Fully agree with @Righttodie not enough is done to address pain or even quality of life or deeply entrenched toxic systems that behave like a meat grinder causing pain and eroding quality of life in the first place. Somewhere along the way death has been medicalised into the enemy with quality replaced with an insistence on longevity.
Wrote this elsewhere, seems on topic mostly and I am lazy.
There are multiple issues here. One is the default assumption that suicide is irrational. This is likely born out of the fact that there is little meaningful study on rational suicide that even makes it to legislative places in the first place. Even less so when it comes to mental disorders, unlike say terminal illness or enduring physical issues. So the legislation often reflects the already outdated and dominant views they spring from. Doesn't help when the Daily mail paper prints yet another story on 'Dangerous suicidal schizophrenic murders stranger and eats mothers face...'
If you are being treated for mental health, this is further entrenched by the mental health act as you likely already come under being viewed as a vulnerable adult. Or your mental capacity may be in question. But the system is a hammer looking for nails and everyone is a nail currently for the reasons I outlined above. That and psychiatry seems so very flawed and reductionist in its approach to the point I could rant for days at its glaring structural failings. It rarely addresses causes of pain just throws drugs at it. But in the interests of preserving potentially irrational life, it makes collateral out of some lives who do have rational reasoning. A lot of law is a variant of one for the many, in its attempt at mitigating harm. It is immensely complex and I often see that complexity narrowed in scope or reduced to a caricature on here. It gets even more complex when you throw in comorbid conditions. Drugs, abuse, gas lighting, and external conditions. Even various medications can throw up issues. Doctors are also covered by medical ethics so can override what a patient may want. That is another complexity I am not at all knowledgeable about.
As for first responders they do not have the luxury of carrying out a forensic level assessment of your suicide attempt then coming to a judgement, nor are they mind readers of your mental inner workings or your philosophy on suicide. They have various legal protections to act in the interest of preserving life and will simply do so. In the example of the shotgun. Did they do it to themselves? Is this youtube stunt gone wrong? Did someone else shoot them? Is there a note and should they waste time reading it? Their role is not to be a detective respecting your autonomy or rummaging around in drawers first to see if you have any sort of advanced instructions. At that moment they cannot know, every second is crucial and medicine is about preserving life It is not about your personal circumstances it is about the broader whole and their job role. Sometimes that broader whole can condemn you to a worse fate. But the person working on you can't know that. But they can be certain if they do nothing you die. On the other side of that is the potential of getting sued. So appeals to further entrench liability culture so people don't interfere with suicide seems pretty short-sighted.
You see a woman in a canal she is drowning. Do you move to rescue them or do you let them drown? I have purposely left out context because that is what it is often like for front line services or a random Joe spotting someone in seeming distress.
You see a person hanging from a tree. Flailing about and gasping and trying to pull on the rope. Are they flailing because of survival instinct or because they have changed their mind? Are those noises an appeal for help or a crushed windpipe and natural pained responses? Since you can't know and now all the responsibility to act or not act rests on you. Most will move to preserve life in that instance. I think that is simply human, somewhat logical and nothing to do with evil pro lifers or even religion.
I do feel formal directives that have been pre-established should be respected. That it would be more humane to have an end of life service with built-in safeguards that also considers the chronic pain of mental disorders especially if treatments have consistently failed and quality of life is compromised. That can establish a setting where you at least get the ability to say goodbye without a heavy handed interventionist response. But you go full circle then to the first issue raised, what is considered sound mind when it comes to suicide? Seems some states and countries are making inroads there with legislation. My country though is not among them. In fact recently just watched the mental health act worsen considerably...
Well put.
It's all a grey area. hard to generalize action taken by anyone involved being right or wrong because some actions like reaching out to save when spotting a person in distress is natural and something Humans are conditioned to do.
There needs to be more than just these "life boat" principles.
I can put that one down to the government not giving a fuck about people suffering as long as it's not visibly distressing (medieval ages welcome back).
So any spending on mental health (Suicides are among the leading cause of death world wide) is a waste of money for them, because the society and the average Joe itself doesn't have any qualms about it.
Unless they suffer themselves and are self aware to see how fucked up the world really is in relation to getting help for a serious illness, because this is a terminal illness, it's as bad as getting hit by a truck, and worse that you can't really have someone see the scars as they are not physically visible.
Underfunded and overwhelmed.
That's the state of mental health services.
As it goes to tackle an illness that is not superficial, makes people jump, drown, shoot and burn themselves.
And everyone once in their lives has had these thoughts and most contemplate, and some are able to go through with it just because there wasn't any place else to go for help.
We are battling a huge thing.
The society is still in its infancy when it comes to understanding this global epidemic and treating it.
I can only hope that with figure generations this gets more attention and saves lives.
Until then, we shouldn't make those people suffer who aren't being given any help, it's not moral.
