I agree that suicide can sometimes be rational, but I think you severely overestimate the frequency with which it’s safe to assume this. Of the three people I know who have been involuntarily hospitalized for suicidal tendencies, all of them ended up glad of it, and none of them attempted suicide in response to recent negative experiences.
Allowing people self-determination may be a good general heuristic for increasing utility, but I think that this is a situation where, with limited information, we are usually best off defying that heuristic. There will almost certainly be cases where this prolongs the life of people who would be better off dead, but this has to be weighed against the people whose lives are worth living which would otherwise be lost, and I think we have adequate evidence to conclude that they’re far greater in number.
Those are my last thoughts on this matter as well.
I agree that suicide can sometimes be rational, but I think you severely overestimate the frequency with which it’s safe to assume this. Of the three people I know who have been involuntarily hospitalized for suicidal tendencies, all of them ended up glad of it, and none of them attempted suicide in response to recent negative experiences.
Allowing people self-determination may be a good general heuristic for increasing utility, but I think that this is a situation where, with limited information, we are usually best off defying that heuristic. There will almost certainly be cases where this prolongs the life of people who would be better off dead, but this has to be weighed against the people whose lives are worth living which would otherwise be lost, and I think we have adequate evidence to conclude that they’re far greater in number.
Those are my last thoughts on this matter as well.