The Argument Essay: The Moral Responsibility Of Suicide

Is suicide morally permissible, and is one ever morally required to commit suicide in some circumstances? Throughout time, suicide elicited a large range of reactions that vary from sympathy to anger, confusion, and religious or moral condemnation. The subject of suicide has been disputed by several areas of expertise such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, and psychiatry. While each of those areas of studies provided important insights on the topic, many of the philosophical questions surrounding the subject remain unanswered. This paper will argue that suicide should be considered morally permissible and that, in some cases, one can have a moral responsibility to commit suicide for the following reasons: death can be one’s way to retreat, suicide, for some, can be a more honorable choice than to live a life of misery, and finally, if someone holds complete ownership over his or her own life, shouldn’t they have the same option for death?

I started my research by developing a solid view on suicide from an existentialist point of view, which I did by reading up on philosopher Albert Camus and his works. Camus tackled the issue of suicide by starting his essay with “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and

This position argues that one who feels the need to engage in suicidal behavior may have psychological disorders that compromise their ability to make the decision to end one’s life rationally. The libertarian view refutes that by asserting that one has a right to suicide, no matter what. Some libertarians strongly believe that one has no moral duty not to commit suicide. Some also believe that people should be morally obliged to assist in ending one’s suffering. An argument made for the right of noninterference is that we remain the right to decide how our life should go, including how long we life for and under what circumstances we