Suicide should be a criminal offence. Do you agree or disagree?自杀应该定性为刑事犯罪,你同意还是不同意?
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one' s own death. There are almost a million suicides every year with ten to twenty times more suicidal attempts. With the rising suicide rates many have asked the question: should suicide be made a criminal offence?
Some people hold the view that we should respect human rights because we value the liberty and autonomy of individuals; we want to be able to make our own decisions and we likewise affirm the right of others to make their own decisions. The free, autonomous decision to take one' s own life should be respected as a legitimate exercise of one' s individual liberty. Human liberty is sacrosanct and should only be limited where clear social harm is caused. Suicide affects only the individual and so it should be permitted.
Some other people argue on the grounds that suicide is a waste of life. It is an immoral act that ignores the sacrosanct nature of human life - something that is universally considered to be the case as shown by being something nearly all religions consider to be the case. Failure to criminalize such a flagrant violation of the sanctity of human life condemns any society as irreligious and immoral.
Suicide is an entirely selfish act that causes immense pain and suffering for those loved ones that are left behind. It is also cowardly; rather than facing your problems and being strong, you instead take the easy way out and kill yourself. It is important, therefore, to instill a strong sense of responsibility to one' s family and for one' s affairs, and to do this by punishing those who try and fail to perpetrate this selfish and cowardly act. Like abortion, euthanasia, cloning and genetic engineering, suicide undermines the sanctity and inviolability of the human body. It is legitimate to legislate against such actions because the sanctity of the human body is an intrinsic constituent part of the respect for human dignity, which is the sine qua non of social life in any country.