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Personal suicide should be legal.

I thank my opponent for accepting the debate and his quick rebuttal. My opponent appears to be dumbfounded over my use of the words 'personal suicide', so I should clarify. I used those words specifically to eliminate the chance of so-called 'assisted suicide' or euthanasia or any other such variance on the word 'suicide' entering the debate. I hope this clarifies. 1. -------------------- "It's not like we actually punish failed suicide atemptees. We rehabilitate them. That way they can continue as a normal member of society." First, if you think that's the Government's business, then that's fine. We can rehabilitate without ridiculous laws. Second, suicide is not always an act that needs rehabilitation. If I am tired of living, why should the Government have a say in whether or not I should live or die? It has nothing to do with them. "The reason it is also a crime to successfully commit suicide is because that symbolizes the wrongness of it. The majority of people define right and wrong as what they see in the law books. Giving suicide legal repercussions is the best way to discourage it. It's not the punishment that does the discouraging (because there isn't really a punishment), it's the simple fact that it is law." This is basically saying that suicide is inherently wrong, so we make a law against it to show everyone how 'wrong' it is. Aside from the obvious circularity of this argument, the problem here is that suicide is not inherently wrong, for the reasons I gave in my first round and for many other reasons. My opponent must show why suicide is inherently wrong before we start concluding that a law should be instilled to prevent it. --------------------- 2. "Our government is based off of social contract. Social contract states that all humans have the natural and inalienable right to life. An inalienable right is one that can only be taken away by the one who gives it. In the case of life that is either God, Nature, or Chance. Thus the only entities justified in taking human life is either God, Nature, or Chance. Thus one person cannot rightfully take their own life. Because of this it is perfectly logical that suicide is illegal in a society based on social contract." Well, I certainly don't know where my opponent got his definition for 'inalienable right to life', but I assure you it has nothing to do with God, Nature or Chance. The phrase 'Right to Life' is from the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and I quote: === "Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life." [1] === My opponent has clearly confused the 'right' to do something with the 'obligation' to do something. When a police officer tells you that you've got the 'right to remain silent', this doesn't mean 'shut up!'. It means IF YOU CHOOSE to remain silent, you may. What it also says is that NOBODY has the right to make you talk if you don't wish. We can draw a simple parallel between this case and the case of the 'right to live'. We have the right to live IF WE CHOOSE to continue doing so. NOBODY has the right to make us live if we don't wish to. This is basic human rights we are talking here. ------------------- 3. "Suicide is more than selfish. It is a manifestation of one's ignorance." Be that as it may indeed, this is not a reason to make it against the law. In this day and age, with all we know, I find it a massive manifestation of a person's ignorance to believe the Earth is 6000 years old. Would you condone making that train of thought illegal? I certainly wouldn't. "Those who commit suicide are selfish because they deny the right of every non-suicidal person to say their life is also hard, when in fact everybody has a difficult life. A suicidal person thinks themselves above the rest of the population." What the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks are you talking about man!?! Every 'non-suicidal' person can say whatever they want about their life. "You cannot expect the affected family to accept that person's suicide with dignity. They were just severed from a very close relationship and it leaves that person with a gap in their soul. It is like expecting a person to part from their perfectly good limbs without objection." You are saying that somebody should endure with a life they've tired of because you have a personal attachment to them. Again, this is the very definition of 'selfish'. Because it has the potential to hurt people is not a good reason to forbid the action. Indeed, forbidding suicide is an attempt to inflict pain, to continue somebody's suffering. Once again, we have the RIGHT to live, but not the OBLIGATION. Nobody has the right to force death OR life upon us. I thank my opponent and await his rebuttal. [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org...