By the way TheRealMafoo that was a really interesting story. I guess some survival instinct that kicks up in intense situations may be part of that.

How about if the guy is bipolar like in this story and everyday is like a struggle.

of course they need to be, a person decides what he wants to do with his life, but if he/she is to lame to kill himself then he deserves the punishment of living.

I'm about 50/50 on this. I don't care if a person of sound mind wants to die, but I think that everyone so be attempted to be saved by the people around them.

However in this case when it involves a donors organ I think this is sheer negligence on the doctors behalf. There are plenty of people who need organs who have a will to live that deserve the organs so much more. Doctors take other negligent things into account like smoking etc, I think suicide should be taken into account also.

I would say the doctors behaved unethically. They have failed utterly as medical practitioners. They had an obligation to be dispassionate. They obviously failed to do so. Putting their desires before the rights of a patient. Further more in doing so they have done grievous harm to said patient. Even more tragically they have harmed society with their actions. This recklessness is in part the cause of so many problems.

With every tale of a doctor forcing a treatment upon someone against their wishes. More and more people become reluctant to seek out treatment. They are afraid the doctor is going to harm them. They are afraid that the doctor is going to force a treatment upon them. This is the real price of this kind of behavior. Doctors need to understand their place is no different then any other public servant. They are not the masters of what is right and wrong.

A doctors job is not to fight death at any cost. Their job is to heal and to treat. At the very least they are to do no harm. In this instance they did none of these things. In fact they did the exact opposite, and more to the point they seem to be proud about what they have done. This is the definition of developing a god complex. The notion that what you do is always right, and you have a right to do as you see fit.

The reality is life isn't sacred. Living is sacred. Taking joy in life is sacred. There is nothing sacred about suffering. Sometimes life ends before the body concedes the point. In which case it is in the will that resolution is found. Suicide is a testament to human will, and the inequity of our existence. These doctors and I would rather call them deviants are just antiquated throwbacks to a bygone era. The same as the doctors who quoted scripture while they shunned the use of anesthetics. Oh the pain is sacred they would say that is the patient and god talking.

The medical establishment is still wrestling with the fact that death is the only outcome of life. There is no crime in hastening it anymore so then arriving at a party early. The aversion is only a matter of taste.

The question is: what do you do when you can't communicate with the patient? When there is no way to get the patient's wishes, there will always be some risk of not doing what the patient wants. I'd argue that the most ethical thing to do in this case is to err with a bias toward statistics and reversibility: the choice that will most often turn out to have been in accordance with the patient's wishes, and when possible a choice which, if it turns out to not be in accordance with the patient's wishes, can be corrected.

How does resuscitation fit in with this? Reversibility is obvious enough: someone who truly wants to die will be able to try again, but you can't un-kill somebody once the deed is done. But as counterintuitive as it might seem, this is also the correct choice statistically, as any psychologist can tell you: most of the people who attempt suicide aren't actually looking to die, so by reviving them you will be going along with the wishes of the patient more often than not.

Is this perfect? Of course it isn't, because sometimes it will be wrong. But it is more often correct than the alternative, and it is also reversible. I see no disadvantages.

No, because if they were unsuccessful they won't need resucititation.

No offense to your uncle... but depression is also a mental disesease... and not one that a person inflicts opon themselves in most cases.  Unlike Achoholism which is pretty much always self inflicted.

Like 4 of my friends attempted suicide and have survived it.  You'd be surprised just how many people attempt it.  Most just don't talk about it.

^ I'm very sure a high amount of people contemplate it everyday, and many of them follow through. But what about repeat offenders? I know a guy who has tried 3 times now because he is clinically depressed.