this it was an offence to try to kill oneself. Thankfully society has
progressed but there is further progress needed. Assisted suicide must
be legal in any advanced society. It must be legalised for the so-called
mentally ill.
Currently it isn't. The UK penalises those who assist people to kill
themselves though in practice prosecutions are rare.
This isn't good enough. This is the sort of immorality which must end
and will end eventually. We live in a society where a life can be
aborted by a doctor. Abortion is legal but assisted suicide isn't. This
is a strange situation. Suicide is an individual's choice about thier
own life. Abortion is choice over a potential life, a life which may
chose to live if allowed to exist.
Assisted suicide for mental illness sounds immoral but it is based on
compassion and understanding, an understanding which comes from living
with suicidal ideation for much of my adult life. It comes from an
understanding of having read a lot of material on suicide as well as
having made a few attempts in my adult life. Sadly I've survived every
single fucking one of them.
Those without lived experience would never understand what it's like
living with the silent torture which people call severe mental illness.
They could never understand why so many people take their life not in
states of intense distress or confusion but with clear minds and calm moods.
The fact is many people already take their life or attempt to. 6,000
succeed every year. Sadly some of those might be regretable suicides,
i.e. they are driven by short term circumstances, moods or psychosis.
Many others aren't. Many other suicides are simply the best thing for
the individual. They offer them the peace they could never find in life
or through mental health treatment. Rather than live another day of a
tortured existence they find their salvation by taking their life.
But it is a horrible process. Many of these people who make a rational
and informed choice to take their life die alone. They don't have their
loved ones around them. Their last moments are just like the hell of the
rest of their life. They risk failure and all that failure can entail.
The compassionate thing would be to counsel them through their decision,
just like a mother-0to-be might be counselled through her choice to have
her baby aborted or a person with gender dysphoria may be counselled
before their decision to have a sex change is accepted.
There is then the period between decision and termination. This may be a
long period and I feel immoral for proposing it. The suicidal person has
to wait for their death. This is a safety mechanism to prevent
regrettable deaths. During this time they are helped and they help
themselves to find a way to live. For myself I'd arbitrarily picked a
period of 4 years but it is potentially four years of hell. Since I
could not get an assisted suicide I've thrown away this plan.
But I would campaign to help those who suffer like me get them peace
they want. Fuck those who wouldn't understand and would judge me. I know
that helping a person out of their pain in this way is a hard choice but
it is the right thing.
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