Introduction Recently, the number of suicide cases being reported on the front page of newspaper has increased in an alarming

rate. Committing suicide is as an immoral and irrational action, yet, there are people who support this action. This is because they believe that an individual has right to choose, whether to live or die. After conducting our group discussion, we strongly agree that committing suicide is an immoral action. What is Suicide? Suicide is the act of a human being intentionally ends his or her own life. It is a response to emotional pain and suicidal thoughts due to various brain chemistry deficiencies or disorder. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Suicide Rate in Malaysia According to National Suicide Registry Malaysias website on 14th Sept 2010 1, there were 445 suicide cases. Among them, 398 (89%) were Malaysians. 347 were men and 98 were women. People who committed suicide were in the age range between 12 to 83 years old. Most of the cases occurred among people between 30-39 and 20-29 years old. Majority were Chinese (53.5%), following by Indians (27.3%) and Malays (13.9%). Health Ministry estimated that there are 140 people attempt suicide and 7 persons kill themselves every day. Based on the statistic shown, there were 113 cases in occurred 2007, 290 cases in 2008, 328 cases in 2009 and 445 cases in 2010.

http://www.asiaone.com/Health/News/Story/A1Story20100829-234450.html

Why do people kill themselves?2 Some people inherit depression from parents; some of them develop this disorder from stresses at home, work and school; some of them are terminally ill and feel like giving up life. People who are depressed always feel that life will not get better. When they failed to find proper ways to cope with emotional pain, they choose to end their life. People with low self- esteem feel lonely when they have a feeling of not being accepted by family, friends and society. They easily think negatively and kill themselves when they feel helpless. People take their own life as they are unable to deal with failure or problems and try to escape from a situation that seemed impossible to deal with or to get relief from bad thoughts. Especially cause by breakup of relationship, financial problem, family matters and horrible disappointment. Feeling trapped in bad experiences cause victims of domestic violence, rape, kidnapping and assault to kill themselves in order to stop suffering from bad memories. People who are socially isolated find it hard to express their feelings and this leads them to think negatively. When they feel hopeless, they end their life when they come to dead ends. Misuse and excessive intake of drugs and alcohol causes the development of major depressive disorder. They are unable to control their behavior and this causes them to hurt themselves indirectly.

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People with mental disorder tend to have a narrow view and find it hard to get involve in social activities. They never know how to deal with suicidal thoughts which lead them to death. Arguments Based on the teleological theory3 , we must take into account of the consequences of an action when determining whether the action should be taken. According to teleological theory, the end result of action is the sole determining factor of morality. Lets look from the ethical egoism4 point of view. Ethical Egoism says that if the end result of the action brings goodness to oneself, then the action is moral. If a person is sure that he will suffer if he continues to live, then suicide will bring good end results, he will be free from all sufferings. On the other hand, it will also cause grievance and sadness to his or her loved ones. We shall also look from the utilitarianism5 point of view. Utilitarianism is sometimes also called the Greatest Happiness Principle, that means it consider the action that will cause the greatest happiness moral. Suicide might bring happiness (i.e. end of suffering on earth) for the person. But it will also bring great distress for the family and friends of the person who kills themselves. Therefore based on the teleological theories, it is impossible to say whether suicide is moral or not. It is in the middle because it brings about both good AND bad end results.

3 4

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Teleological_ethics http://philosophy.lander.edu/ethics/ethical_ego.html 5 http://webs.wofford.edu/kaycd/ethics/util.htm

Based on the deontological theory6 , the end result of an action should not be the sole determining factor of morality. Other factors should be taken into account. Intuitionism7, the act nonconsequentialism theory, is an individualistic theory. It actually depends on the feeling of particular people in different situation. Therefore it is difficult for others to judge ones action whether it is moral. If a person feels that his life is worst than nothing and he is better off dead, he has no reason to live anymore or his existence is worthless. In intuitionism, committing suicide is morally good for him. If a person has certain responsibility towards others, for example, a person needs to take care of his sick father, then committing suicide is morally bad. He will feel guilty because if he is dead, no one will be taking care of his sick father. Therefore, no conclusion can be made based on intuitionism! For the divine command theory8, one of the rule nonconsequentialism theory, morality is totally dependent upon God, and that moral obligation consists in obedience to Gods commands. This theory is related to suicide where suicides occur in relation to religion. In religion context, suicide is immoral because we believe only God can create and end a person life. Examples of religion that is against suicide include: Islam, Christian and Buddhism. Also, the Natural Law Ethics states that moral standards that govern human behavior are in some sense, objectively derived from the nature of human beings where morality is based on human nature. One of the relevant principles is the "law of selfpreservation," which states that one would have a strong responsibility for maintaining one's own life and to continue living. Human by nature should desire to
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http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-deontological/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/intuitionism_1.shtml 8 http://www.iep.utm.edu/divine-c/

live than to die. Self-preservation is our highest duty to ourselves. Suicide is immoral according to this law. Now we shall look at different principles9 and whether they support or go against the action of committing suicide. Firstly, The Value of Life Principle states that human beings should revere life and accept death. Suicide totally violates this principle. Suicide is the process of purposely ending one's own life which contradicts this principle that people should respect and appreciate life. Secondly, The Principle of Goodness and Rightness states that we should promote goodness over badness and prevent harming others. Suicide cause emotionally suffering to loved ones of the deceased, while suicide survivors will endure a variety of conflicting, painful emotions. The principle is against the act of suicide. Thirdly, we will look into The Principle of Individual Freedom which emphasizes on the importance of individual freedom. This principle actually supports the act of suicide. It states that people have the right to commit suicide and that is ethical. Conclusion There are a few theories that cannot be used to judge the morality of the act of suicide, such as ethical egoism, utilitarianism and intuitionism. The Divine Command Theory, the natural law, the value of life principle and the principle of goodness and rightness is against suicide. It is supported by the Principle of Individual Freedom. Most of the time, suicide brings grievance, sadness and other unwanted problems in
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the lives of the deceased. Therefore, in conclusion, our group has made our stand, that is against the act of suicide.

References 1. http://jonelin.tripod.com/philosophy/suicide.htm 2. http://academicearth.org/lectures/morality-of-suicide 3. http://www.takeonit.com/question/231.aspx 4. http://afterall.net/papers/490940