Suicide: Should you be able to commit it if your culture is in the process of doing so?

posted at 1:51 pm on May 29, 2009 by MadisonConservative
[ Culture ]    printer-friendly

The topic of euthanasia has largely petered out since the related controversy of Terri Schaivo a few years ago. After so much posturing and arguing, the issue has become a dormant consideration, swamped by other philosophically-charged debates like abortion and gay marriage. It’s an even more volatile subject, in many ways, than abortion. When a woman has an abortion, her life goes on. Some would argue that a life was extinguished. However, it’s unarguable that when a grown human being, who has made friends and experienced life for some years, chooses to end their existence, it’s even more devastating to those around them. For that reason, it’s often difficult to delve into the debate without someone’s own experiences charging their emotions, and making the discussion more difficult.

The concept of suicide is one that often fascinates man. There are few more ponderous actions than that of a living being making the choice to no longer exist. Scientists have long analyzed situations in nature where animals appear to intentionally insert themselves into situations that result in their death, but are still unsure if anyone other than humans truly contemplates taking their own life. It’s the third leading cause of death for people between the ages of 10 and 24, according to the CDC. Most people have known someone who considered it, though psychiatric organizations tend to concur that the majority of such aired sentiments are in fact cries for help. Widely publicized cases like the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide only caused more confusion, by showing that some people end themselves without the presence of depression or despair.

With this in mind, it’s fair to ask ourselves if there is such a thing as prolonged passive suicide. It’s highly debatable. Some claim that refusing to take care of oneself is, in itself, an attempt at early self-inflicted death. Self-destructive behavior like substance abuse, reckless driving, binging/purging, and eagerness to provoke confrontations with strangers, leads to a supposition that the person is looking to meet their end. If someone with diabetes refuses to take their insulin shot, and dies as a result, most would postulate that the person had been suicidal(or extremely lazy). Wouldn’t it be apposite to apply this same standard to a culture?

For some years now, I’ve come to describe Western culture, European more than American in most cases, as being suicidal. It occurs to me that when people choose not only to make life harder for themselves, but to make life easier for those who would take all that they have, they are engaging in a prolonged passive attempt to end themselves. When Western culture refuses to address the common religious beliefs of a vast group of murdering psychopaths who blow themselves up in order to kill people, destroy buildings, and bring down civilization, they are suicidal. Ignoring the most glaring catalyst out of political correctness is roughly equivalent to keeping your weapons unloaded after your house is broken into. When one of the core tenets of a culture is the freedom of speech, yet that same speech is legislated into oblivion in order to avoid offending the very villains working to dismantle the infrastructure protecting the right to free expression, outside observers must be left scratching their heads. Does that culture have any interest in surviving? If so, why are they helping to undermine their own stability?

Taking this larger perspective into consideration, is it the time to decriminalize suicide? Putting aside the various arguments offered over the years, could one cite their ultimate fear of the future as justification for their refusal to live any longer? In the turbulent 60s and 70s, a sentiment began to float across the lips of younger generations, in reaction to their perception of the state of the world. Some couples said they would not have children because they would not want to bring them into a world that, according to them, had been so wracked in turmoil. Having been born in the early 80s myself, I can only be glad that my parents did not subscribe to that attitude. However, is it a legitimate reason to postpone, or even rule out altogether, your procreation? If so, is it not also a legitimate rationale to apply to the suicidal?

Now, some may look at this bit of text and think I’m advocating the ultimate surrender. Am I channeling Patrick Henry? Give me liberty or give me death? Not at all. Please don’t misinterpret this query as an ultimate abdication to the forces that seek to enslave us. Ghandi was into that(regarding the Jews of the holocaust, no less). I am not. My emphasis is largely to explore where the euthanasia debate is at. With possibly the most serious culture war we’ve seen in decades going on around us, my goal is simply to ask whether suicide as a concept has become an acceptable choice. Perhaps this question could be directly linked to the result of said conflict. When Europe, and America in many ways, chooses to finally grab extremist Islam by its collar and knock the hell out of it, maybe enough self-confidence will be restored in the populace to clearly rule out taking one’s own life as unacceptable. Alternatively, might we see a world where, with a renewed sense of individuality, we’re encouraged to be free to make our own decisions regarding our own lives?

Some believe that euthanasia will lead to the cheapening of life, much in the same way many believe abortion does. Before that can be truly settled, we need to stop allowing our way of life to be cheapened through the hand-wringing cowardice of those who value image over liberty.

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