Where does the state get the authority to prevent suicide? I mean, whose life is it, anyway?
If a citizen decides that their life sucks SO BAD that they're ready to end it, and risk having to explain their actions to their Creator, or worse yet, possibly reincarnate as a cockroach, where does the state get the authority to intervene (assuming that aforementioned citizen's choice of suicide methods are not endangering anyone else)?
This is the crux of many of our rights-related problems. Do we have a Constitution, or don't we? Is my body mine, or am I a "financial asset" of the state? If it's my body, where does the state get the authority to tell me what I can and can't put into it? Inquiring minds want to know.
1) This is America, your kin just jumped off of a bridge, what is the American response?
Sue someone! Who you gonna sue? Someone who can afford to pay you what you think you're worth: The city/county!
2) Mental health types have convinced America that suicidal tendencies are a temporary thing, and that with treatment your kin-spam won't have those suicidal tendencies.
Ergo, if only somebody had made sure that yoru kin-spam had received the help he needed before his traumatic deceleration event, he's still be alive.
It's the police's fault, for not getting him help!
3) Somebody, somewhere in the local law enforcement chain of command has to rely on votes to keep his job. Sheriff, mayor, someone.
The other side of that coin is that somewhere, someone wants to beat the Sheriff or mayor in an election.
Nothing tugs the heartstrings like a picture of your kin, in his achieved spam-like condition, generously used as proof that the current office-holder is an uncaring fiend.
Should the Sheriff or mayor wish to keep his cushy elected job, it would behoove him to go to some lengths to avoid giving potential political opponents the ammunition to turn public votes against the current office-holder.
Hope that helps.
LawDog
:banghead: 
