in a different slant, but the worst thing is that refuse to accept that the "truth" about people who attempt and are successful. They are also hostile to any dissenting views, and rather project their own views on life onto everyone who disagrees with "Life is great and suicide is cowardly." Ever since I learned that suicide is an option and that life isn't all great, I start to resent them and any message they spew.

 

[Jean Améry]

Thanks for this! Thomas Joiner is my favourite suicidologist. His father stabbed himself to death. Dr. Joiner has made it his mission to understand and find the solution to his father's death.

In my opinion suicidologists are pseudo-scientists who for a lack of experimentally tested explanations only have hypothesis' and are biased from the very start (suicide is bad and must be prevented at all cost). They're also fond of spreading the ideology of 'mental illness' as the main driver for suicide, i.e. suicide is always an irrational action, which is rubbish on quite a few levels.

Imo suicide can't be understood from an objective standpoint: only by going through similar experiences oneself and intimate experience with the person beforehand can one have a chance of understanding (partially) why he/she did it.

Joiner himself seems to regard 'mental illnesses' as 'forces of nature': strange given that none of those supposed illnesses can actually be observed in the brain or anywhere in the body. You'd think a scientist would refrain from using poetic, misleading language.

How is it possible to find a 'solution' to a suicide? The man built a career on it surely but I don't think we're that much closer to an actual scientific explanation of the phenomenon of suicide. If that's even possible.

 

[Sunset Limited]

Only fools generalize and judge this issue. Actually, this is an impulsive response to suicide. The fear of an uncontrollable anomaly. A violent message that has been tried to rationalize. Because people don't want their own relatives to commit suicide. Therefore, the person who committed suicide and the suicide are tried in a sham court and found guilty. I don't believe suicide is a judicial act. Every suicide case is unique.

 

[ARW3N]

For me, suicide is the greatest act of self care I cns give myself. It's putting my needs first.

You've just demolished another prevalent myth about suicide which deserves its own separate topic. That's the myth of suicide being the most selfish act a person can commit equivalent to breaking all the Ten Commandments at once. It certainly seems selfish from the outside. What the suicidal person is thinking at the time is actually quite different from selfishness. Their idea is along the lines of, my death will be worth more than my life to others. Now, if you ponder that sentiment, that's not selfish at all. In fact, if anything it's the opposite. It's very selfless.

 

[Grandexit]

For me cowardice are the people who are rotten and miserable and strike out at others because they hate life so damn much. Such as the random mass shooters we have every. single. week. in the failed States of America.

I've done a "searching and fearless moral inventory" and made a decision that I believe is the best for me. What I believe is cowardly is demanding that someone wakes up in a world that feels like being so lost and hurting everyday with no real hope of things getting better for that person. Then demanding that they keep enduring the pain for someone else's sake.

 

[Manja]

Yes we are all saints now...this is just rationalization

 

[Tearygirl]

It can never be a coward act. It requires high level of courage. So I'm not sure I can do this because I'm a coward myself. I can't even properly kill myself.

 

[ARW3N]

Only fools generalize and judge this issue. Actually, this is an impulsive response to suicide. The fear of an uncontrollable anomaly. A violent message that has been tried to rationalize. Because people don't want their own relatives to commit suicide. Therefore, the person who committed suicide and the suicide are tried in a sham court and found guilty. I don't believe suicide is a judicial act. Every suicide case is unique.

You're right! A court can't try a person for crimes in their absence but that's what Coroner's Courts do all the time. Suicides haves freed themselves from the shackles of life and the judiciary system.

 

[Epsilon0]

When you put a noose around your neck, or you sit there looking down the light bouncing off the sharp object in your hands, you face the most gargantuan task: to overcome billions of years of evolution telling your every cell that you must survive at all costs.

Would not a coward, by definition, shrink from such task?

 

[TimeToBiteTheDust]

I don't think so. I don't know about any family member who commited suicide and I don't want to be remembered as the coward of the family. Hope people who appreciate me respect my decition.

 

[Intelligent Ape]

Cowardly or not - it's a moral question and it's not important at all (let's be beyond good and evil )).
But what I know a human need enough strength to end live by himself. That's obviously don't looks like an easy decision.

