So in a recent
blog post, Exit International condemned the existence of this forum.
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Long story short. If you're under 50 years old, go fuck yourself. The right to die doesn't apply to young people and they shouldn't be caught up in "older people's legitimate and rightful access to end of life information". Pretty condescening, hm? Well. That's one way to throw people under the bus who are under 50 years old and in need of ressources to make an autonomous and well-informed decision. I'm glad Exit finally took a stance, sadly their statement directly implies they do not support the right to individual autonomy and subsequently the right to die for people under the age of 50
regardless of their circumstances. And that's a pretty extreme stance in my opinion. I mean, the ability to suffer and reject life for rational reasons doesn't start at the age of 50, right? I know so many young people who suffer from debilitating conditions which cause either mental or physical chronic pain and many of them have exhausted their options. And right now, these people who are unable to access the PPH because you exclude them for pretty much no legitimate reason have no way to exercise their right to die because in pretty much every country with a few exceptions assisted suicide is banned and therefore non-existent. That doesn't give people that many options to find relief from pain and as I said, it's a shame Exit throws these people under the bus. But then again,
that's why we're here. And you know, our forum doesn't just exist to provide access to crucial ressources to make personal decisions regarding your own welfare, it also exists for people to find empathy, love and support in this forum. And I would say that's even more important than the ressources you can find in this forum because what Exit doesn't mention is the fact that people use this space primarily to vent and talk about their thoughts and struggles to find support. Suicide is a stigmatised subject out there and we don't censor these topics in this forum, we don't force a certain narrative either and what's what makes this forum so great in my opinion. People can talk about their problems here without the riks to become the victim of coercision. And that's why people like to spend their time in this forum (voluntarily) and that's why it's important that forums like ours exist. None of that is mentioned in their statement.
But let's do some fact checking next. Doesn't Exit claim that they support the right to die of
all mentally capable adults? According to
their own website, this is their philosophy.
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They claim they support the right to die as a "fundamental human right" for all mentally capable adults. But the practiced position of Sanctioned Suicide is much closer to their own philosophy because unlike Exit we treat the right to decide over your own life as a fundamental human right and these aren't just empty words, our philosophy makes very clear that we don't discriminate based on age as long as you're an adult and of sound mind. And I'm pretty sure that applies to the overhelming majority of our community, given our members are capable to articulate their pain and struggles coherently in this forum, people spend a lot of time introspecting about their life and carefully weighting their options with the honest help and advice of our community. That's help that goes far beyond the empty plattidues that you see out there from people who want to tear down this place. You get better support in this community than the lazy suggestion that you should call a suicide hotline, as if that's quick fix for all problems. And reading the posts of our members and why they made an account here, it's very obvious to me that the members of our community have been suffering for years before they finally signed up on Sanctioned Suicide. People here have a history, they didn't just wake up someday and decide to join this forum for fun. It's ususally the result of a long process and it's always a voluntary decision. People make an account in this forum voluntarily because they've been suffering for a long time and that's one of the many reasons why
Tantacrul's video about us being a cult is completely wrong. In the five years I've been active in this community, I've rarely ever stumbled upon people that gave me the impression they lack mental capacity.
So again. We don't gatekeep, it's Exit that is gatekeeping the information based on very discriminatory factors. And how does your ageist policy fit together with your claim that you consider control over one's life and death a "fundamental human right", which is only possible if you have the ressources at your hands to make an
informed decision and one of these ressources are the PPH? Do your actions not contradict your words?
But there is more. In
this blog here, they go even further and claim people with a mental illness should also have a right to die too. That's interesting.
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So if you think mentally ill people should have a right to die, as you've outlined here, then why is it okay to exclude people based on age when they're already an adult and therefore possess the mental capacity to make deeply personal decisions about their own life? How is that any different than denying people with depression, dementia or other mental illness a right to die peacefully, which you think shouldn't disqualify someone from exercising their right to die? It's not, it's the same kind of bigotry, it's called ageism (just like excluding mentally ill people is considered ableism) and that's what you're doing when you claim that nobody(!) under the age of 50 has the right to die and therefore obtain the PPH to make deeply personal decisions about deeply personal matters. And I mean, you go even further and imply that nobody should have a right to even discuss suicide from a pro-choice angle because you're literally condemning the existence of this forum. Unlike Exit, we don't throw anyone under the bus, we're actively challenging the status quo.
