Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Switzerland has the highest suicide rate in Europe, AND the highest proportion of suicides using guns as the weapon. Do you not class suicide as murder?
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I do not.
I do not accept that I have the obligation to live, that someone else has a moral right to force me to keep breathing.
My life; my choice of how--and whether--to live it.
I have some moral obligations to not interfere with others' choices of how to live their lives, but no obligation to continue living for their benefit, emotional or otherwise.
And attempting suicide is not illegal... attempting
quick, painless suicide is illegal. Anyone is free to take on a job that's very likely to give them cancer; anyone (physically fit) can join the military and work his way into a combat zone and then not dodge bullets; anyone can eat junk food until he's got diabetes and then refuse insulin. Anyone can smoke herself into emphysema and lung cancer. Can destroy her liver with ibuprofin.
It's only fast and comfortable suicide attempts that we have laws against, and are legally allowed to try to stop.
If suicide rates are higher when guns are available, the issue is not guns--it's what's wrong that so many people want out of their lives. Because whatever deaths guns cause, they aren't causing the misery that triggers a suicide attempt.