I was looking for something else.. and found this instead… From here: http://able2know.org/topic/151812-1
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LittleMathYou
I think a 9 year old killing himself is a good representation of suicide as a whole. Selfish,short-sighted, and always looking for an escape. Although it seems insensitive for me to say this, I think we just need to realize that those things are apart of deciding to end your life.
Pyrrho
It is funny that people who stay alive because they want to, call people “selfish” who kill themselves because they want to. (It is like those who have children because they want children calling childless couples selfish for not having children because they don’t want to have children.)
And it is absurd to call a solution to all of life’s problems forever a “short-sighted” solution. The 9 year old could not possibly have come up with any other solution to his problems that would have been so complete and long lasting.
Suicide is one of those interesting topics in which most people, at least in countries that are or have been traditionally predominantly Christian, have difficulty addressing in a logical manner. There is a tendency to an automatic rejection of it as a reasonable option, that is highly emotional and without any rational basis. One can see this in the thread to which you have provided a link, as the rationalizations that are typically given against suicide are not followed for other things. In other words, the principles cited as a justification for suicide being bad are not followed in other matters, and consequently they themselves reject the principles that they claim justify the rejection of suicide. Inconsistency is a hallmark of people being irrational about something, though, of course, people tend to react badly to having this pointed out.
What you quoted is an example involving people giving false reasons for their actions when their real motives are less noble. Most people who have children are not doing it for some noble cause. It is usually either because they want children, or their chosen method of birth control failed. Neither of those motives has any nobility in them at all. And yet they often pretend that there is something noble and good in what they have done. Of course, once they are parents, they may be good and noble parents, but that is a separate issue from the decision (if it was not simply failed birth control) to become parents.
Some good essays on suicide:
http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=704&chapter=137575&layout=html&Itemid=27
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_70
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_77
It could be argued that some people are not in their right mind when they decide to commit suicide and that this fact is what makes this matter relevant to the humanitarian. One can come to the decision to commit suicide rationally, but one can also come to the decision irrationally, and I think the latter are those we have a responsible to treat if at all possible.