Aaron Swartz saw suicide as SOLUTION not PROBLEM | Hacker News Reader

Aaron Swartz saw suicide as SOLUTION not PROBLEM

6 pointsxenophanes5 comments

It's disrespectful of his ideas/values/preferences to do things like blame the govt for a part in his death. The death was, in his view, an improvement. Blame the government for stuff Aaron saw as bad, like trying him at all, if you want (but in general it's OK to try people to FIND OUT if they need punishment, and you shouldn't get too mad before seeing the result).

But stop just assuming the death -- which Aaron chose -- is obviously a bad thing. That is disrespectful to Aaron who chose it on purpose, it's assuming without argument that he was wrong.

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Suicide, especially for a person who has experienced episodes of depression in the past, is usually not what one would consider a rational choice http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5048132

If he made a bad choice, isn't that on him (and perhaps partly on his parents/educators for how they equipped him to deal with life), not on the Government?

If he made a bad, irrational choice in this matter, I see no particular reason to assume he wasn't doing an equally bad job with the rest of his life too. So I still don't see any reason to regard the suicide in particular as the tragedy. He didn't like his life, he took the "easy way out" which may well have been a selfish choice that sucked less for himself.

As to the link, if anti-suicide people want to be effective and moral they should A) be less sure they know what's best for someone else's complicated life B) never ever use force on people who ask for their help (this fear of violence is a big reason some people don't, e.g., call suicide helplines. note that perhaps this unsuitability of such lines arguably contributed to Aaron's death -- if the world was a better more helpful and nice place he might have gotten more help that he found helpful and preferred staying in it more)

I disagree. I think suicide is a very rational choice in many situations. In fact, there are too many situations where it is a rational choice to even come close to listing them all. A few off the top of my head would be:

1. If a person is dying of cancer with no known cure and medical costs are hurting the dying's family's future, that's a helluva rational choice in my opinion.

2. If a man is facing an imminent and lengthy jail sentence and is claustrophobic, suicide is perfectly rational.

If a man is in a situation where he foresees no way out for a lengthy period and chooses not to be in that situation, suicide is a perfectly rational choice.

It's more irrational for somebody who is consistently unhappy to commit suicide than for somebody who is consistently okay to commit suicide?

You and me dont have the intellect to think what he saw.

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