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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To not understand why suicide is illegal?

133 replies

DollyDoLittle · 29/05/2011 14:47

Can anyone explain it to me?

Surely a person should have the right to be able to choose wether they want to continue living or not?

OP posts:

Mabelface · 29/05/2011 14:49

It was decriminalised in 1961 in the UK and 1966 in Ireland.

ada07 · 29/05/2011 14:50

Suicide hasn't been illegal in the UK since the 1960's. Do you mean assisted suicide? Or are you referring to some other country?

Haecceity · 29/05/2011 14:50

It's technically illegal but nobody ever actually gets prosecuted these days for a suicide attempt, do they?

I think it goes back to the days when God ruled and your life was deemed to belong to God and you didn't have the right to end your life.

I may be wrong, but that's what I've always thought.

You can be prosecuted for helping someone to die. which is slightly different because of all the potential abuses there.

WhoAteMySnickers · 29/05/2011 14:50

Suicide is not illegal.

Haecceity · 29/05/2011 14:50

Oh, I am wrong. I didn't realise it had been made legal.

MrsCadwallader · 29/05/2011 14:51

It isn't illegal, but helping someone to commit suicide is illegal, as are suicide pacts (IIRC). You can take your own life but you can't interfere with anyone else's!

ilovesooty · 29/05/2011 14:53

As above. It's not illegal: assisted suicide is.

veritythebrave · 29/05/2011 14:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

DollyDoLittle · 29/05/2011 14:56

Ok my mistake but if somebody decided they wanted to end their life they would be carted off to hospital. Why can't their wishes be respected? Why does somebody have the right to stop you killing yourself?

OP posts:

Mollydollydoll · 29/05/2011 14:58

Dolly your mistaking suicide with euthanasia
Suicide is not illegal

Mabelface · 29/05/2011 14:58

Because there are people who want their suffering to stop and death seems to be the only way to them, but there are other options. Don't forget the devastation they leave behind if they succeed. They actually can't be forced to be treated against their will.

JeelyPiece · 29/05/2011 14:59

People who apparently attempt suicide in a public place are often charged with a Breach of the Peace, in Scotland anyway. Seems harsh but you'd be surprised at the number of people who cause huge disruption and expense e.g. by threatening to jump off a bridge in the city centre at rush hour, with no intention of actually doing it.

I would hope they are also offered psychiatric help of some sort though.

Mollydollydoll · 29/05/2011 15:00

Verity same happened to by grandad his coffin was not allowed in church for the funeral this was in the 60's and they could not bury him in consummated grounds. He had cancer too. He chose to go and he should not have been condemned by the church for it.

ada07 · 29/05/2011 15:01

People ''get carted off to hospital'' on a section of the mental health act for their own safety and treatment of their psychiatric illness not because they have broken the law. Not everyone who commits or attempts to commit suicide is mentally ill.

onepieceofcremeegg · 29/05/2011 15:01

Dolly if someone was saying they wanted to end their life they may not be carted off to hospital. I think you mean a mental health hospital?

What would generally (or should) happen is that the person would be assessed by a psychiatrist or mental health professional, to establish if they had the mental capacity to make this decision.

Sure, if the person was mentally ill or severely depressed, it may well be that they would be admitted to hospital (either informally or under a Section of the Mental Health Act)

However some people say they want to commit suicide, and sad and desperate as it is, if they are in their "right mind" generally they won't be "carted off"

onepieceofcremeegg · 29/05/2011 15:02

ada07 you beat me to it. (x-post but yours was more concise)

millie30 · 29/05/2011 15:03

OP, intervention is sometimes needed because although someone may feel suicidal at a particular point in their life, with the right help and support they could recover and they deserve to be given that chance. If somebody is determined enough to commit suicide they will usually find a way to do it anyway, that doesn't mean that anybody suicidal should just be left to get on with it.

onepieceofcremeegg · 29/05/2011 15:03

Interestingly the clinic in Switzerland (Dignitas?) that offers euthanasia I think requires evidence that the person is not mentally ill and has capacity to make the decision.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 29/05/2011 15:04

"Why can't their wishes be respected?" Because the medical profession has taken an oath to save life. And common decency means the rest of us usually try to do the same. Suicide is often symptomatic of mental illness and, if we were to 'respect the wishes' of everyone that had a mental illness, however bizarre or destructive those wishes were, we would have a serious problem in society.

FrottageCod · 29/05/2011 15:04

I was wondering whether life insurance is invalidated if you take your own life?

TheFlyingOnion · 29/05/2011 15:05

MollyDolly at "they could not bury him in consummated grounds"

I'm sure the priest would have a lot to say about "consummated grounds" but I think you mean consecrated???

TheFlyingOnion · 29/05/2011 15:06

BTW is your name in reference to the "Molly Dolly" books?

CogitoErgoSometimes · 29/05/2011 15:06

Suicide is usually excluded from life insurance policies. Otherwise it would be like insuring a car, setting light to it then expecting to claim.

TheFlyingOnion · 29/05/2011 15:06

life insurance definitely invalidated in the event of suicide, Frottage

onepieceofcremeegg · 29/05/2011 15:06

Yes I think it is Cod. (although in a lot of cases the verdict by the coroner won't be suicide unless there is extremely clear evidence that the person did intend to commit suicide)

For example, if the person overdosed, they may have taken extra tablets due to being confused/drunk/distressed, so technically this may not be seen as a suicide. otoh if they left a suicide note or rang an ambulance telling someone they had deliberately overdosed, this could be evidence.

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