colintimberlake.comTell her it wasn’t you…

My original post proposing a system where suicide victims could donate their organs before they began to quickly decay and become unusable has generated a significant amount of feedback.

While I will write in relatively short order to flesh out the theory and how it might or might not work in practice, I did want to address one particular comment that I have been receiving quite a bit by e-mail. The basic statement included therein is as follows:

“People who commit suicide don’t care about anybody but themselves. The last thing they are going to do is go out of their way to help anybody. Especially strangers.”

While I will not speak as to any one person’s complete motives for choosing a solution to their problems so radical as suicide, I will say that the variety of reasons anyone might have (and their personal traits) could cover a very broad spectrum.

It may well be that some of these people are not particularly kind or giving, and the very motives for their final action might be to hurt others. But at the same time, there will also be a large number of people who take their own lives who were, in fact, great assets to the world, who had a giving nature, and who would have jumped at the opportunity to help others (if possible) with their final act.

For anyone who would simply assume that all suicide victims are selfish and unwilling to help others, one look at the manner in which some meticulously tie up their loose ends so as not to burden those they leave behind will state otherwise. Some of the notes that are left behind, particularly those that are crafted with the hope of easing the pain of loved ones, also testify that a blanket assumption of selfishness is an error.

Why would somebody who is completely self-absorbed bother to clean up their affairs for the benefit of others? Or write notes that go above and beyond the practical and attempt to set those left behind on the path of healing (at least to the best of their ability)?

As well, a look into the motives for suicide will also reveal that a good number of these acts are undertaken by those who believe they are (or are fearful of becoming) a burden to the ones they love. It may be the wrong decision on their part, but nonetheless, the decision hardly smells of selfishness.

That said, I merely wanted to take a moment to discredit a statement I have been hearing a great deal, that nobody who commits suicide could possibly be thinking about the benefit of anyone other than themselves.

PART 1: Suicide and Organ Donation: A System to Save Lives?
PART 3: Suicide and Organ Donation: Some Practical and Moral Considerations