Mon 20 May 2013 In: Health and HIV View at Wayback View at NDHA
Many people will believe that when a person makes the decision to end their own life, the issue is one of being to unable to take what life has presented. While we might feel sad that things have become so bad that there is only one way out, we seldom think further on the question, has this anything to do with the society we live in? No doubt there will be certain exceptions where suicide becomes simply a need, for example someone with an incurable affliction where continuing life only makes matters worse. Many suicides are created by society itself, not true will be the response, I can hear it now, the very thought that what society does or does not do has anything to do with what an individual does will be met with indifference. The cop out! But wait there is more, before the indignation sets in, think openly about it. It was not that long ago that homosexuals were forced by society to hide who they are, because society failed to recognise them as just people whose behaviour was simply different to society’s norm. Normal is actually a misperception made by the masses of just what is normal, for someone who is gay; that is normal, it only becomes other than normal in the eyes of the others because they do not understand the issues. Sadly society as a whole, when the situation is not understood, chooses to become fearful instead and fear takes away all reason, retracting into a twin state where the issue is definitely seen as elsewhere, and responsibility is always with the other party. It is not unreasonable to believe that when someone takes their own life, it was their own decision, while this might be true, the question should be asked to what extent did societal conditioning have in that decision. When you are told that, who you think you are is anything but normal, the fear held by the societal norm is unfairly placed on the individual with all the power that society wields. The ability of an individual to see this situation in reality becomes severely impaired depending on the affect that situation has, together with the forcefulness that society holds on the issue. When societal support is removed, this alone becomes reason enough to consider self destruction. When will society recognise it has a duty to create a safe environment for the whole of society, not just those it would deem normal? An example of this taken to the level of bullying at school, where the school as a collective fails to inform its cohorts that bullying is wrong, It also fails to support the individual being bullied, thereby being in part, responsible for the resulting outcome. A state of bulling must have a starting point to be effective, if this starting point were erased immediately, then it would cease. So the question must be asked who is best able to erase the problem. Certainly not those contemplating suicide, only the societal influence of the school and all its cohorts can do this. This situation is clearly the case when it comes to the protection of those who are marginalised, specifically the LGB