Legalization of suicide

My opponent believes that our parents created our life. This is quite incorrect. If that was the case then can they control the gender of the baby? Can they decide what features they would want their child to have? Or can they at least decide which sperm should be the one that fertilizes the egg? Parents are just a means through which we get our lives. They are not the creator of our life and they don't have the authority to destroy our life either.In fact, no one does.Anyway moving on, I found the arguments used by my adversary to support his stance to be quite superficial. They are poorly researched and are rife with holes and irrational assumptions. Furthermore, I should remind him that he is arguing for legalization of suicide in it's entirity and not arguing that it should be legal in select places('suicide centers' as he says it) and illegal elsewhere. In other words since he didn't set any conditions in the begining of this debate suicides should be unconditionally legal.I have articulated his case into the major arguments he used and have given my rebuttal for the same.i) Suicide should be legalized because it reduces population which in turn reduces resource consumption.This approach by CON is quite narrow-minded and only considers a few select cases. For example what about the case when the people who produce these said 'resources' themselves decide to end their life? India is a country where the majority of the suicides that happen are in the farming comunity. In the year 2012 in India around 13754 farmers committed suicide(1). That's about 38 suicides per day. The number remains almost similiar each passing year. This case can be seen in several other countries as well. Legalization of suicide would just drastically increase the number and the plan to reduce resource consumption will become counter-productive with the resource in question itself getting diminished. A better alternative would be to have efficient resource allocation schemes to cater to the increasing population.Furthermore, human beings are a resource themselves if properly educated, trained and brought up. Human beings are the pinnacle of evolution. Under the right circumstances an intellectually powered population can be the biggest asset a country can have. The working population put to good use can help a country by creating various opurtunities for it to improve or develop resource production and much more.ii) Decrease cop's resources argumentContrary to what PRO claims, legalization of suicide would actually result in an increase in 'cop resources' as the number of deaths would increase as well and it would be the duty of a cop to find out if the death was indeed a suicide or an intelligently plotted murder. Thus more cops would be needed to handle the new situation and this in turn would become a burden to the government. The same goes for media.iii) Implementation: Suicide CentersPRO's proposal here is quite irrational cause he bases it entirely on the assumption that a said person who wants to kill himself would want to go to these suicide centers which employs such elaborate procedures as mentioned. This is, in fact, quite silly. A person who wants to kill himself would kill himself not go to a place where he would be counseled out of it or, as PRO states, be asked to join the army.Counter-Proposal:People commit suicide usually when life becomes too difficult to live. They see death as a solution, as a way out in their moment of distress. This prompts people to kill themselves. But it's often forgotton that solving their problems or getting past them is not impossible. Sometimes the individuals can do it on their own and sometimes they might need outside help. To tackle these kind of situations a better proposal would be to have suicide-counseling centres and spread enough awareness among the masses so that if a person gets suicidal feeling he/she can approach these centres. They will be a functioning body which provides emotional, moral and probably, if the case seems fit, even financial support to a given person who approaches them. Again this place would only help people who are in a dilemna with the decision of suicide. So this might not stop suicides from happening but will sure reduce it. And reducing suicides would benifit us by conserving the best resource a nation could have, humans ourselves.So to sum up:1) We don't have the authority to destroy our lives.2) Human beings are the best resource a nation could have.3) Legalization of suicide would increase the expenditure spent on cops.4) It's better to open counselling centers and spread awareness to reduce suicide than legalize it.Over to PRO.1: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...