Missed Again

So I came across an article in The Philosopher's Magazine called The Ethics of Suicide.

"This could be interesting," I thought. I always find it interesting to understand how people work their way through questions like this, especially, as in the case of suicide, when the general discourse is governed by very strong opinions.

But after a few paragraphs laying out competing ideas from a few different historical philosophers, the author instead turned to his father's condition, and ended the piece musing over whether he would chose to end his own life if circumstances seemed bleak. I was a bit disappointed.

Personally, I am of the opinion that, as an ethical matter, a person's life is their own. And owning something means being able to dispose of it as one pleases. Accordingly, I see no ethical problems with suicide. I understand, however, that my opinion that a person's life belongs to them is not the standard position. There are several different ideas as to who else has an interest, and I've heard answers ranging from one's family to God to people who love a given person.

Many of these, I can understand. The suicide of a loved one is painful, and so I can see the rationale in telling people that they have an obligation to avoid the infliction of pain on those who care for them, even at the expense of prolonging their own suffering.

But interestingly, this idea seems to lie outside of the standard philosophical discourse on the topic. At least, I've never seen direct discussion of it, although I've heard that the Stoics considered it a rejection of one's social duties (depending on the circumstances). Which strikes me as odd, given how common the idea seems to be among the public at large. I would have thought that there would have been more formalization of such thought.

And I suppose I was hoping to find something to that effect in the article. In part because the idea that a person's life belongs to them strikes me as obvious. And when something strikes me as obvious, a part of me suspects that I'm missing something important about it. Perhaps it's simply part f a broader distrust of my own intuitions. In any even, I'm sure the next article I find that hints at the topic will draw me in. We'll see what I find within it.