Is comitting suicide a selfish act?

So on my Facebook news feed this morning, there was a status about a man that had attempted to jump in front of a train at my local train station. The comments section soon turned to be a huge debate on the situation, with half of the people wishing the guy a speedy recovery, and the other half of people saying that the man was selfish. This of course then drew criticism from people that had suffered from depression, and it went round and round in circles basically.

My story was about a man trying to kill himself by going under a train, but the debate can be about other circumstances as well.

Is committing suicide a selfish act?

yes but thats not rly significant when some1 has felt that they were so sad that they wanted to kill themself :'(

Depends what your definition of selfish is. Some dictionaries include the word "pleasure" (which I would really doubt a suicidal person is seeking for, moreso release), but I take the view it's acting in ones own interests. So yes it is "selfish", but not necessarily to such a negative connotation that people try to portray.

You realise this thread will end up in a gigantic argument as has happened many times when suicide/self harm gets brought up on here :P

no but there are other options available

jumping in front of a train is selfish
if you're gonna kill yourself then actually do it yourself
take pills
hang yourself
set yourself on fire

When someone jumps in front of a train then that train driver is gonna be scarred for life because he was driving the train

like say someone jumped in front of a train and then a few years later you ask the train driver if he's ever killed someone
I'm pretty sure he'd hesitate before answering that

Definition of selfish: lack of consideration for others, concerned with ones own pleasure.

hardly find committing suicide pleasurable so not really, yeah it's a personal act concerned with oneself but so what? if we only looked out for other people rather than ourselves then we would get depressed n commit suicide anyway lol. lack of consideration for others can cause suicide, so why should a suicidal person care how they're treating others. ppl say oh they should have thought about who they're going to hurt, their family n friends blahblah but myb if the family n friends thought about the suicidal person then it wouldn't happen. anyway, we do selfish stuff on the daily with our friends, family, lovers etc so w.e

Usually if you're going to commit suicide you're not thinking about anything other than what's driving you to it, I don't think anyone kills themselves to spite others

However commiting suicide infront of a train is pretty unconvenient for other people but that's not what was going through the persons head at that time so I wouldn't say it was selfish, the person who did it probably wanted to kill himself and a train sounded like a sudden death and a lot easier than say pulling the trigger on a gun, once you've built up the courage to jump theres no turning back because the train isn't going to stop.

If you want to talk about the most convenient "selfless" way someone was to kill themselves you'd want the suicidee to donate his organs and body to science, pay for a cremation/plot of land for whatevers left and cover all costs of this process, theres also the problem of emotional damage on people you know but we'll leave that out. But tbh if you're suicidal, you really don't give a ****, even killing yourself with pills, hanging, jumping is still inconvienient/"selfish"/whateveryouwanttocallit for anyone involved

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Originally Posted by Futz

I don't think anyone kills themselves to spite others

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Although some attempts at suicide may be to spite others. What I mean is, someone may attempt suicide but not intend to actually kill themselves but more act as a cry for attention, or as a hitback at someone else.

I think by "selfish" we're talking of (a) the inconvenience to others if you choose a method that affects a large number of people and (b) the selfishness of the effect on others, such as family/friends/colleagues etc.

In terms of "inconvience to others", I don't think that would even cross your mind if you were depressed and suicidal? I think that many choose not to commit suicide because of the effects on family/friends. It would scar them forever and they may not understand the circumstances of your reasoning in taking your own life.

However, with someone who is heavily depressed and suicical, as has been said, I don't think anything could stop them. Some people just become fixated on the idea and are 100% sure they want to die - no matter of the consequences to others.

idk how its classified as selfish cause ur doing it to urself & harming no-one else, it only makes family & friends upset

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Originally Posted by buttons

Definition of selfish: lack of consideration for others, concerned with ones own pleasure.

hardly find committing suicide pleasurable so not really, yeah it's a personal act concerned with oneself but so what? if we only looked out for other people rather than ourselves then we would get depressed n commit suicide anyway lol. lack of consideration for others can cause suicide, so why should a suicidal person care how they're treating others. ppl say oh they should have thought about who they're going to hurt, their family n friends blahblah but myb if the family n friends thought about the suicidal person then it wouldn't happen. anyway, we do selfish stuff on the daily with our friends, family, lovers etc so w.e

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That's only one definition: "concerned chiefly with one's own personal profit or pleasure." is what I found. And even though it is not for pleasure (arguably), it is definitely to their profit considering they feel the need to commit suicide to stop the pain, and if they do commit suicide and stop the pain it is surely to their own profit? Even in their eyes they feel they're going to profit from committing suicide otherwise they wouldn't complete the act. And generally people who commit suicide are committing suicide because they're upset over something correct? So would you agree that it is actually hypocritical for them to commit suicide whilst not caring for others and making others upset?

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Originally Posted by ARTPOP

idk how its classified as selfish cause ur doing it to urself & harming no-one else, it only makes family & friends upset

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Did you not just explain how it can be deemed selfish?