Well, this is an interesting conversation. Yes, something can be a tragedy and morally wrong. Auschwitz. The Holocaust. Genocide. Murder. Abuse. Torture. Those are tragedies I believe are morally wrong.

You ask about suicide. Well, what about assisted suicide, then? Where does that fit in? It seems a lot of the people who believe assisted suicide is morally wrong are the same people who take their old doggie to the vet to be put “to sleep” because it’s morally wrong to make him suffer.

Even then — faced with certain death and suffering, some of us would prefer to choose the time we depart the world (assisted suicide) while others would like to hang on for every last breath they can have. And we can’t agree on which is “morally” right or wrong, except to hold our own belief up as the one right and moral way.

You see? We are complicated beings and we cannot agree on what morals are in the first place, except maybe murder and I’m not even sure about that. Because a lot of people would murder a murderer and call it an eye for an eye, instead of more murder. Depending on who the victim was, I might be one of them, and I would believe it was morally wrong and do it anyway. But some would not think it was morally wrong.

You see? We are complicated beings and we cannot agree on what morals are in the first place.

Here is all I know. When a person commits suicide, most often that same person — a month or a week before the suicide — wanted more than anything to live. But in that one moment, when hope was snuffed out for whatever the reason — and they took their life — that is a tragedy, not an act of selfishness. To label them as “selfish” when they suffered and died because of illness, I cannot comprehend why we do that to each other.

As for whether it’s morally wrong — that IS a judgement, and it is not for me to judge.