There is an interesting thread on The Druid Network member forums, discussing views on life, death, rebirth, afterlife, etc. One of the comments I made was about the choice an individual can make on commiting suicide. I thought I’d try and air my thoughts, to give them some form.
In general, I’m against suicide. I think it’s a waste of a precious gift, something not ours to prematurely end, an aberration. If we’re here to bear witness to the world, to love and to learn, and impart love and learning. It’s a terrible waste to end that process wilfully.
When is it acceptable? Well, I suppose we’d have to look at circumstances where people do end their lives, and what drives them to it, and when people want to end their lives, but can’t. Depression, and illness are big factors (in my view), and age is another. Is it acceptable to end ones life because one is terminally ill, or incapacitated? If it’s going to end at some point soon, and one is experiencing a considerable decrease in quality of life, is it acceptable for them to seek a timely end?
I’m not sure if it can be judged by illness or whatever befalls us. For me, it would be the burden I place on my tribe, my family. I ask myself if it would be fair to put a carers life on hold, if there was no hope of recovery. If I was simply wasting away with age, and it was a long drawn out process, would it be fair for me to place that burden on others. Carers that perhaps would not understand my wish in those final days? Would I make good my escape, on one of those ‘up’ days, drag myself off to a place to die in peace, and beauty? Romantically, I’d like to think I would, and if peace didn’t come in time, would I have the balls to take a blade with me to fall on it?
In some ways, it’s resource managment. If I kept chickens, I paid with time and resources to keep them healthy, and fed, so that they could in turn be harvested for eggs. When a chicken is too old to lay anymore, do I still pile money and effort into this chicken? Or do I kill it, while its meat is still good, to feed my family for a Sunday, knowing that the chicken had been treated well, and had died before the debilitating effects of age had set in too far?
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