Suicide

[David Mitchell <david110salo@yahoo.co.uk>]

I was reading a story in the paper about someone who'd committed suicide, and who had, prior to her death, visted 'suicide websites' , sites that allegedly 'encourage' or 'advise' people to kill themselves.

 

What was interesting about the attitudes of the parents and the media, towards these sites, was the way in which they seemed to reveal an underlying and unchallenged assumption in our society, namely that life is inherently worth living. Surely though it is at least an open question as to whether life [either in general, or in this particular historical epoch]  is indeed worth living [and therefore whether the promotion of suicide is a correct action]? This is especially the case if you do not believe in god, since then there would be no ultimate 'reason' why life had to be more of a gift than a burden.

 

Further this is a question that is so rarely asked either by philosophers, or most people living their lives, yet one that Camus considered 'the most important question in philosophy' [Myth of Sisyphus]

 

Any thoughts?

David

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