A thread about Death

[SensEye]

I think trying to off yourself through violent means might be more of a struggle than one might think. Especially if you are infirm and in poor health. Which one would expect to be if considering this option in their old age. And nobody wants to go out in a blaze of agony.

I think perhaps an overdose of meds might be the answer although that can go wrong too and presumes access to the right kind of pills. I have access to medically assisted dying though, so it should be there if I ever need it.

 

[Vendrah]

They don't allow you to own rope and have access to trees? You can't get access to high places? You can't step out into traffic on a busy highway?

What country are you in? Are you forced to live your entire life handcuffed to a radiator in an empty room? That's one tough country you live in.

[Edited to add:] I'm not trying to convince anyone to contemplate self-deletion. It's more just a question of attitude: You can't spend your life living in fear of death. As an ex-Marine and Vietnam vet, I have learned that you have to make death your bitch. Only then are you free to live your best life.

Any incentives or talk about suicide is forbidden in my country, Brazil, by law. If you were on my ground/country and I commited suicide right after your message and your message got caught, you would be subject to arrest, and not a short one but almost similar to as if you murdered me.

 

[Tennessee Jed]

I think trying to off yourself through violent means might be more of a struggle than one might think. Especially if you are infirm and in poor health. Which one would expect to be if considering this option in their old age. And nobody wants to go out in a blaze of agony. [...]

Depends on how determined you are. There's an old gender stereotype here: Women attempt self-deletion more often than men, but men accomplish self-deletion more often than women (men supposedly accomplish self-deletion at rates that are four times higher than women).

The difference is--supposedly--that self-deletion in women is a cry for attention, so women use less lethal means and hope to be caught in time and rescued. Whereas men are more determined to actually get the job done, so they use genuinely lethal, quick-acting means.

You just have to you get it done before you're so sick that you become permanently bedridden or institutionalized. Unless you're permanently bedridden or institutionalized, it's really not that difficult. Of course once you become bedridden or institutionalized, you're fucked. Then you're at the mercy of others as to how long you live. They can potentially keep you alive as a zombie forever.

However, perhaps the biggest self-inflicted killer of both sexes these days is so-called "deaths of despair": Going out slow via alcohol and drug addiction of the more lethal variety. Tough way to go, but I guess it's for those who have permanently given up on life but don't want to pull the trigger themselves. Not my cup of tea, personally. I have more personal agency than that. But it demonstrates that when people no longer want to live, they'll find one way or another to kill themselves off. People are resourceful when it comes to such things.

[...]I think perhaps an overdose of meds might be the answer although that can go wrong too and presumes access to the right kind of pills. I have access to medically assisted dying though, so it should be there if I ever need it.

Medically-assisted dying is the ideal. And it would help to catch and filter out for treatment those who are just using self-deletion as a cry for attention. But whatever. I don't have medically-assisted dying available in my state; and I would have to jump through a bunch of hoops to try to get somewhere where it would be available. So I have a nice easy, quick lethal exit lined up for myself. It'll be messy to clean up, but that won't be my problem. In any case, I don't need the permission of bureaucrats to make it happen.

 

[Tennessee Jed]

Any incentives or talk about suicide is forbidden in my country, Brazil, by law. If you were on my ground/country and I commited suicide right after your message and your message got caught, you would be subject to arrest, and not a short one but almost similar to as if you murdered me.

So don't ask permission. You give the bureaucrats way too much power.

For all I know, self-deletion is illegal where I live. Leaving a dead body where people will find it is probably illegal. But I don't care. I have personal agency. I don't leave that sort of decision at the discretion of others. It isn't under other people's control, at least not until I've lost the capacity to care for myself.

Why is it legitimate for me to choose to die under the supervision of medical personnel in states or countries providing medically-assisted dying, but it isn't legitimate for me to choose to die by my own hand when I don't have access to medically-assisted dying? It's my choice either way. The only difference between the two situations is whether I live under bureaucrats who will facilitate my choice or under bureaucrats who will fight me over it. And the latter are welcome to come get me after I've broken their rules.