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From: sr@u1100a.UUCP (Steven Radtke)
Newsgroups: net.suicide
Subject: Re: Why society - religions - oppose ...
Message-ID: <770@u1100a.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 9-Jan-85 17:26:59 EST
Article-I.D.: u1100a.770
Posted: Wed Jan  9 17:26:59 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 11-Jan-85 23:51:18 EST
References: <224@cmu-cs-cad.ARPA>
Reply-To: sr@u1100a.UUCP (Steven Radtke)
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway, NJ
Lines: 41
Summary: 

In article <224@cmu-cs-cad.ARPA> mjc@cmu-cs-cad.ARPA (Monica Cellio) writes:
>I think part of it is the theory that since suicide is killing a human, it 
>is wrong (like murder).  I think most religions oppose murder not because it
>is taking away someone else's right to live, but because it is taking away a
>life that [some] god has put here for some reason.  Thus, suicide was a
>mortal sin.  [Suicides were buried at crossroads (don't know the reason for
>that) with stakes through their hearts; this was supposed to prevent their
>souls from getting to heaven.]
>
Lately I have wondered about this sort of proposition and the blunt question
posed by the recent movie "Whose Life is it, Anyway?"
I never saw the film and don't even know if it is about suicide, but
with that title it should be. Seeing this title provoked an imaginary argument
between me and a loved one who wanted to cause their own death.
I couldn't picture myself making arguments like the one above, because I am
ambivalent about "Whose Life is it, Anyway?"
I would like to reserve the right to toggle off should things become grim,
but I hope that someone I loved contemplating suicide
would think about that question and not be
so *#&@ simplistic in posing that question as to presume that anyone has a
life in the same sense as one has a bicycle or a stomach.

When I say I have a life, what is it I have? It is not a thing, external
( bicycle ) or internal ( stomach ). I think it as correct to say that "life
has me" as "I have life".
So what is suicide when life is not another possession amongst the many one
has these days?
If each person's life is a sharing with one of breath after breath, then suicide
withdraws from the sharing and those of us left living may be devastated by the
withdrawal. When a colleague of mine years ago killed himself, those closest
to him reacted as if their trust had been violated.


I really want to stop there and just say that I offer this from a sense
of trying to avoid a hasty or inadequate evaluation before acting.
I tend to be a moralizer if I don't shut up soon enough.
I think that a suicide could happen for many reasons, and many of them
transcend analysis.
I just offer the thoughts.

Steve