Let's set aside the psychological aspect for a moment (survival instincts, fear of deaths for those who have it etc)
Even excluding that, it's extremely hard in a prohibition society for people to commit suicide. Here is why :
People who consider suicide impersonnaly, from afar have all the psychological incentives to think that suicide is easy, it's reassuring and soothing for them as it helps them affirm to themselves that "if suicide is easy, and i'm living, it means i'm chosing to live, and if i ever get disconstent with life, i can chose the easy path of suicide". This naive affirmation doesn't hold up the scrutiny, and people who are planning and considering suicide know it.
When someone want to kill himself, he wants death, end of consciousness. Even if he have 0 fear of death, he still fears ending paralyzed in a hospital, in a worse situation and deprived even of the means to try again. It doesn't matter that the risk is just 10% for some methods, for those familiar with Nassim Nicholas Taleb or financial risks, odds aren't the only thing that matters, THE CONSEQUENCES MATTERS AS MUCH. For instance, anyone would think 10% of having a bad experience in a restaurant but 90% of enjoying his meal constitute good odds, the consequences of failure are low (a bad meal), no one who value life would think that a plane having just 5% of crashing is good enough. If a god proposes you a bet where you have 99% chances of gaining something but 1% of getting tortured for ETERNITY in hell, a rational reasonable person may well pause, even in the odds are low.
It's the same thing for suicide, the risk of failure in a prohibition society are TOO HIGH (getting crippled and unable to even try again), so rational/reasonable people like me prefer to wait for a more surefire method, like guns and Nembutal. Not all people have access to guns, not everybody live in the US, and my Nembutal got confiscated by the customs. I'm playing soccer bets every week to be able to get money for a second order.
It always make me laugh when people say it's easy, as if everyone have access to guns or to a surefire method of suicide.
Even excluding that, it's extremely hard in a prohibition society for people to commit suicide. Here is why :
People who consider suicide impersonnaly, from afar have all the psychological incentives to think that suicide is easy, it's reassuring and soothing for them as it helps them affirm to themselves that "if suicide is easy, and i'm living, it means i'm chosing to live, and if i ever get disconstent with life, i can chose the easy path of suicide". This naive affirmation doesn't hold up the scrutiny, and people who are planning and considering suicide know it.
When someone want to kill himself, he wants death, end of consciousness. Even if he have 0 fear of death, he still fears ending paralyzed in a hospital, in a worse situation and deprived even of the means to try again. It doesn't matter that the risk is just 10% for some methods, for those familiar with Nassim Nicholas Taleb or financial risks, odds aren't the only thing that matters, THE CONSEQUENCES MATTERS AS MUCH. For instance, anyone would think 10% of having a bad experience in a restaurant but 90% of enjoying his meal constitute good odds, the consequences of failure are low (a bad meal), no one who value life would think that a plane having just 5% of crashing is good enough. If a god proposes you a bet where you have 99% chances of gaining something but 1% of getting tortured for ETERNITY in hell, a rational reasonable person may well pause, even in the odds are low.
It's the same thing for suicide, the risk of failure in a prohibition society are TOO HIGH (getting crippled and unable to even try again), so rational/reasonable people like me prefer to wait for a more surefire method, like guns and Nembutal. Not all people have access to guns, not everybody live in the US, and my Nembutal got confiscated by the customs. I'm playing soccer bets every week to be able to get money for a second order.
It always make me laugh when people say it's easy, as if everyone have access to guns or to a surefire method of suicide.
