Suiciders don't need the law

Yesterday while driving to work, I heard an interview on the BBC that some dude in UK has started an international campaign to introduce a law that will incriminate individuals who may have caused someone else to drive into committing suicide. I do feel sorry for this guy who is in rage after her sister committed suicide because her husband would give her a hard time. I do feel bad for him and is most unfortunate that someone had to take her life. But pass a law to incriminate someone?

Wake up dude, this is 21st century. If your sister could walk out of this world and could not walk out of her marriage then that’s no excuse. Too bad! People will commit suicides, the common reason being that the pain of life itself exceeds the pain of death. In most cases, these people are pushed beyond any form of conventional sanity. I say that because under sane conditions people want to live. Whether it is through the explanations of the physical universe, economic theory, or theology – at least on this ground there is a commonality. Medicine strives to increase life expectancy and so does the monk who is chanting in his tree house. So much so, religion even talks about everlasting life in another world knowing fully well say as you may death is inevitable in this life. So, well - construct another world and who cares if I add the extra bonus whether I get a thousand virgins to do lap dancing. Said in another way that’s what we all want – life, enjoy, and gratify our senses. You and I are looking for a life to live – this world or anything else. But those who commit suicides have gone beyond all these rational, normal, and sane understanding of our universe. And if someone is drawn to this ultimate act, how and more importantly, why do we hold another responsible. No one buys an argument that any situation can be such that suicide was the only option.

Many may argue that it may be so. An unmarried girl getting pregnant in a north Indian village may take her life thinking that she wont be able to carry on with her social stigma. In this case, whom do you punish – the boy who disowned her or the society. Since the society does not have a phone number nor an address, you punish the boy. But is this fair? Were not both of them partners in the same act (assuming everything was consensual).

This guy’s claim and efforts are bogus. Suicide like abortion is a fundamental right as a human being. We do not have any control over our birth, we have limited control over our life – the way it goes, but death – we have complete control. Not that every one of us are taking our lives, but the fact that I can helps me tide over life’s many sorrows, despair, and agony. And when in those dark corners of my thoughts, the thought that I can take my life creeps up like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, it is indeed redeeming. I then finally manage to say, “No, not yet. I can go few more of this pain.” Death will come anyway. As in Bergman’s Seventh Seal, the protagonist says, “…I am playing chess with death.” Yes, we all are playing chess with death. If someone wants to resign and walk away, let her do so. We all will be check mated anyway. It’s just a matter of when. So dude, get on with your own life, and channelize your anger and grief to something more meaningful. You and I will follow your sister soon, so why does it matter if she did it by herself.