Today's Topic is Suicide! ^_^

[thesickness07]

Is it possible for a person to rationally decide to end their own life? Under what circumstances? Suicidal people (in the U.S. at least) who try to kill themselves are almost always prevented from doing so on the grounds that they must be depressed or suffering from some sort of psychological trauma and are therefore not in their right mind when deciding to end their lives. One of the only prominent exceptions in Western culture is the case of self sacrifice, or giving one's life in order to save another. But there is always a sense that it wasn't completely voluntary and is rarely referred to as suicide. Terminal illness is a notable gray area. The end will come soon anyway and may be extremely painful. But could that pain prevent a patient from making a rational decision? Also, Life is a terminal illness. Everyone is going to die eventually. Does it really matter when as long as that's what the person wants?

fyi, not suicidal, this topic has just been coming up in my medical ethics class a lot