And last but not least, you literally state right at the end of that blog that a 27 years old person who suffered from several mental health conditions obtained the PPH and used the information to exercise his right to die. You even post that on your own website and you seem to celebrate his ability to leave in peace, partly thanks to Exit.
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For some reason you didn't feel the need to distance yourself from this case because you "only give people over the age of 50 access to the PPH" and you strongly condemn when younger people obtain access to the book, right? Right? You ban them, that's what you said in your statement, right? So why does your statement against Sanctioned Suicide contradict your official philosophy and your practice described in that blog post?
Why are you saying B on your website and then you say A on your blog condeming the existence of this forum? I know why, because you don't actually believe anything you say in that statement about SS. The media has absolutely slandered us to death and I'm pretty sure you know that too, so you took the easy route and distanced yourself from this community so you can
run your business without interference. That's very dishonest. I don't need to lie about my intentions. Everyone knows I'm pretty upfront about my beliefs and I stood up for this community over and over again despite it's reputation. Everyone here knows my stance and I think people appreciate that I take people seriously when they've reached the age of majority, which gives them legal ground to make their own decisions. And that's a good thing. It's a bad thing to gatekeep this kind of information behind a paywall and attach it to some age requirement. I don't believe that aligns well with your claims that you consider the right to die a "fundamental human right". No, according to your statement regarding SS, you think it's a right
under certain conditions. Your actions and your words don't line up.
Here is some advice. Maybe you should all figure out your positions first before you throw shade at another community with exactly the same goals and philosophy as Exit International, at least on paper. Because when I say the right to die is a fundamental human right, I mean it and my actions prove it because I understand relief from pain is a good thing. That doesn't seem to be the case for Exit. You say one thing and mean something completely different. Maybe you should work on that first before you throw shade at this forum, which has been smeared into oblivion by the media for very obvious reasons. As I said before, the existence of this forum directly challenges the status quo, not only on mental health, on suicide as a taboo subject, on individual autonomy but also what it means to act compassionate and empathic towards other people. And that's the reason why we provoke such strong reactions from certain parts of society. Respecting someone's choice to end their suffering is an act of maturity and empathy and prolonging someone's pain isn't always the best course of action, sometimes that's an act of cruelty. The people who are trying to shut down this forum, twisting what it means to fight for relief from pain and the media that's echoing their sentiment do not change anything about these facts I've just mentioned.
And look. You think using the facade that you only give access to the PPH to elderly people will be enough to differentiate Exit from Sanctioned Suicide but your community has been targeted by
these welfare checks too and your community is significantly older than us. What does that tell you? The people who are trying to tear down this forum won't stop when SS is gone, that's very clear to me. They fundamentally disagree that people should have the ability to make their own decisions, they disagree with the right to die
on principle. In all cases, regardless of someone's tragic circumstances. And that should make it very clear to you that society doesn't care whetever you provide information and ressources to "only 50 years olds" or younger people, you're a target to those who oppose the right to die, just like us. Period. You think you're very different from SS but there are plenty of people out there who disagrees with you, the people who hunt us down disagree with you. Right now, the status quo is the following: suicide is bad. It's always bad. It doesn't provide relief from pain. It's never a valid choice. You don't own your mind and body. Individual autonomy doesn't exist and if you make a decision we don't like, we will interfere. Regardless of your age or your mental capacity. That's the status quo right now. And throwing us under the bus isn't going to help your case. And taking down SS isn't going to improve society, it doesn't improve the life of one single person out there. And I think you know that.
Now imagine what we could achieve if we tried to improve people's lives and make systemic changes to our broken system with the same amount of determination and force that people use to take down this forum, we would already live in an utopia. Instead, we'd rather waste ressources and energy to go after an online community minding it's own business. If you compare the suicide numbers before and after the forum was created, if you look at the insane amount of firearm suicides in the US
which puts this entire SN absurdity into perspective, you will realize that the problems that make people take drastic measures have existed forever and some of them are the product of a dysfunctional society. But we're the boogey man, right. Just act as if we're the single cause of all bad things and life is good, right. Sure, why not, if it makes you sleep well, I'll be the boogey man. But we're not going anywhere. Get that in your head.
