Ask HN: Why isn’t suicide(for any reason: mental or physical) legally accessible | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why isn’t suicide(for any reason: mental or physical) legally accessible

Why should anyone be forced to live against their wishes?

Are the reasons religious and it has become part of law?

Once upon a time, termination of pregnancies were illegal, but desperate women tried it anyways risking their lives.

If one has degenerative illnesses or even simply a lack of will to carry on living, why shouldn’t they be given the dignity of departure. Afterall, our bodies ..and lives..are our properties, yes?

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> Why should anyone be forced to live against their wishes?

People are free to not live if they so wish so. There's nothing stopping anyone from cutting their own supply of oxygen in the privacy of their own home.

> Are the reasons religious and it has become part of law?

Depends on where you live but yes many countries are monotheist so it is a bit biased in that regard.

> Once upon a time, termination of pregnancies were illegal, but desperate women tried it anyways risking their lives.

That is true and why abortion should remain or become legal.

> If one has degenerative illnesses or even simply a lack of will to carry on living, why shouldn’t they be given the dignity of departure. Afterall, our bodies ..and lives..are our properties, yes?

It's a complicated topic considering many patients who think about this are in desperation and lack feeling of control but completely agree that people have the right to die so physician assisted suicide should be legal.

> Afterall, our bodies ..and lives..are our properties, yes?

Is it? I'm not so sure about that. But I totally agree, a liberal society should make suicide legally accessible.

Can you explain why you feel that our bodies and lives cannot be considered as our property?

Bodies are properties. Our organs can also be considered our property.

On a slightly meta physical/‘woo’ level, do we own our souls? That’s an entirely different topic, I guess..

It's one thing to have property, and another to have control over it. Also, there are enough examples for people, whose bodies are literally owned by somebody else (and enough examples for societies/structures, which tolerate, let alone promote all kinds of slaveries).

Right. That’s true. Is a fetus property? Are pets property? Women used to be property. Children? Are thoughts property? Bodily fluids, organs and DNA can all be deemed property and can be ‘owned’.

Possession is not ownership. So hypothetically..how can we make a case that our bodies are our properties? Legally speaking? How does one prove ownership?

http://dignitas.ch/index.php?lang=en

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