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by bluescrn
811 days ago
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Given the number of failed suicide attempts, not everyone is capable of committing it successfully. And they're often forced to use brutal methods that some unfortunate soul then has to discover or clean up (e.g. firearms, jumping, or standing in front of a train) Giving the long-term-suffering an option of a peaceful and painless way out seems much more compassionate. It just needs the right level of safeguards to stop people doing it impulsively. A 3-6 month 'cooling off period' between booking the appointment and going through with it would likely solve most of the problems (although may be too long if somebody is in severe pain, e.g. late-stage cancer. But separate rules could be used for those who clearly have terminal illnesses) |
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Which is actually a good thing if these statistics are correct: "Approximately 7% (range: 5-11%) of attempters eventually died by suicide, approximately 23% reattempted non-fatally, and 70% had no further attempts."*
*https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/means-matter/survi...
> Giving the long-term-suffering an option of a peaceful and painless way out seems much more compassionate
Also much cheaper for the state/society/healthcare system (and even their families) than investing into providing additional treatment options
> e.g. late-stage cancer. But separate rules could be used for those who clearly have terminal illnesses
IMHO that's an entirely different issue, if all the available options were exhausted and the patient is basically guaranteed to die in N weeks/months while simultaneously suffering more and more giving that person the option to end it sooner seems to both reasonable and compassionate.
How can such certainty exist when were talking about mental illness? The decision made by this person will surely depend on external factors, e.g. if you're poor, your psychiatrist tells you that they can't help you, you don't have any close family to fallback on etc. are you more or less likely to commit suicide than someone who is suffering from a similarly severe issue but has all of those things?