ABSTRACT
The problems that arise when a person is faced with suicide or a range of related human acts, including those that I have referred to as ‘suicide gestures’ and ‘cosmic roulette’, are both moral and practical in nature. They are practical problems because they involve decisions about how to act. They are moral problems because the reasons that we might have for acting in a particular way in relation to another person’s self harming will begin with our beliefs about the value of human life, the value of autonomy, what it is to respect another as a person, and whether intervention in another’s life can be justified or even required, and if so under what circumstances. In this chapter and the next I shall say a little about arguments justifying intervention in the suicidal acts of others. In Chapter 14, I shall discuss the argument that intervention is always justified as a way of protecting oneself, or others, from harm. For the moment I want to say something about other grounds that may be put forward to justify intervention, that refer to the autonomy of the self harming individual.
