The Unsettling Hypocrisy Around "my Body, My Choice"

May 27th, 2019 / Andrew Kiwanuka Musoke

| Suicide rates are on a high, today.

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

There's some unsettling hypocrisy in my mind..."My body My choice" is a chant when it comes to abortion. However, when the conversation shifts to suicide, the narrative changes. It ceases to be your body and your choice. It's "Your body, OUR choice"

Quite often, suicide victims are considered selfish with people saying things like..."No amount of suffering or mental illness justifies suicide." "The pain of suicide is not felt by the victim but those s/he leaves behind." But where is "My body My choice in this case?

Under similar justifications to those that support abortion front, should suicide be legalized?

Should there be such a thing as a facility that does assist suicide to make it "safer and more accessible?"

A lot of people that want to commit suicide are often stopped by the thought of failing to die and having to live in society again. Should society lift the stigma on suicide?

Those that attempt suicide face even more ridicule after failing to die. But when they successfully die, people wail. What do we really want?

Is there room for understanding why someone would commit suicide or the judgement stems from a place that's more self serving than empathetic? "Philip killed himself! Oh how could he? Why didn't he speak up?"

How many go ahead to dig deeper into why Philip killed himself, beyond how they feel about it? Sometimes, it's easier to point a finger in judgement of Philip, forgetting that maybe you were not listening while he spoke up?

Maybe you were hurting him as his parent, brother, sister, wife or friend; and he kept telling you to stop doing what was hurting him but you just kept doing it out of your own selfishness?

I've heard of people being judged for killing themselves for love. But do you know how much this person has put on the line for their relationship or marriage?

What if every last bit of their heart all went into this relationship or marriage?

What if they have also spent their life savings trying to build this?

What if they don't have anyone to call family?

Their first family could have disowned them and now the one person they had as family has also let them down. What if Philip's only brother has had a long term affair with his wife and he kills himself without revealing this?

I actually wouldn't be surprised if the wife and brother join those mourning.

So before we bluntly judge those who decide to forego life on earth, let's understand why they would choose death over life.

In my opinion, suicide is a long walk in a valley of uncertainty. It takes place in the mind before it happens physically. The person walks back and forth over the idea in their mind.

They don't know what to expect on the other side; and I think by the time someone actually chooses the uncertainty in death over living life with certainty (even with their problems), then it's probably deeper than we might think.

ABORTION - My body MY choice

SUICIDE - Your body, OUR choice

Cut the hypocrisy!

Andrew Kiwanuka Musoke

Unorthodox | Jack of all trades | Introvert | Vegetarian | Music | Photography | Cookery | Interior Design | Business | Philosophy | Life Coach | Psychology | Sociology | Spirituality | Visual Arts | Writing | Chef Kiiwa | AKM | 316

lovesuicidehypocrisy