Impact of Principles of Active Citizenship on Suicide - Term Paper Example

Impact of Principles of Active Citizenship on Suicide Suicide/Suicide Prevention This paper is about issue of suicide in contemporary society. The paper explores the topic with critical point of view and casts light upon importance of ethics and moral reasoning related to the selected topic. The paper also explains how trend of suicide is increasing in the modern world. Suicide is an emerging social issue in human societies. People end their lives as they do not want to live anymore. There can be many reasons for disappointment with life. People may have incurred huge loss in business, been betrayed in love, or did not achieve the desired goals. Whatsoever may be the reason, suicide attempts have been increasing in the modern world and reasons are becoming too trivial. It is commonly argued that problems are part of life and one should be ready for them. Every human being in this world faces a lot of problems and he is destined for those problems. He should have courage to face them and not to lose hope for better circumstances. He must keep in mind that no crisis is permanent and like good days, bad days will also become part of life. What is required for him is to stay steadfast and have courage so that challenges can be overcome. However, there is strong need to understand the intensity of grief which forces the human being to ignore every positive aspect of his life, forget about all his loved ones and put an end to his life (Traphagan, 2004). It is an extreme case when he loses every hope and thinks that the worst situation will prevail for good. It is also possible that he thinks the challenge or sorrow coming to him is unbearable for him. He cannot tolerate it and the easiest possible way is to end his life. In this complex situation, where individuals feel that the person responsible for this situation is cruel and their life could have been easier if they had not faced this situation. On the other hand, the authorities responsible for peace and harmony in the society blame individuals for their emotional approach and promote the concept that hardships are part of life. The authorities responsible for peace and harmony in society need to ponder carefully over the increasing rate of suicide and the reasons for them. When the reasons are genuine and authorities are responsible for reducing the disappointment, they should actively play their role. For instance, youngsters commit suicide for reasons like poor financial condition, lack of employment opportunities, poor grades in examination and incomplete love. Government authorities are responsible for providing employment opportunities and standard level of lifestyle for people even if they are unemployed. If government ensures that all people will have adequate source of earning to make both ends meet, and if an individual is unemployed for any reason, his bread and butter will be financed by government, there is high probability that people will not commit suicide because of reasons attributed to poor financial conditions. As far as the reason of committing suicide is attributed to the fact that poor grades lead to disappointment and students cannot cope up with this failure. Particularly speaking in the context of students who long for admission in medical colleges and work day and night to get good grades, it is most commonly witnessed that they lose heart as their grades are not good enough to get them admission in medical college. They have no option other than changing their field and it is the biggest shock of their lives. Students when taking exams of high school are ambitious about their field of education and any reduction in their minds as compared to their targeted ones can create high disappointment. This is the time when students need emotional support from their elder ones. They may be parents, teachers, siblings or even the friends. If they offer helping hand and friendly shoulder to them, it is quite possible that pain of students will be lessened and they may find hope in living life (Denney and Teachman, 2010). On the other hand, if parents and teachers criticize the students for their poor performance and pressurize them that they have not come up to their expectations, the students are bound to lose hope and think of ways which enable them not to face them (Valois, Zullig, Huebner and Drance, 2004). It is difficult to leave home and start a new life. Even if they leave home, the psychological pressure remains with them and they find it difficult to enjoy peace of mind. Starting new life on one’s own is not a child’s play and it requires facing more challenges than the criticism on low marks. In this case, parents and teachers should realize that they need to have realistic expectations from their kids and provide them with every types of required support to meet those expectations. For examples, if teachers expect that students should perform out of the way, they should be ready to provide them out of the way guidance as well. They should be ready for answering the queries of students and encourage them to ask questions if anything is not clear. Parents should free their kids from financial responsibilities and give them proper time to study. The support from teachers and parents pave way for students to perform well in their studies. If they are unable to score good marks, parents and teachers are ethically responsible for digging out the reason of poor performance and address it properly. Despite all the efforts made by parents and teachers, if students cannot perform up to the mark, they should ensure that they are still there to support the students. They should not criticize them so bitterly that students think of ending their lives. People also use threat of suicide to pressurize people around them so that they do not say anything to them. They take undue advantage by this threat and do whatever they want to do. It is not only threat but they have the courage to turn into reality as well. This bold step may either be because of the fact that by saying it repeatedly they are mentally prepared for committing suicide. It is also possible that they commit suicide out of the shock that people are more giving importance to their threat hence not valuing their lives. The suicide attempt may also be made just to save face as they have expressed this wish and if they do not practically perform it, people will laugh at them