"That a person's suicide, or hermithood, affects society?"
This is a pretty good analogy as far as analogies go (none being perfect). If I choose to up and leave tonight and go into a hermatage at an undisclosed location I have deliberately set some consequences for myself and the significant persons in my life. There are dependants who are essentially being abandoned and there are obligations that I am leaving unfulfilled, etc. I have the right to do this being that there are no current judgements saying that I can't. Over time such judgements might come to bare related to my decision to become a dead beat, but I will be gone, unavailable, innaccessable, and so uneffected by them. This would be the case with most persons who are in any way connected significantly to other persons. So unless you are going to parse the "freedom to commit suicide" as being a freedom only for people who are totally unobligated, I think you must address this issue of abandonment. It is rare, maybe never, that a person leaving existence does not have an effect on society, but one who chooses to leave existence, especially when by choice may have varying kinds and levels of effects.
"...and doesn't whine about how lonesome he is, how does that get to be society's business?
You are continuing to circumvent the notion that there is a social obligation to recognize the presence of one another and to have regard for the needs of one another. That is the condition of humanity and the basis for legalities. You don't seem to have a problem seeing the need for society to recognize the presence of and an obligation to individuals, but you fall short of seeing this as the mutual tie known as humanity. You can simply deny that and then your argument has some merit. However, there is no purpose in having legislation at all without such an underlying assumption.
A person does not have the right to simply separate himself from humanity (as in hermatage) without some accountability for his social obligations. In our society it would require a legalistic court proceding to accomplish this task. You can not even change your name without going through a proceding that assures society that no one will be adversely effected by your choice. That doesn't mean you can't have other people call you bonita instead of karen, you can...it just is not a "legal" thing to do. As far as that goes you have the right to make existence decisions at any time and in any place you have the means to do so. You can end your existence or the spider walking accross your keyboard or mine. It would be silly to say that you "can't" because it is illegal, when of course you can. It is not silly to apply legitimacy to one or the other action as it effects the conditions of our social contract. A suicide definitely effects the conditions of our social contract and in a different way than dying of cancer does, in many ways. What if I am the beneficiary of a 2 million dollar life insurance policy that is disqualified by the your decision to commit suicide for example. You might think it is funny but it certainly also involves the legal system.
Well, that is my primary arguement. Here is another one:
When you have successfully committed suicide what is left of you in this existence? A carcass. Does it have value? Maybe to hungry coyotes? Maybe as worm food or fertilizer for an acorn.
What was once a soul infested creature is now just so much dead meat. The creature was deliberately killed, its spirit has left. The spirit and the flesh are separated, one no longer having claim over the other. So, it is not your body any longer it is independent. And there it lies, killed. If it unavoidably died of cancer there is no legal question surrounding the circumstances. If it was killed by a concious individual who considered it an inconvenience or annoyance to put up with the living creature any longer, we consider that murder. At what point does one have the right to murder any human being. |
