vanblah

I'm neither for nor against suicide. I do see it as a viable option in certain cases ...

However, the argument about depression is really difficult. To say that a person considering suicide is "feeling something at a certain moment" and should be allowed to commit suicide is difficult and may not be correct.

Case in point: I have a friend who was going through a divorce. He was getting very "edgy" and unpredictable as this divorce drew out. He'd had problems his entire adult life with something similar to bipolar disorder/depression. One day, his soon-to-be ex-wife called me and said that he'd called her to say goodbye. She asked me to go over to his house and see if he was OK.

I fully expected to see the aftermath of a suicide when I got there. However, he was sitting on the couch with a hand gun. I asked him to put it down and talk about it. If he still felt like dying he could do it after the talk and when I was gone. Meanwhile, my wife called the police.

It turns out, that it was a suicidal gesture. The fact is, most people who say they are going to commit suicide aren't actually going to do it. It's the people who don't say anything that actually do it. So you're not really preventing a suicide in most cases--just preventing an accident.

My friend was not charged with attempted murder or put in jail or executed (they don't execute for attempted murder anyway). He was sent to a psychiatric facility for four days and then told to see a doctor about his depression.

Two weeks later he was diagnosed with pernicious anemia (Pernicious anemia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) which was most likely the root cause of his bipolar-like behavior.

Six months and numerous B12 shots later he's like a completely new person.

I suppose he's weakening the gene pool with his anemia, but then again so am I because I wear glasses.