Suicide is a human right.
According to the Final Exit Network — a nonprofit organization that provides education and support for those seeking death with dignity — suicide is the human rights issue of the twenty-first century.[1]
The Tokyo Declaration (1976) reads in part:
In recent years, we have become aware of the increasing concern to the individual over his right to die with dignity, or euthanasia. We believe in the rights and freedom of all men. This brings us of affirm this right to die with dignity, which means in peace and without suffering. Death is unavoidable. But we believe that the manner (and time) of dying should be left to the decision of the individual, assuming such demands do not result in harm to society other than the sadness associated with death. The Declaration of a person’s wishes, or the “Living Will”, should be respected by all concerned as an expression of intrinsic human rights. Therefore, at least for the present, we request that this Declaration, or the “Living Will”, be made legally effective, and pursuant to this, efforts toward its legalization should be made.[2]
This growing movement fostered the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, founded in 1980. It currently consists of fifty-one member organizations in twenty-eight countries.
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[1] Final Exit Network, “About.”
[2] The World Federation of Right to Die Societies, “History of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies.”
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The answer can be found in a song sung into the hollow of a tree. It is a lullaby I once heard. I do not know who actually sang it first. Nobody really does. But it’s like a dedication on the radio. It says everything I want to say about neverness but don’t know how. It goes like this.
Intro with strings, which goes on for a while. And then
It is not a material body, and has neither shape nor form,
quality, quantity, or weight.
It is not in any place and can neither be seen nor touched.
It is neither perceived nor perceptible.
It suffers neither disorder nor disturbance
and is overwhelmed by no earthly passion.
It endures no deprivation of light.
It passes through no change, decay,
division, loss, no ebb and flow,
nothing of which the senses may be aware.
Then there is a lovely interlude of strings and oboe. I very much like the oboe, akin to the human voice they say, but with the warmth of woodwinds.
Then the song continues:
It is not soul or mind, nor does is possess imagination,
conviction, speech, or understanding.
It cannot be spoke of and it cannot be grasped by understanding.
It is not number or order, greatness or smallness,
equality or inequality, similarity or dissimilarity.
It is not immovable, moving, or at rest.
It has not power, it is not power, nor is it light.
Enter harmonica.
It does not live nor is it life.
It is not substance, nor is it eternity or time.
It cannot be grasped by the understanding
since it is neither knowledge nor truth.
It is not kinship.
It is not wisdom.
It is neither one nor oneness, divinity nor goodness.
Nor is it a spirit, in the sense in which we understand the term.
Strings again with a light, the very lightest, touch of cowbell
It is not childhood or adulthood or old age
and it is nothing known
to us or to any other being.
It falls neither within the predicate
of nonbeing nor of being since it is not.
Existing beings do not know it as it actually is
and it does not know them as they are.
A few final notes with thread of oboe and harmonica trailing off
There is no speaking of it, nor name nor knowledge of it.
Darkness and light, error and truth — it is none of these.
And strings with a lingering final phrase from the oboe that diminishes into silence.
Good song. It’s much better as real music instead of just the lyrics on a page. Like when your mom sits beside you at bedtime and sings you to sleep. Much different than when she would just hand me a piece of sheet music and say goodnight.