Thoughts on Suicide

[Aitch]

Ultimately I believe your life, your choice.

However, so much depends on the individual case. There is a strong link with depression which has the power to distort a person's rationality and obliterate any hope for the future. Anyone who has viewed someone close to them go through this would disagree with these feelings and in a lot of cases so too would that person after/between bouts of depression.

Any justified decision to me would have to be a rational one that had been considered over time and after considering other options.

I have been trying to think of examples I could understand/justify and I think it they would relate to quality of life; your own e.g. a long-term medical condition, or your effect on the quality of life of those around you e.g. you were aware you had a personality disorder (psychopath, rapist, paedophile) that cannot be effectively treated or controlled.

What disturbs me with the second example above is the closeness to possible justifications for capital and other non-rehabilitative criminal punishments.