Shaming Should Be Used To Prevent Suicide

The problem with Pro’s contention, though I see where they are going in theory, is that suicide most often happens as a result of depression (1). Depression in turn is often caused or made worse by a sense of self-hate, guilt and above all, shame. It would be easy to paint suicide as self-obsessed, or inconsiderate. It would not necessarily be true. Let us begin as follows. My opponent has not considered assisted suicide in case of terminal or chronic illness and suffering. Often, in such cases, families are desperate to alleviate the suffering. Is there shame in such cases? It’s a difficult case, but I would say not, especially if the family is informed and supports the decision. Few of us would want to watch a loved one linger on in intense pain. I put forward the argument instead that suicide with depression as a reason is an attempt at an identical ‘self-medication’ with the intent of alleviating emotional pain. The reason it is so ill-advised is because the act of suicide is not truly the only solution to extreme, chronic, prolonged emotional pain. The alternatives are prolonged therapy, and the emotional comfort, support and love of those around them. Mental illness is miserable not least because it isn’t easily visible on the outside. If you have a broken leg, anyone with compassion can see that it hurts, it isn’t going to go away without medical assistance and that you need treatment. If you’re crying, the same person may not see that there is any difference between the tears that represent ordinary sadness and that can be fixed by a weepy movie with friends, and the all-encompassing, inescapable pain that is depression and which needs to be treated by a therapist and/or anti-depressants. Few people will realise that someone has an actual illness, a dopamine imbalance in the brain triggered by stress, until it is too late (1) (2). Another reason for suicide, albeit less common, is the 'cry for help' that goes too far. Someone trying to demonstrate the magnitude of emotional pain may, as described in the sources mentioned, 'swallows a bottle of Tylenol—not realizing that in high enough doses Tylenol causes irreversible liver damage.' Now, I agree with my opponent completely that it is never the right choice to commit suicide, excepting perhaps in the case of terminal or chronic illness with the intent of limiting the pain experienced by the self and by loved ones. (I tend to believe that it is the glamorising of death, not suicide, that is the problem. Few people have seen a dead body, or watched someone die; the ‘movie death’ means that too many think that death is a tragically limp pose with pallid make-up where you get magically revived and cooed over at the last minute, and don’t really understand the irrevocable finality of it, or the horror. But I digress.) If someone is inclined to commit suicide through depression, they often do think of family and friends. First of all, this makes them feel more inclined, not less, to commit suicide. They feel ashamed of letting down and hurting their families, and yet at the same time aware of the immense, inescapable, relentless pain. They will write notes asking forgiveness, hoping their families ‘will understand’ and grant them absolution (3). This would be because they are pleading with their families to recognise the great duress they were under and have the sympathy and mercy to understand that their loved one needed to be relieved of the emotional pain. Consider it like this; they consider themselves to have intense pain that cannot be cured. They don’t want to hurt their families, but they feel they have no choice. Since they are suffering, they are offering themselves a kind of euthanasia, and hoping their families will understand afterwards how desperately their euthanasia was needed. Accept, in short, that they needed to ‘put themselves out of their misery’. It can even be described as ‘problem-solving action’ (4). Desperate, but not necessarily thoughtless. Telling them that what they are contemplating doing will hurt other people will not make them feel less emotional pain. So it won’t stop them from committing suicide. If you feel there is no other escape, and if you know the pain will be gone even if you will be condemned after you die the condemnation will be of little consequence. Next, my opponent has failed to consider scenarios in which the suicide either had no friends or family, as is often the case in the elderly suicide, the most common type of suicide (5); or whose families were cruel, abusive or otherwise contributed to their misery. If such people are not specifically going to be grieved by anyone, they will feel that they are harming no one by their deaths. A lot of people feel that their loved ones either ‘don’t care’, or ‘don’t understand’. The latter is often true, with people failing to see the pain their loved one is in until too late. Finally, emotional support. Someone suicidal needs to be told, ultimately, that things can get better and will get better. If, however, society is conditioned to condemn the suicide, I cannot see that it would not also reach to condemn the person seriously contemplating it, despite Pro’s assertion that one could support the suicidal and condemn the person who goes through with it. Few people offer emotional support to the would-be paedophile, or the would-be murderer. Why does Pro believe that the outright condemnation of the suicide would be different? Pro of course has not addressed here the attempted suicide, someone who made a serious attempt on their life but failed. What will be their fate, if having failed, they are held in contempt for having tried, rather than supported and shown that they have other options? Ultimately, no one will never get more love and attention when dead; because they are dead. For Pro to mistake the motivation ‘escape pain’ with ‘get attention’ is understandable in the media climate, but certainly not true. (1) http://www.psychologytoday.com...(2) http://www.samaritans.org...(3) http://en.wikipedia.org...(4) http://www.psychologytoday.com...(5) http://www.befrienders.org...;