Assisted suicide is not a new concept, although it arguably did not enter the public consciousness much until Dr. Kevorkian (or "Dr. Death" as he is often called) came along. The concept of assisted suicide in the form of euthanasia is as old as the Hippocratic Oath (and in fact, is explicitly forbidden by the original Oath). However, assisted suicide and euthanasia are most often referred to in the context of people who have been grievously maimed or injured, or those who are suffering from a terrible debilitating disease. For the purpose of this proposal, we can divide subjects into the following categories:
- Those who do not really wish to die, but for whom life is simply unbearable due to pain and suffering and for whom there is no reasonable relief in sight (disease sufferers are largely in this category).
- Those who honestly wish to die, either due to physical or psychological stress, or for any other reason.
Obviously, every effort should be made to ease the suffering and continue the lives of those in the first category, not just for their own sake, but for the sake of their loved ones also. But what of the second category? We may not understand their reasoning, but what right do we have to take it upon ourselves to stop them? Some societies assume the right to sentence someone to death, but do we then also have the right to sentence someone to live, even against their own wishes?
Legalized voluntary suicide would decrease the surplus population and, arguably, rid us of the emotionally weakest members of our society. The only conceivable problem is that it might in fact work too well - in hard times, people might flock to the suicide booths in large numbers to escape their problems. In fact, something similar happened in early Christian times - many Christians killed themselves either to escape harsh living conditions and/or to hasten their entry into the afterlife. The church eventually had to speak out against the practice in order to avoid losing their entire following, and hence today suicide is considered a mortal sin within Christianity.
Another potential problem is that if suicide is declared to be a valid option for solving personal problems, people may come to consider it as a first or second choice instead of as a last resort. These problems can be mitigated by enacting a procedure that all subjects must first pass through - a series of counseling sessions with a competent therapist who can provide a perhaps much-needed objective perspective on the situation. At the very least a mandatory waiting period could be enacted to force people to take the time to think things through on their own before taking the final step.
IS SUICIDE ALWAYS WRONG?
Living as we do in a culture of life, there is a knee-jerk reaction to consider death, any form of death, a "bad thing". Even capital punishment is considered bad, something to be done only as a last resort, and only when dealing with the most heinous of criminals. However, is it true that suicide is always a bad thing? Are there no cases where someone ending his own life could be considered "good"? What about Hitler's suicide in 1945? Yes, it prevented the Allies from being able to try him for his crimes, but it also prevented any possibility of his escape/acquittal/return to power/{insert "Hitler's brain" conspiracy here}. I submit that there are several cases where suicide can be beneficial, either to society in general or the subject in particular, or both:
- Unindicted criminals - those who have committed a serious crime but who have never been caught. If they cannot live with what they've done and wish to save the state the trouble and expense of arresting, prosecuting, convicting, and executing them, so much the better.
- The weak - those who lack the emotional and/or psychological strength to face the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. They prefer death, if only because it's the easiest option. It may be cold to put this so bluntly, but society is arguably better off without them.
- The incompetent - those who have nothing to offer society, and know it. They are untrainable for whatever reason, perhaps a learning disability. They are only suited for grunt work or manual labour, and this does not agree with them. (Note that I am not advocating the forceful termination of such people... this entire article deals solely with people who choose to end their own lives voluntarily. Counseling should be provided free of charge to attempt to dissuade subjects from this course of action if this is their only reason for doing it).
- Those who simply no longer wish to live - it may be incomprehensible to some, but it is entire possible to come to the realization, whether real or imagined, that life is not worth living. Again, counseling should be provided, but ultimately it is up to the subject, not the state, to make this determination.
THE SUICIDE BOOTH
The exact mechanics of the subject's death must be as humane and painless as possible. Further, there must be nothing whatsoever gained by the death of the subject - specifically, this means the government and/or supervisory body in charge of the process must not be allowed to charge a fee for the actual ending of someone's life. Any unclaimed assets left in the dead person's possession should be donated to a charitable cause. To allow profit to be made from this process is to invite a ghoulish yet inevitable level of corruption, and this should be avoided at all costs.
The process itself should be swift, humane, and certain. Perhaps a sealed chamber that can be flooded with poison gas, or a lethal injection of some fatal but painless substance. I am quite certain that medical experts can devise a suitable method. If requested, other options should be made available to the subject. For example, someone with a persecution complex may wish to face a firing squad. Others may wish to purify themselves with flame. Within reason, almost any such request could be granted, although in order to avoid a public spectacle it may be wise to stipulate that recording devices are forbidden during the process itself (this would dissuade egomaniacs from going out in a blaze of glory, as it were).
FURTHER JUSTIFICATION
A tragic, yet increasingly popular, method of suicide in some countries is "suicide by cop", which is the process of pointing a realistic-looking weapon at a group of police officers and having them shoot you to death. In addition to being dangerous to bystanders who may be inadvertently struck by a police bullet, this method is also traumatizing to the unfortunate officers who commit the actual killing. Other suicide methods, such as jumping off a bridge or a tall building, also present a hazard to innocent passers-by who may be injured or even killed in the process.
People who are determined to take their own life will find a way to do so, law or no. Isn't it better to provide them a safe way to do so rather than take the risk that they might harm someone else in the act of killing themselves?
Further, a great many suicides end in failure, and many of those failed suicides then become a significant financial burden due to medical expenses in caring for the survivors. The survivors of failed suicide attempts may very well go on to kill themselves later anyway, making those medical expenses wholly wasteful. Isn't it better to provide a failsafe way for people to end their own lives, one that guarantees that they won't become a burden on those around them?
CONCLUSION
There are many groups that advocate death, some more rational than others. However, it is a highly marginal position, and as such, I have no illusion that the proposal outlined herein will ever actually come to fruition. There simply isn't enough demand to justify the existence of "suicide booths" (or, in hard times, the problem is that there is too much demand for suicide booths, on the part of people too blinded by troubles to see that those troubles are in fact temporary).
I nevertheless submit that our attitude towards death is illogical, at least in that we claim to value life so highly that we will actually force it upon those who do not wish it. Suicide is not automatically a bad thing, but because society has deemed it so, people who seek death must find difficult and perhaps dangerous ways of accomplishing it. Providing suicide booths is humane, it is merciful, and it is logical.
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