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by DuskStar 2383 days ago
There are two ways to reduce suicide - reduce the reasons to commit suicide, and increase the difficulty of committing suicide. As someone who views suicide as a bad choice - possibly the worst choice someone can make - I think the overall goal reducing suicide is good. But I don't think increasing the difficulty of suicide is the way to go about it.

Imagine a prison, where every prisoner is held within solitary confinement - no contact with others at all. A lot of prisoners commit suicide each year, and the warden needs to reduce this. Is putting every prisoner on suicide watch - removing shoelaces, toilet paper, strong sheets, anything that a prisoner could use to kill themselves - a moral option? After all, it would reduce suicide - sure, the desire for suicide might go up, but no one would be able to act on it, so suicides would go down! But to me... That's just prolonging torture, and that's NOT ok.

We've all got life sentences in this prison, and there's no hope of parole. I personally find life here on Earth to be great! But I can't support preventing people in worse situations from finding a way out. And when you reduce suicide by taking away a way out, instead of providing a better way...