Big Red Button

[Van Hellseek]

If you had a button in your home(s) since the age of 20 (in the style of an industrial emergency stop button) which would, when pushed*, instantly end your life... Would you still be alive today?

Would you really have been able to resist the temptation to push it through the rough (and drunken) times?



*Assuming it will end your life instantly and painlessly, and that it was somehow DNA coded so that you were the only person who could push it.


Edit: I mean something you clearly KNEW would end your life instantly and painlessly. (Not just some random mystery button).

 

[Van Hellseek]

I'd be in the dead camp no doubt. Not through drinking, but general clumsiness when I'm in a rush in the morning.

Lets assume there was a safety cover

 

[Van Hellseek]

No - it would have been covered over in my early teens.

It wouldn't have been there until you were 20. Read the OP.

Derp.

 

[Van Hellseek]

You don't need a Big Red Button to kill yourself.

No kidding.

 

[Van Hellseek]

It makes no difference. Teens or 20.

Why 20 anyway ?

Time to mature (a little).

IE, an angsty sexually frustrated teen would likely push the button within a month of it being installed...

 

[Van Hellseek]

If a person honestly wanted to die then they wouldn't be here to post about it, button or not.

What about the fear..? Committing suicide is risky and can lead to failure - living as a vegetable or on a machine for the rest of your 'life'. Many people don't do it for this reason alone.

But if there was the convenience of a big red button... Different story.

 

[Van Hellseek]

I'd say that pressing a button to kill yourself involves about the same level of fear as shooting yourself in the head, for example.

Rubbish. The button offers a risk free death. Whereas even bullets to the head can potentially ricochet from the skull or lead to nothing more than brain-damage.

 

[Van Hellseek]

Then there are other ways. It also depends entirely on the gun, some would take your head off, not much risk there.

All require either risk, or effort or fear.

The button hypothesis offers a simple end. No pain, no risk, no effort, nothing to be concerned with.

It's totally different to a realistic suicide.

 

[Van Hellseek]

I disagree. Pressing a button to instantly die involves fear.

It may, but a lot less so if you know for sure there is no risk of failure or a permanent vegetative state, unlike most other popular forms of suicide.

 

[Van Hellseek]

There are a myriad of ways to guarantee death in relatively painless ways...some are reputed to be even enjoyable to some degree.

The fear lies in the process rather than the outcome and in this regard pressing a button is no different to squeezing a trigger or pushing a syringe.......

Regardless, I dare to assume most of people would be unable to resist the button at some point between the age of 20-30. Because they experience too much emotional turmoil. Wether alcohol-fuelled or not...

 

[Van Hellseek]

I always find these threads annoying, they highlight the massive differences in perception between people who have been depressed and understand acutely what it feels like, and people who skip through life but still think they are qualified to comment on what other people should think or feel.

My friend you are the voice of hypocrisy.

 

[Van Hellseek]

Interesting how so many people are saying they would have ended their life in the past if they had this red button.

Why didn't you end your life without the red button? Plenty of painless ways to die that actually exist.

I guess I'm saying that I don't think many people would have pressed it.

See the post directly above yours.

Suicide takes planning, effort and fear/anxiety of possible failure. It's a very different story if people have the option to end it in an instant without those things.