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Originally Posted by rockogre
The giving of ones own life, whatever you wish to call the method, to avoid giving aid to the enemy is a time honored last ditch act among military members throughout time. It is not suicide to avoid pain or suffering. It is not a cowardly or selfish act. How would this be any different than if he had thrown his body on a mine to protect his men and thus foul the enemies plan?
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I didn't call him a coward. The meaning of "selfish" is to do something for yourself, not others. Suicide is a selfish act. Suicide is the taking of one's own life- the reason is irrelevant.
It would indeed be different had he thrown his body on a mine, because that would be giving his life, and
selfless, not
selfish. There is a difference between giving your life, and taking your life- a huge one. I'm not trying to demonize him, I'm pointing out fact- fact that many would like to gloss over because they're too closed-minded on the issue.
I didn't say anything about the man himself. I said he attempted suicide, and I questioned a medal of valor going to a man who would have taken his life...
...as I said before- had he succeeded in taking his life, his name would have instantly been forgotten. If you want to ignore that simply because he didn't bleed fast enough or didn't do the job correctly the first time, and lived anyway, then that's up to you.