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Issues of Suicide Recently suicide grows into a real serious social problem, which requires some attention and study. Annually about 30, 000 Americans end their lives with committing suicide, it means about 80 suicides happen every day. Committing suicide becomes the most dangerous among teenagers from 15 to 24 and among old people above age 65. Women are much more predisposed to suicide, they attempt it four times more frequently, than men do, but, statistically, men complete their suicide attempts four times more often. Suicide takes place in any social, ethnic or cultural group, among children and adults, among males and females, among sick and healthy, married and not married, employed and unemployed people. That is why there is rather great variety of special reasons, which may bring people to end up with their lives by own will.
The most common reason of committing suicide is long-lasting depression, despair, feeling hopeless and worthless, etc. Such psychological condition can be caused by many different motives: ended relations or other sort of loss of a loved one, divorces or separation of parents, fights, quarrels and disruptions at home, troubles at school, like bad grades, troubles at work or with the career growth, lack of social success, loneliness, feeling old and disabled, facing of other environmental problems or negative changes. Second reason can be mental or other sickness, like schizophrenia, alcoholism and drugs abuse, or such sort of disorders, when a person is mentally not strong enough to resist the idea of self-elimination. Besides, those, who have any kind of lethal disease, who are handicapped or paralyzed, may also have a strong tendency to suicide in order not to suffer and not to bring suffer to close people. Also, suicide is likely to be committed in the moments of psychological instability, like anger or rage. It may seem for a person as a way of revenging for something bad, or like a way of punishing somebody.
Social, political or economical reasons are less important, but for many people the problem of survival, making ends meet or absence of a prosperous future may become fatal. In adolescence it is very important to be resistive to numerous misunderstandings or misdirection in looking for own place in this world, in learning and comprehending, what this life is all about, thus not to get disappointed with natural principles of social existence and not to end up with living after some frustrations. In such ages there is also a slight tendency to commit suicide in order to attract attention and cause some public resonance. There are several diverse ways of committing suicide, the most common of which are: taking poison or excessive amount of medicines, like tranquilizers or sleeping pills; using of firearms or other dangerous tools to destroy own body functioning; to eliminate oneself by causing a traffic accident, by jumping from tall buildings, by getting drowned in water or gas, etc.
And the question of availability of such opportunities (like, for example, keeping or not keeping a loaded gun at home) is also important in making decision about suicide. The problems of suicide are being studied rather precisely and specialists have spent a lot of efforts and recourses to find out the ways, how to prevent suicides, how to make people give up with this lethal decision and support them. There are numerous scientific and popular books written with the purpose of publicizing and distributing of information about psychological and social aspects of suicide, and also with purpose to give a helping hand for those, who are in troubles and under danger of committing suicide. In their works and studies suicide consultants reveal some misunderstandings, connected with common perception of this problem, they demolish some popular myths about suicide. For example, it is considered that suicidal people never talk about their intentions to self-eliminate, that proved to be wrong: about % 75 of suicidal persons inform surrounding about their intentions.
People used to think that suicidal persons want to die, but, in fact, they do not want to die and likely to be afraid of death, they just can not find reasons to go on living. Frequently it is considered that all suicidal individuals are mentally sick or depressed, but in real it is not true: suicidal people can be only extra-sensitive and very emotional not to be able to manage with own problems, besides, surprisingly, suicide may happen even form the abundance of happiness and positive emotions. One of the most misleading myths is that a person, who has experienced a failed suicide attempt, will hardly repeat it again. Practically, on the contrary, a person whose suicidal attempt failed, is under a great risk of continuing such attempts, especially during first three-five months. Such a person needs very serious attention from the side of doctors and psychologists, because failed suicide attempt can be taken as a call for help, a warning, and if there will be no reply on this call, a next try will take place and can be successful. It is common to suppose that suicide is a very well planned and considered action, and there is no way back for a suicidal person.
