by Priscilla Benfield

Created on: March 28, 2010

Suicide can devastate those who are left behind. In many major religions, suicide is a sin against God. There is another side of this debate. When someone is terminally ill and suffering, suicide may become a personal choice to end their pain. Although someone may morally, religiously or personally not agree, shouldn't the dying person be able to decide?

Abortion is legal in the United States. Technically, and many debate this, abortion is killing an unborn child. Whether you refer to "it" as a fetus or a baby, if the pregnancy is allowed to progress to term, a baby will be born. If it is legal to kill your unborn child, why is it illegal to kill yourself?

Suicide because you are depressed or hopelessly addicted to drugs can leave your friends and family with guilt for the rest of their lives. Suicide is a very selfish act when it is done for these reasons. Depression can be a horrible mental illness but there is treatment available. Drug or alcohol addiction can ruin the addicts life and the lives of those who love them but it too, is treatable.

When your quality of life has been reduced to laying helplessly in a bed and you are 100% dependant on others for your care, there is no hope for your medical condition to improve but you do have the chance to end it, why shouldn't you have the choice? Suicide in the event of becoming terminally ill without hope for recovery should be enough reason to allow suicide to be legal.

Maybe calling it suicide when you are terminally ill and just want out of the endless pain is not the correct term to use. When we think of suicide, we often think of someone who feels so helpless and alone that they just want to end the emotional hell they are in. Suicide like this is selfish because of the guilt it leaves behind.

Some people commit suicide in the name of their religion by committing a violent act against others and dying along with their victims. Their religion promises them special honor for their suicide mission. I cannot relate to this kind of suicide because the God I believe in taught "thou shalt not kill".

Suicide and abortion are topics that are very sensitive for people to discuss partially because of their religious upbringings or personal experiences. Suicide is a term that can define many acts and some of them are clearly wrong but some are not as clear.

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