The problem of suicide belongs to the problems posed by traditional ethics. The prohibition on suicide, available in almost all the world's great religions, has become traditional. This position is also reflected in a number of philosophical concepts. So, in the Kant’s ethics, suicide is not permitted under any circumstances (Kerstein 212). Humanity in our person is inviolable, it is something sacred, entrusted to us. However, there were other opinions, including well respected so widely quoted opinion of Seneca, who thought that the wise do not live as much as they should, they live as much as they can. If we go back to the religious vision of the suicide, all religions, such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, reject the concept of suicide based on the fact that life was given by God, and people should not encroach upon the destruction of this gift. At the same time in the same religions, we can meet such phenomena as martyrdom, which was adopted voluntarily and in the glory of the Lord. How can we interpret this kind of behavior?
The opinion based only on intuition leads us to the conclusion that people in their right mind are not to commit suicide. Therefore the relationship to those who made suicide should be the attitude to people who are in a morbid state and not responsible for their actions, they should be considered as incapacitated. Hence, it is reasonable to prevent suicidal intentions in all possible ways. This means that even if you do not commit crimes when committing suicide, you have no right to do this and anyone can prevent your action. Indirectly, this position is supported by the fact that the majority of those who have been saved, do not take the repeated suicide attempts.
At the same time, there is an opinion that only a small proportion of persons committing suicide attempts are suffering from mental disorders. Most often the basis of a suicide is the so-called socio-psychological maladjustment, when a person has difficulties in adapting to the world around him. Under such conditions, he suffers from unusual for him earlier experiences of anxiety, depression, resentment, emotional instability ("Facts About Mental Illness And Suicide - Mental Health Reporting - UW School Of Social Work"). Moreover, it is known that although people should reach an extreme degree of desperation before coming to the idea of suicide, most of us consider suicide in certain periods of life. Consequently, indiscriminately treat anyone committing suicide as a mental patient is groundless.
What can be taken as a basis for an ethical approach to those who made a suicide? If we consider any person as a carrier of rational and irrational, then each act of this person should be treated as motivated. It should be considered as a result of deliberate, sustained and occasional, minor intentions. The principle of respect for individual autonomy requires us to respect the rational choice of an individual. However, the unstable person's intentions are usually a consequence of the situation and the adverse circumstances. These intentions can be irrational and usually transitory desire to die. The suicide is irreversible and the person has not had a chance to reconsider his decision. So, committing suicide, an individual deprives himself of the opportunity of autonomous choice.
The decision to end his life is largely determined by the meaning of life to the person who makes this decision. His view of life can be situational, biased, or dependent on the attitude of other people. Psychologists sometimes say that suicide is a communicative act, at least for part of the time. But the quality of this communication and its destructiveness is so high that, on the one hand, it generates an unimaginable feeling of guilt from the side of relatives. On the other hand, an individual who made a suicide looks like the aggressor deprived of the status of the moral subject. Of course, not every suicide may be brought under this reasoning. If cancer patients suffer untold suffering and pain and it leads to a preventive rejection of the life, this cannot be considered as an aggressive act. One can agree with the choice that people make in some desperate situations where the only alternative is an unacceptable life. But in this case, long-term regret and often tragic consequences of suicide for the relatives of the deceased cannot be denied.
A lot of different options for suicide, its proximity to the mental disorders, unusual conditions (especially – despair) and makes us recommend the active intervention that prevents the suicide implementation. The more the individual feels mental instability or any other disability, the more justified is paternalism, paternal and nurture relationships. But in relation to any case, only an active intervention or strategy of delaying can help to understand the motives of suicide in its circumstances, because non-interference completely rules out any possibility to influence the decision made in haste, situationally or mentally unstable subject. Our intervention can give a person time to think again and to somehow rebuild his life to make it more acceptable.
Works Cited
"Facts About Mental Illness And Suicide - Mental Health Reporting - UW School Of Social Work". Depts.washington.edu. N.p., 2016. Web. 13 May 2016.
Kerstein, Samuel J. Kant's Search For The Supreme Principle Of Morality. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Print.
