A random thought. If abortion is legal because its a woman's body and she can decide who or what lives inside it, why isn't suicide legal?
The Religious Redneck Retards have mounted a new campaign against abortion, so even though it's still legal it will become increasingly difficult to get one in many states. Across the river in Virginia they're about to pass new laws that will put most abortion clinics out of business because it will require them to have almost the same kind of facilities as a hospital--right down to the dimensions of the corridors and other things that are impossible to retrofit.
As for suicide, remember that the Baby Boomers have defined American culture since they were old enough to talk. Hula hoops, rock'n'roll, civil rights, peace rallies, recreational drugs, motorcycles, disco, the Religious Redneck Retard Revival, ultra-safe baby carriages built like miniature Volvos, health food, 5000-lb trucks for grocery shopping, the persecution of smokers... everything they wanted, the entire might of the United States was directed toward giving it to them.
The vanguard of that generation just turned 65 this year. So you can bet that American culture will turn its focus to aging and the issues that concern old people. The last thing these superannuated kids will want is to lie rotting and drooling in a warehouse full of people who have forgotten who they are. So you can bet that the taboo against suicide will come crashing down in the next couple of decades.
A suicide attempt is someone who needs help. If you can help them by arresting them adn getting them counseling, why wouldn't you?
Like most American busybodies, you seem blind to the possibility that suicide may be a rational choice. Why?
Not all lives are worth living.
It's been persuasively argued right here on SciForums, in the wake of one of our members discussing his own plans, that telling others that you intend to commit suicide may indeed be a cry for help. Obviously making a faux attempt that could never do more than make you sick--such as trying to "overdose" on Valium--could fall in the same category.
But a genuine, well-planned attempt, in private, without alerting anybody? That isn't a cry for help. That's your own way of ending some pretty intolerable pain, for which no other remedy has worked. Those people should have a right to make their own decision.
Not allowing a person in unbearable, incurable emotional agony to end it is just as mean-spirited as denying a person in unbearable physical agony an analgesic.