Survivors and Rational Suicide

Taking family and friends into account involves additional considerations. The seriousness of the issue is indicated by the terminology used by psychologists to describe the bereaved. Friends and family are referred to as "survivors". As if they were involved in an accident or a natural disaster. It is an issue you should consider as well.

For some this issue is irrelevant. For example, if you do not have any family, or if they are not interested in what happens to you.

Expected Utility

As long as you have only one person, you can set up a utility function which may or may not adequately describes the decisions. If you include the bereaved ones, you also have to say whose utility counts more, and how they are to be aggregated.

A simple model would be that each person has their own utility function, and that the utilities of all people have the same weight. The goal here is to take the action which maximizes the combined outcome for everyone involved.

If you continue to live, chances are the utility of the outcome for you will be negative, but for most friends and family it would positive.

If you decide to exit, the utility of the outcome for you is likely to be close to zero. Survivors would suffer for several months, however, after this most people continue as normal. They will still remember you and feel bad about the event, but overall their happiness in the long term would approximate their happiness had you not exited.

The choice is between long term suffering of one individual, versus a short term suffering of several survivors. Which choice is better depends much on circumstances.

The Right of Self-determination

There is a different approach to this issue. We will illustrate it by an example. A beautiful, smart, charming young women wants to break up with her boyfriend who is deeply in love with her. She still enjoys dating him, but she is not in love anymore.

Utility-wise it might better to stay with the boyfriend. If she breaks up with him the outcome for her might be better, however, for her boyfriend the outcome would be significantly worse, making the overall utility lower.

This conclusion seems absurd. As long as she does not interfere with her boyfriend's rights, she has the right to do what she pleases with her life, even if the overall utility is lower.

The analysis for suicide is similar. The individual has a right to do what he thinks is best, as long as he does not interfere with the rights of others.

Reducing the Grief of Survivors

Another factor to consider is that the individual may have the ability to lessen the grief of survivors. For example, by a suicide note, or by making the suicide appear as an accident.

However, a main reason for the strong reaction of survivors is that society does not acknowledge the legitimacy of suicide. If society accepted that suicide is valid in some cases, the survivors would find the situation more bearable. They would find the suicide easier to accept and would not feel so ashamed angered, guilty, and responsible.

Paradoxically, those who preach against suicide cause the greatest pain to survivors.

Conclusion

The utility model can be used to factor in the pain of survivors. However, the model does not always concur with common sense. Right-based reasoning may be sufficient to justify a choice of suicide, even in the event that the overall utility would be lower.