Home » Mind & Soul » Mental Illness » "Whose Life is it Anyway?" Suicide and Human Rights

"Whose Life is it Anyway?" Suicide and Human Rights

© Amy Hillgren Peterson

First of all, I want to say that it is not in all fairness to Lawrence Stevens, J.D. to have this conversation without his input. On the other hand, he has written an entire website without the input of people who live each day with a biogenic mental illness. Furthermore, in analytic reading of his eleven ranting articles on his website, http://www.antipsychiatry.org it has become fairly simple to encapsulate his wild opinions. I feel it is important to explore the flip side of mental health advocacy: the effort to erase the stigma of getting help and to educate the public about the biogenic causes of mental illness.

"Some people believe it is ethical to interfere with a person's right to think about or commit suicide because of belief in mental illness. But a so-called diagnosis of "mental illness" is a value judgment about a person's thinking or behavior, not a diagnosis of bona-fide brain disease." - Lawrence Stevens, J.D.

Okay, Lawrence Stevens, J.D., I don't believe in cancer. I think it is terrible that people waste away while their vital organs and cells are attacked by this monstrosity. So, I just don't believe in it anymore.

I am sure Lawrence Stevens, J.D. would then say, "but cancer can be diagnosed through lab work, MRI, in some cases you can even see the lump on the breast or the growth in the abdomen."

Well, Lawrence Stevens, J.D., what about the free will that you say exists in each person who attempts suicide? I can't see it. There is no lab test that will turn orange if someone has full capacity to exercise their free will. Prove to me that this is a choice made with full ownership of one's mind.

Some may feel it is right to use force to prevent suicide because of their belief that the potentially suicidal person's desire to die is probably temporary and will probably go away or subside if he or she is forced to live a short time longer until the acute emotional reaction to a recent traumatic event has faded with time. Those advancing this argument sometimes acknowledge a person does have a right to commit suicide if he or she is not acting impulsively. But most evidence indicates few if any people who commit suicide do so impulsively. As Earl A. Grollman says in his book Suicide (in which he opposes the right to commit suicide): "Suicide does not occur suddenly, impulsively, unpredictably" (p. 63). In his book Suicide: The Forever Decision, psychologist Paul G. Quinnett, Ph.D., says: "I have talked to hundreds of suicidal people... If I can make another guess about what has been going on inside your head and heart, it is that you have had long and difficult discussions with yourself about whether to live or die" (pp. 18-19). Rather than being impulsive, suicide is something people do after long contemplation as part of their efforts to deal with what they consider intolerable life circumstances."