Is Suicide Selfish?

Okay, Now I’m actually going to write what I think about this subject.  First off, what would drive a person to want to commit suicide?  Depression?  Despair?  Loss of hope?  Loss of dreams?  Perhaps a combination of everything?

I knew this one girl several years ago in the Youth Group I used to attend.  She had many problems, one of which being that I believe she was mentally slow.  She didn’t look it, but she talked similarly to how someone with down’s syndrome would.  I don’t think she had a very happy family life, and she once told me that an uncle or someone had raped her when she was only eleven or twelve.  I never knew whether to believe her or not, but especially if it was true, it would help explain why the Youth Group leader came in once and had us all sit down.  He said we were going to talk.  That struck me as odd from the beginning, because what our Youth Group always did was play some kind of game for the first hour, have snacks, and then do a Bible study for the second.  Instead, the YG leader sat in a chair, and asked all of us to sit around in front of him.  Then he said that someone we knew, someone who had attended that very Youth Group, had tried to take her own life.  He told us who it was, and we talked about some things the Bible says about suicide, and our own opinions about it.  I could tell a lot of the people there, including me, felt bad that we didn’t try to include this girl more in our lives.  We were supposed to be a group of Christians, ready to help people, to be there for them, and yet, someone under our very noses got desperate enough to end her own life because she believed no one cared.

I suppose that’s the key to why I’m questioning whether or not it’s selfish.  Because the person who’s deciding to end their life honestly believes no one cares.  And they must have gotten some proof of that to believe it.  The girl from Youth Group was made fun of by way too many people in her school, had a bad family life, and had stopped coming to the Youth Group.  What did she have left?  To her, she had nothing.  Nothing she felt she could control . . . except her own life.  She had control over it.  She could keep living, living this emotionally painful life, or she could have the blessed silence of death.

Now, depending on what a person believes theologically, either nothing will happen to you, because you simply die, or you will go to Hell.  Or perhaps there’s the random person who believes you’ll go to Heaven anyway.  But does someone ready to end their own life really believe in God?  Or an afterlife?  I seriously doubt it.

I haven’t said what I think about this whole subject.  Is suicide selfish?

I don’t believe it is, and here’s why.  People who have reached that point of desperation and are longing for a release aren’t thinking about anyone else out of selfishness.  They aren’t considering anyone else because they honestly don’t think they have anyone to consider.  Who would care if they lived or died?

From our point of view, we of course, think that’s ridiculous.  How would someone not know that they’re cared about?  Well, I’ve been on both sides of this coin.  I’ve never actually attempted suicide, but God knows I’ve thought about it.  I, at least to some degree, understand that mindset of "who would care?"  And let me tell everyone reading this: not everyone you think should know you care does!  Tell people they matter to you.  Tell them you don’t know where you’d be without them.  Tell them their life means something to you.  It just might be enough to make someone reconsider.

I actually saved the life of someone because I did that.  He was actually sitting with a knife in his hand, but he got to thinking, and one of his thoughts was what I had told him that same night.  He said he put the knife down then.  Other people entered his mind after that, people who would miss him, and he was glad that he hadn’t done anything.

I don’t think suicide is selfish, because the person attempting honestly thinks they have no one who cares.  Not to mention that they aren’t completely mentally stable.  There’s always something to live for, it’s just that so many people don’t look for it.

I agree that suicide is stupid, but considering the mindsets and reasons of the people who will attempt it, I honestly don’t think it’s selfish.

With that said, I say goodbye.  🙂 🙂 🙂

–Notes–

Yes it is. By the way, beatles rock!
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Perhaps the mindset is not selfish, but the action certainly seem to be . . .   But then, who’s to say either way?  I’m not at my most normal most of the time . . .  Visit the Phantom’s lair and you’ll see what I mean . . .