According to the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy, morality can be defined as “descriptively to refer to certain codes of conduct put forward by a society or a group (such as a religion), or accepted by an individual for her own behavior” (Stanford 2002). However, as time progressed, an individual can wonder, does morality has a set definition? In her essay On Morality, Joan Didion argues that each person can have a different understanding and definition of morality. Though many people believe in the trend of morality having standards, I agree with Didion’s argument, universal standards of right and wrong do not exist and there is moral justification for suicide.
We are taught that suicide is morally unacceptable because life is sacred but “each year 44,193 Americans die by suicide” (AFSP 2017). Obviously at a glance you can already see the number given by the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention is too high. Suicide is not the problem. It is the solution to the problem. In her book, Neurobiology, and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture, and Wisdom, Darcia Narvaez…show more content… The author describes a “moralization switch” (Pinker 2008) which is what we feel during a moral problem. According to Pinker this moral switch can leave an individual a bit sanctimonious. Suicide is a scenario in which could raise a moral red flag for anyone. For example, in the novel Olive Kitteridge we meet Kevin Coulson, a suicidal psychologist from New York. He is in a state of urgency as he attempts to take his own life. “He had felt no emotion watching this, the man and the son” (Strout 32). This quote exemplifies the emptiness and numbness Kevin feels, as he is detached from reality. As Kevin visits his childhood home he realizes that is the place where his despair and grief stems from “Kevin could not abide the thought of any child discovering what he had discovered” (Strout
