Suicide AttemptsFollow

if the alternative is to lock them up forever so they can't hurt themself then, well.. let them die.

it seems cold hearted at first but better to die then live in a cage tied up forever. also to thin the heard if you please


(if they can be helped then by all means do whatever to bring them around, the above is for those truely intent on the action)

The best answer I've ever heard to that question, is this:

To answer in any generalized sense is both foolish and contrary to the way doctors should view patients. Doctors *should* always strive to view patients as individuals (that is, people with names and faces and histories and emotions) requiring personal attention to the particular case, rather than as a diagnosis that you can slap a tried and true treatment plan on. Or, in this case, doctors should avoid making an absolute moral judgement on "the right thing to do" in every case with attempted suicide patients. It's insulting to a patient to not care deeply about the circumstances surrounding the incident and about every little bit of information you can find about who he or she is.

To put it succinctly, there are no hard and fast answers to ethical questions like this. It *has* to be taken case by case. Sometimes doctors make the right choices. Sometimes the ***** it up. Sad fact of life. Ethical and moral judgements just cannot be reduced to exceptionless rules.

For myself, though, I'd say that the cases in which it would be preferable to allow a patient to die who attempted suicide are going to be very rare. The number of people who are grateful for being saved after attempting suicide is astounding. A lot of people just don't realize what losing their lives really means until they place themselves on the threshold. For that reason, when it comes right down to it and you have only moments to decide whether to let someone die or do your best to save them, I say tend towards saving them. The worst they can be is annoyed at you for saving them if they really wanted it. And at best, you've given someone a new perspective and lease on life that they'll be extremely thankful for. Consider this: if someone truly wants to die, it's unlikely that you can stop them. If they really did want to die, they'll probably end up finding a way to do so eventually.

Perhaps it's cruel of me to say, but if someone REALLY wanted to die that badly, there's plenty of exceedingly lethal and nearly fool-proof methods to choose from. There's exceptions, but it's difficult to fail at killing yourself if you really put your mind to it

A'ight. I don't know about general rules of thumb, but if a persons life were in my hands, i would save them. I like to beleive doctors feel the same. This doesn't establish an arbitrary "rightness"/"wrongness" of the deed, but then again, who said there has to be a catch-all answer for every case. I don't think that there is any ABSOLUTE answer as to if it is right or wrong. It depends on curcumstances, culture, history, a thousand things.
I just know that i would save them.

I heard somewhere that suicide is actually illegal, but since the people are dead, there's not much you can do. Wouldn't attempted suicide have legal repercussions then?

Killing another human being is illegal, reguardless of who it is. Therefore, it flows that suicide is illegal.

People who do not succeed in attempting suicide were ot serious in the first place. I think we should have PBS afterschool specials on how to kill ones self effectively so that there are less failed attempts. Then the doctors can focus on the people with real problems instead of every emo kid who thinks it's cool to cut themselves.




Edited, Sun Apr 23 10:54:40 2006 by Elderon

Ficksed

Many doctors now choose not to take the Hippocratic Oath for varying reasons. One being it is based on a very simple form of medicine that predates the technologies and pharmacologies now available, and another being that modern legislation over-rides (albeit in a complementary way) all of its key premises.

as someone who's attempted suicide, i say save them. i've been in and out of mental hospitals at least a couple times a year for the past 4 years (only one was a suicide attempt),and i've seen dozens of patients come in half dead from suicide attempts. usually they are pissed for a while but almost all of them eventually were thankfull they didn't die. most attempts are only attempts because the person attempting suicide doesn't actually want to die, they just want a way out, and death is the only option they see. this is usually from some kind of emotional trauma, like a loss, or drug induced phsycosis, like a lot of others said. others (like myself) have an ongoing condition that can bring a long list of things, depression, hearing/seeing things, impulse disorders, anxiety disorders, social phobias...etc, etc. a lot of people without disorders don't understand that. depression isn't just "feeling down" and scitzophrenia isn't just having multiple personalities and psycosis doesn't mean you kill people at random. being psychotic actually only means that you expierence things that aren't real. aka visual and auditory hallucinations. people in this category tend to relapse since it's not just one issue they have to work on. they often get overwhelmed and usually end up back in the hospital if not properly medicated. either way people don't usually stay suicidal. either they fit into the first category and after they learn to cope with their issue they're fine, or they fit into the second group and it'll come in cycles, with the impulse to commit suicide getting stronger each time, which is the other reason suicide attempts happen...the impulse isn't strong enough yet. they want to kill themselves, but are still afraid of death, or the instinct of self preservation won't let them. sometimes people have every intent to kill themselves, but the method isn't actually lethal. for example...certain medicines will not kill you, in any dosage, and a slit wrist will clot if not done properly (and properly is harder than people think). it's easy to say "well just put a bullet in your head, that'll work." that usually does work,but even though suicidal people don't care about their own lives anymore, they usually still care about someone around them, and they don't want that person seeing their mutilated corpse. again, there's also that self preservation insinct that just won't let some people pull the trigger or jump off a roof, so they take pills or cut their wrists in a more passive attempt. these make up most of the people i mentioned seeing dozens of. anyway i say save them, and leave them with three disiscions...a) medication and therapy...usually works. b) learn to live with the problem (WAY harder than it sounds and not usually the choice taken), and c) try again. i know c) is kind of a ****** up option, but lets face it, people will always see it as an option.

p.s. not all people who cut themselves are emo...just the people that show off the scars and go "look at me, i have problems." these people do this, and now people think everyone who cuts themselves is just trying to get attention. so **** those emo ******** the small group of people who cut themselves for reasons other than fasion do it as a distraction from their present state. i'm sure all of you have accedentally cut yourself in the middle of something...and i'm willing to bet most of you dropped what you were doing to tend to the wound. whatever you were doing doesn't matter, all you're worried about it the cut. thats the best way i can describe it. i also knew people in the hospital who did it for the chemical thats released when you get injured...slight euphoria, highly addictive. oh and i don't cut myself, havn't in years. like any emotional escape, be it self mutilation, drugs, alchohol, it gets real old real fast, unless you get addicted, then it gets old and you're ************** doing **** you hate yourself for, which perpetuates the cycle.

oh, and as far as legalities of attempting suicide, i've never heard of charges being pressed on anyone for attempting suicide, although when i did it i was locked in a mental hospital for almost two months under order of the coroner, and would be arrested if i were to escape.

I had a conversation about this topic with a couple friends yesterday, who have attempted suicide before. Each time they said "thank God" the doctor did save them.

Their suicide attempts were cries for help, and not actual attempts on their life. Their cries for help seemed to have worked in a way, they got the help they needed and now run pretty stable lives.

So, yes, I do believe doctors should save people who attempt suicide. Why, because they their attempt on their life may not be serious; It may just be a huge cry for help.

You need to hang out with a cheerier bunch.

One summer I did an internship at a Neurpsych clinic. A teenager came in who had attempted to kill himself in the same way, and also somehow failed. But he did manage to shatter the bones his face, blow off his nose entirely, and lose an eye.

Have you ever seen a person who doesn't have a nose? VERY WEIRD.

It's one of those things where you're so utterly unprepared to see something like that, you realize you've already grimaced in disbelief and horror and you feel like a total ***.

"Please remember to get your whole head in front of the shotgun, thank you for calling!"

- Dr. Denis Leary, Suicide Hotline