Actually, it is not always true: in the majority of the cases suicide attempts are very impulsive, that is why so many of them fail. Frequently it takes rather long time for a suicidal person to fight with all the problems and to decide, whether to commit a suicide or not, but the very procedure of self-eliminating is more likely to be improvised. As to turning back, everybody knows that is it morally not right to commit suicide, it is too radical way, and that is why a very minimal, but true hope must always exist. Mostly people think that it is better not to talk about suicide with a suicidal person, in order not to evoke a new wave of suicidal thoughts.
But in practice it is even necessary to ask about intentions to suicide, because a suicidal person may get opened and speak about bad things he or she feels, so somehow a way of salvation or a plan may be found out. Another myth is that suicide is connected with weather conditions: grim and rainy weather may cause suicidal thoughts; but there is no statistic, proving this fact. Also, many people think that there is no legal prohibition for committing suicide; its everybody's own freedom and choice. But the punishment will be really cruel if a person is caught on assisting. This is one of the most controversial points, connected with suicide problem, because there are many situations, when terminally ill people ask their doctors or relatives to take them off life support and stop their pain and suffering. Such acts are called assisted suicide, or euthanasia, and there are two famous names in American medical practice, doctors Timothy Quinn and Jack Kevorkian, who started carrying out patient assisted suicide and promoting it on public.
To fulfill their mission, they used a machine, invented and designed by Dr. Kevorkian himself: it injects a poisoned solution into the body of a terminally ill person, but the patient must pull the plug with his or her own hand. Coping with death is a very hard and individual problem; it has a wide spectrum of backgrounds, emotional, psychological, medical, ethical or social, etc. That is why there are many opponents of euthanasia; a lot of people consider it to be not suicide, but homicide, they think that a human, especially a doctor, has no right to take life from another human. There are some obvious advantages and reasons, which may speak in favor of assisted suicide.
For terminally ill people the process of dying can be very long, hard and very painful. Such lethal diseases, like leukemia or some types of cancer may cause terrible suffer. And, according to Hippocrates oath, doctors must do everything to relieve their patients from pain, not to prolong it. Besides, every one of us has a right to live and has a right to die, a right to control own death, so, a person must not be forced to live. In cases of lethal sicknesses people are frequently paralyzed and disabled, they do really need somebody elses help to receive a peaceful death with dignity, not to wait for horrible end in pain. But on the other hand assisted suicide goes into deep controversy with the canons of religion and our human nature.
Many people used to think that doctors must do everything they can to save a patient, to ease the pain and to give hope, not to kill. Besides, there is always a probability of mistaken diagnosis and, that is more significant, a mistaken prognosis of the way the sickness is going to develop. That is why euthanasia can be taken as rather impulsive decision, because the hope, impulses and reactions to continue own existence always remain in our bodies down to the molecular level in every cell. Recent medical achievements, new palliative care medicines are very effective. They preserve quality of life; allow maximal elimination of pain and keeping a terminally ill person more or less away of hard suffering till the last minutes. And there are cases from medical practice, when incredible will to live and unbreakable desire to survive could make miracles and rescue a patient from the arms of death.
The most ardent opponents consider euthanasia together with abortion to be murders, which require legal persecution and punishment. They compare it with pushing a person, standing on the edge of a skyscraper with determination to jump down, and such acts are being carried out by doctors, whose devotion is to help, to save, not to push. They demand to strictly prohibit assisted suicides. It is not easy to say, who is right and who is wrong in such a public discussion, because every side has own reasons and common sense.
Practice shows that a great number of terminally ill people require assisted suicide in the US, and in such countries like the Netherlands and Australia euthanasia is legalized. In any way, all the participants of particular cases of euthanasia must understand whole the responsibility they take facing their close people, or the society in general. People die every day, but overwhelming majority of them truly does not want to die. And, as we can not avoid natural deaths and fatalities, it becomes highly humanistic and ethical to do what it takes in order to change minds of suicidal people in their decision to give up their lives, to open their minds and hearts and to give them hope, to show the way to light, to prove that life is beautiful and is really worth living, because sun always appears after long rainy days.
Free research essays on topics related to: assisted suicide, committing suicide, terminally ill, commit suicide, suicide attempts
Research essay sample on Committing Suicide Terminally Ill