 

[Nnana]

I think the contrary. Life is hard for most people and they mainly keep living out of fear of death. The fear of death is what motivates almost anything in human life. I think they are the coward ones. Suicide is the bravest act.

 

[Blazo]

Absolutely not, its just a weak argument that non-suicidal people make to try and keep you alive and suffering. Dead is a naturally feared, our bodies do endless things to try and avoid death, and if you choose to commit suicide you are bypassing that fear and accomplishing something that is better than life-long suffering.

 

[barty1013]

Gonna have to read all of these, but for now, my 2 cents. The OPPOSITE. It's incredibly brave to consciously forge into the next realm and denounce the physical and all that comes with it. But I guess there's different reasons for it you know? I think people say the opposite of the truth constantly in this world, black is white, white is black, always twisting what is really going on. The worst part is when they talk about "the people they've left behind, oh, how they suffer so"...Really? No mention of the person who suffered greatly before leaving. It's absurd.

 

[ARW3N]

Gonna have to read all of these, but for now, my 2 cents. The OPPOSITE. It's incredibly brave to consciously forge into the next realm and denounce the physical and all that comes with it. But I guess there's different reasons for it you know? I think people say the opposite of the truth constantly in this world, black is white, white is black, always twisting what is really going on. The worst part is when they talk about "the people they've left behind, oh, how they suffer so"...Really? No mention of the person who suffered greatly before leaving. It's absurd.

Yes, you're right! One of the most bizarre terms ever concocted by pro-lifers is the expression "suicide survivor". I initially thought it referred to those who failed at their suicide attempts. In fact, it has nothing to do with the suicide at all but refers to the family and friends of the suicide. It's as if they had survived a terrible disaster like an earthquake survivor.

 

[barty1013]

Yes, you're right! One of the most bizarre terms ever concocted by pro-lifers is the expression "suicide survivor". I initially thought it referred to those who failed at their suicide attempts. In fact, it has nothing to do with the suicide at all but refers to the family and friends of the suicide. it's as if they had survived a terrible disaster like an earthquake survivor.

Oh my God, I hadn't heard that expression before. I come from people like that, pro-lifer, conservative party etc., everything is about them, completely narcissistic. When talking about a possible nuclear war my mother said "Why does it have to happen in MY life?!"....And when I die, i have no doubt there will be multiple funerals so she can milk it for all it's worth...."I did everything I could" (nothing, you dug my grave lol) and "No mother should have to endure this"...she smirks when I'm in pain, relishes it. Anyway, I'm sharing that personal stuff, because I have a birds eye view of folks like that. It's insidious really.

 

[HopeDiesLast]

I believe that the only time suicide is cowardly is when it's done for the sole purpose of avoiding accountability for ones crimes. Let's say someone has committed a heinous crime such as child rape...and they kill themselves rather than facing the criminal justice system, then that's an act of cowardice. On the other hand, for the abuse victim who simply cannot overcome the trauma, the act of suicide may be the only way to cope.

 

[ARW3N]

I believe that the only time suicide is cowardly is when it's done for the sole purpose of avoiding accountability for ones crimes. Let's say someone has committed a heinous crime such as child rape...and they kill themselves rather than facing the criminal justice system, then that's an act of cowardice. On the other hand, for the abuse victim who simply cannot overcome the trauma, the act of suicide may be the only way to cope.

Yes, the war criminal Slobodan Praljak immediately comes to mind. He committed suicide by poisoning in the courtroom some years ago rather than face up to his crimes. Holed up in a bunker under his headquarters in Berlin, Adolf Hitler is the most notorious historical figure to commit suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head.

 

[TimeToBiteTheDust]

I also hate when someone says "He/she was stupid for commiting suicide."

 

[1DayItWillBover]

takes a massive amount of courage to end your own life.

 

[Darkbrett]

Nah I dont think so. Seems to be a pretty good choice for some.... some others should just over the hump in life they are in. And fix their problems.
Suicide isn't for everyone. And hopefully the people who are struggling get through it.
For those of us like me. Who have suffered for most of their life. Yeah. That's who suicide is for.