How Suicide Affects The Family

Suicide has vast consequences, including the way it affects the people in one’s life. When there is a death in a family, it affects everyone who knew them, regardless of how they die. However, when someone chooses to take their own life, it can have an even greater impact on their friends and family. The way it affects those around you depends on the relationship between the two people, and more importantly, the age of the griever. In the case of a young child, specifically children under age four, they do not yet have the ability to understand permanency of death. They are in the egocentric stage. According to Jean Piaget, “The egocentric child assumes that other people see, hear, and feel exactly the same as the child does (Jean Piaget 1).

In the case of children, when their parents commit suicide it is perhaps more damaging than any other relationship where someone commits suicide. An article about bereavement by suicide claims, “The death of our parents is always challenging, but even more so when they die by suicide. It can invoke feelings of abandonment or rejection when someone who holds a key caring and guiding role in our lives takes their own life” (“How Suicide Affects”). While the death of a parent in any way can cause similar feelings, knowing that someone chose to leave this earth is even more devastating. It is not only the children of the person who commits suicide that is affected. A persons spouse, coworkers, parents, or even distant relatives can take the news of suicide harshly. I am not just trying to say that certain people are affected more by a suicide than others. I am trying to emphasize that it is not just one person who is affected by

In fact, there are advocates all around the world fighting for the choice of assisted suicide. They live by the manifesto, “Every competent adult has the incontestable right to humankind’s ultimate civil and personal liberty -- the right to die in a manner and at a time of their own choosing”. Assisted suicide is an option for extremely ill adults. It gives them the choice to end their pain rather than to continue suffering. Most states do not yet have it legalized, however, in Oregon, Vermont, Washington, California, and Montana, it is legal. Because there are very few states where assisted suicide is legal, many people move from their home to live in a state where they have the option of assisted suicide. Perhaps the most infamous story, is that of Brittany Maynard. Maynard was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at the age of 29. She was told she had only six months left to live. After endless research, Maynard accepted the fact that she was going to die, and decided that the best option for her and her family was death with dignity. This would allow her access to a medication that she could take when her suffering became too much. A medication that would end her life without pain. This posed a problem, however, because assisted suicide was not yet legalized in her home state California. As a result, Maynard and her husband were forced to move