[billyjobob]

I don't have time to re-read this, so I may be misremembering the details, but my impression as I recall at the time was that this guy was depressed and wrote this book to justify his suicide - to 'prove' it was the correct course of action for someone in his position. (Yes he acknowledges other people can manage to live as a quadriplegic, but not him, because he had a far more active life before the accident than any of them.)

The problems with his argument:

* While it's true a spinal cord cannot be repaired, he never engaged with rehabilitation to improve his situation at all.

* His main problem was depression. He assumed it was caused by the accident, and so didn't bother to treat it. But millions of physically healthy people suffer from depression and kill themselves too. And some very disabled people don't suffer from depression.

I was left thinking that while it may be nothing would have helped, we just don't know. His friends, family and doctors let him down by not forcing him to undergo rehabilitation and psychotherapy.

[DantesKite]

That’s a very flippant way of disregarding someone who constantly shit themselves and decided that tortured life wasn’t worth living.

I hope fate never touches you so cruelly as to make you reflect on your callousness years from now.

[s5300]

> "forcing him to undergo rehabilitation and psychotherapy."

...

this, this is your definition of life?

You also seem to have absolutely zero respect for his definition and meaning of life.

I really hope we're far, far away from companies being able to force us to undergo "rehabilitation and psychotherapy" so we're not "depressed" and are happy to work all day making them money. With thoughts like yours though, I feel we may be closer than I'd ever like to think.

[danbmil99]

Forcing? Really?

And if, after forcing your trendy medical blandishments on him, if he still wanted to die, would you let him?