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After reading through this thread a couple times, I decided to restructure the way in which I presented my support for a person to have a right to commit suicide.
Yorick has mentioned pain in conjunction with suicide, but has failed to fully detail what exactly is being presented. In this situation, pain is defined as anything within a person’s life that requires the ability to cope in order to overcome. Whether the pain is caused by a physical, emotional, or mental state doesn’t matter, it only matters that the person is experiencing something within their life that they need to deal with in some fashion.
Suicidal thoughts occur when a person no longer feels they have the capabilities required in order to cope with the situation. The pains of life are offset by our coping abilities, and when pain exceeds our abilities we often feel as if we cannot continue. Most commonly, this leads to depression and the search for an exit.
The normal method for treating people with suicidal tendencies is teaching the individual how to cope with their current situation. Thus, when you increase a person’s ability to cope, you increase their will to live. The common belief is that no matter the situation, a person can be taught the needed skills to cope with any situation, thus removing the option of suicide as an exit.
Where this logic fails, however, is when the result is already a forgone conclusion. Skunk gave a perfect example of this situation. You have a lady who will die independent of any action we may take. Her continuing to live is not dependant on her ability to cope. We have no recourse in this situation.
She was in sound frame of mind, and she made a decision on how she would like to leave this life. When you put aside all religious beliefs, there is no reason she should not be allowed to act upon her decision. She could have gone home, said her goodbyes in a peaceful manner and passed on while surrounded by friends and family. Instead, her family witnessed her in extreme pain as she suffocated over a 16-hour period.
This person at her time of death was not capable of cognitive thinking, and due to the laws that prevented her from taking her desired course of action; her family was forced to endure watching her suffer. She had come to terms with her passing, as had her family, yet they were forced to follow a course of action dictated by another.
The arguments here against allowing suicide at best have been presumptuous assumptions. Each one of them is based off one person knowing what is better for another. I concede to the fact that there are many that can be helped and should be given every opportunity to receive help. Where the argument breaks down comes from the assumption that everyone wants help. There are those that truly want to end their lives.
The ability to act as one sees fit, where the action applies to a specific individual, should not be restricted in any manner. Instead of removing one person’s right to own themselves in order to “protect” innocents, it should be the responsibilities of all to make sure people are educated on the matter. It should also be the responsibility of the people to provide a humane means for carrying out ones will towards oneself.
In any case, society should not stand for, not support any situation where one individual is given the right to exert their will onto another, especially in cases where the actions of an individual pertains to themselves.
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