"Assisted suicide is a marvellous possibility" - for bankers and warmongering politicians?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7977017.stm

I can't understand what the fuss is all about. On the one hand we wring our hands about

1. global warming caused by
2. over-population
3. the unproductive nature of unproductive people suffering from, for example, terminal illnesses, dementia, insanity
4. the ability of productive citizens to support growing numbers of the unproductive

and on the other wring our hands about assisted suicide possibly not being the "marvellous opportunity" Ludwig Minelli claims it is.

Sometimes, suicide is the only honourable way out.

Examples that come to mind are:

1. Hitler (who preferred not to have to ask the German people to forgive him or the Allies to spare him when he knew the game was up)

2. Roman Generals (who "fell on their swords" and had slaves present to assist them)

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/133350.html

3. Japanese warriors (who committed harakiri or sepukku)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seppuku

4. The mother who committed suicide after she gave her 3 year old daughter so much wine she died. (I cannot find a reference of this online but remember reading about it in the Telegraph in the 1990s.)

In my opinion now seems a marvellous opportunity for suggesting this "marvellous opportunity" to people such as Lord Myners, Fred the Shred, Bush, Blair, Brown, anyone in a position of power who was responsible for policies leading to the Credit Crunch, and those responsible for decades of US and UK foreign policy in the Middle East after WW2 that led to 9/11, including all the MPs who voted for the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan ...

Suicide Bombing and Disillusioned Youth

I have just finished THE TIPPING POINT by Malcom Gladwell.

It mentions a spate of copy-cat male adolescent suicides in Micronesa after an adolescent took his own life, rather similar to the spate of group suicides recently in Northern Ireland.

Suicide bombers are mainly young men. Suicide bombing actually began in Sri Lanka before it became widely adopted. It was not an Islamic invention, as so many believe.

I suppose it is "one up" from throwing yourself in front of a tube train during the rush hour to express your dissatisfaction at the way life is treating you.

What could be more satisfying than to express yourself in this way (should you be suicidally-inclined young man, particularly if you were brought up as a Muslim)?

It is exciting and emotionally satisfying to give up your life for a supposedly noble cause when you have no wish to live it anyway.

Blame this on their religion if you like, but I think this sort of angst takes the form of either suicide bombing or running amuck (a Malay word for axe-murderer) with a gun, like that Korean who used his fellow students as target practice on a Virginia campus in the US. It affects all races, religions and cultures but the form it takes depends on the weapons available to the suicide. Imitation is also a significant factor.

Unpleasant emotions of adolescent alienation are as old as the hills even if the destruction wrought in their name takes new and frightening forms.

There really is nothing new under the sun.