[philwelch]

Schoolchildren are too young to be held truly responsible for any of their decisions, so in the last example I would hold the parents responsible. In the other cases--yes, it's certainly one's own decision and one's own responsibility to commit suicide.

[bmcfeeley]

You've established here that there exist reasons (i.e. immaturity, lack of empathy, or whatever you prefer to call it) for which we should absolve individuals of blame in situations resulting in suicide. The only way this doesn't directly contradict your grandparent comment is if you also feel mental illness (diagnosed or otherwise) is not in this set of reasons. I think this is the crux of what others have disagreed with; mental illnesses quite literally alter your brain's ability to function properly and reason through these choices. How is this impairment any different than the "impairment" of a child's lack of development?

EDIT: grammar

[philwelch]

We only blame suicide on mental illness because suicide is itself considered a symptom of mental illness. It's a circular argument. Perhaps Aaron was a fundamentally irrational person who couldn't be held responsible for his own actions, but that doesn't pin the blame back on anyone else. Aaron's the only person who could possibly hold responsibility for his suicide.

[bmcfeeley]

Your use of 'blame' vs. 'responsibility' is confounding here. It's possible you answered the question I posed at the end of my reply but if you did I'm not seeing an answer here. Please enlighten me if I've missed it.

In response to this, by your own logic you've claimed that either 1) Aaron holds sole responsibility for his actions or 2) We can't assign responsibility to anyone. I disagree with both these conclusions because I don't think responsibility must be fully distributed to a single party. In what world are our actions absolved of any connection to outside influences? If I'm unconscious, and a doctor tests my knee reflex with one of those little hammers, and my leg moves - who has agency in causing the leg to move? (I in no way mean to insinuate this is an apples:apples comparison, just trying to tease out the implications of your logic.)

[thezilch]

Wait, I thought we blame the parents for the actions of their untrained children? And only children are indirectly villainous and subsequently their parents; never corporate or government institutions and their "upbringing."

Whatever drives our argument, I guess.