Comment by jolux | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jolux | Hacker News Reader

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It's not quite as simple as that. One of the reasons the suicide rate is so high in the US is because of how easy it is to access firearms. This suggests that peoples' propensity to commit suicide is at least somewhat dependent on their environment. Given that, do you want to make their environment more or less likely to cause them to commit suicide? I'm in the latter category.

As for the concern about basic rights, I fundamentally agree. For some people, perhaps, they will never get better and in those cases we should have a path to assisted suicide. In all cases, we should do our best to help suicidal people, who are ultimately suffering a lot. I don't think most people who are suicidal want to specifically die more than they want an end to their suffering, to which they see no realistic alternative other than death (which I assure you remains quite scary even when you're really depressed.) I think giving them an escape other than death is morally obligatory and humane, where it's possible.

>One of the reasons the suicide rate is so high in the US is because of how easy it is to access firearms.

Is this actually true? I know it's said quite often, but there are countries with much much higher suicide rates where firearms aren't nearly as ubiquitous. Eg Lithuania.

Or Japan...

Japan has a bit lower rates than the US. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.STA.SUIC.P5?most_rec...

In general one usually gets more meaningful results when a) comparing geographically and/or culturally similar countries for things like these. E.G the UK has half the mortality rate of the US, Canada and the EU have 2/3 of the US rate. And b) compare trends, not single values. E.G. US rates are rising (which I as a layman would interpret as speaking against the firearms thesis), while the rates of Lithuana and Japan are falling.

> I know it's said quite often, but there are countries with much much higher suicide rates where firearms aren't nearly as ubiquitous. Eg Lithuania.

The rates in the US are high because of access to guns. It's well understood in public health that easy access to means and methods is one of the factors driving high rates of death.

The rates in Lithuania are high because of a number of other factors -- high alcohol misuse probably being important. Also, there are plenty of guns in Lithuania, and firearms are one of the most frequently used methods.

The suicide attempt rate is only marginally higher in the US than in other developed countries (something that can be explained by other factors much easier than access to guns)

The amount of people who die to suicide is higher in the US because you are much more likely to actually die if you use a gun to commit suicide than other common methods. Higher access to guns increases the rate of people who successfully kill themselves. (Which is probably a bad thing. In general those who survive suicide attempts are happy that they lived.)

Another excellent example of this is removing carbon monoxide from ovens, which instantly reduced suicide numbers. Suicidal impulses are rarely a considered decision, so removing the opportunity immediate opportunity is very impactive

The suicide by gun rate is higher in the USA. Not the overall suicide rate. It's just as easy to off yourself using transport (CO, intentional crash, jumper), ligature strangulation (bedsheets, scarf, belt), exsanguination, or overdose of almost anything and all of those things are widely available all around the world.

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