as they are cowards. Many youngsters commit suicide when their love is rejected or the lover has betrayed them. It is an emotional state which many youngsters find difficult to cope up with and simply end their life. This trend is common in both genders (Gilchrist and Sullivan, 2006) despite the fact that females are considered more emotional than males. Anybody having true love for any other body finds it extremely difficult to accept that love story was only a fairy tale or pastime. Sometimes, people find it impossible to spend their lives without the one whom they loved hence commit suicide. The authorities cannot take any initiative in this regard. Committing suicide is an extreme activity and the reason is too personal that authorities cannot convince the other person to start loving the person who wants to commit suicide. Loving or not loving somebody is personal choice and love is not the outcome of deliberate action. These are feelings which generate automatically and most of the times the person who has feelings, cannot control them. Impact of Principles of Active Citizenship on Suicide and its Prevention during the Next Five to Ten years Having discussed various reasons for committing suicide, it is important to cast light upon preventive plan. Human being in the most important asset a country has, and without human beings, all developments are in vain. The biggest ethical responsibility on the face of earth is saving human beings’ lives and authorities should leave no stone unturned to fulfill this responsibility. The authorities are responsible for spreading awareness about the value of life and the need of courage to face the challenges. It is for sure that there are certain sorrows and challenges which are too difficult to overcome but ending life is not the option to get rid of them. There are various entities like non-governmental organizations which arrange for motivational seminars at local and national levels (National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, 2012) to boost the morale of individuals and courage to sustain in hardships. These activities are aligned with principle of active citizenship to promote the healthy spirit of living in society and discourage negative actions like suicide. These motivational lectures enjoy much fame in society as people are fed up of hardships and seek opportunities which can motivate them and lead to development of interest in life. There are many people in the society who are risk takers and enjoy thrill. There is no justification to promote this concept but there is dire need to give realistic approach to individuals that hardships are in life and one needs to take considerable level of risk in every activity. If one starts business, the possibility of loss must be kept in mind. When one appears in exams, the probability of tough paper and low marks must be considered. While falling in love, one must make oneself understand that love is not trade which can be bargained. The next person is set free to accept or reject love. There is no compulsion to have feelings for someone. However, the matter of betrayal must be considered separate from the probability of loss and absence of desired results. Loss and failure is different from fraud and betrayal. Loss can be expected but fraud is not something a person plans for in his business. In the same way, one can expect that the other person may not return the love but it is difficult to think that the next person will be enthusiastic in loving but it will be nothing but a drama and pastime. These highly unethical conditions are difficult to accept when occurred and most of the times, the shocks lead to extreme actions like suicide attempt. It is important to mention that not all the attempts are successful and many people are alive even after repeated attempts. One may argue that these attempts may not be taken into consideration as they are not successful. But, it is important to mention as well that only these are the cases which are the source of information required for this paper, as those who succeeded cannot be contacted to share their reasons. Those who are related to them may only guess a bit about the reason and the guess may be totally wrong. If suicide attempt is unsuccessful and the person is alive, there is high possibility that he remains hospitalized to recover from the effects of harmful activity that he did to end his life. Hospitalization is a costly process and an unnecessary burden on government, hospitals and financers of the subject of suicide. The authorities should focus on these reasons which force one to lose interest in one’s life and go to the extreme case of committing suicide (Henden, 2008). It is one of the characteristics of modern 21st century that people become extremists quickly and playing with life has become so easy a game. In face of any adversary, people think of ending life before thinking of any other option to get rid of the issue. If this trend persists, it is expected that next five to ten years will be crucial as authorities will be busy in motivating people to stay alive rather than committing suicide so quickly (Goldney, 2008). The world is moving towards development in the fields which were once unimaginable and trying to manage livelihood at moon, yet human development index is decreasing. The level of logical thinking in human beings have gone so low that they prefer dying that facing the situation that seems adverse to them. References Denney, J. and Teachman, J. (2010). Family and Household Formations and Suicide in the United States. Journal of Marriage and Family 72 (1), 202-213. Gilchrist, H. and Sullivan, G. (2006). The Role of Gender and Sexual Relations for Young People in Identity Construction and Youth Suicide. Culture, Health & Sexuality 8 (3), 195-209. Goldney, R. (2008). Suicide Prevention. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Henden, J. (2008). Preventing Suicide: The Solution Focused Approach. USA: John Wiley & Sons National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. (2012). A New National Strategy … Now What? Retrieved from http://actionallianceforsuicideprevention.blogspot.com/ Traphagan, J. (2004). Interpretations of Elder Suicide, Stress and Dependency among Rural Japenese. Ethnology 43 (4), 315-329. Valois, R., Zullig, K., Huebner, E. and Drance, J. (2004). Life Satisfaction and Suicide among High School Adolescnets. Social Indicators Research 66 (1/2), 81-105. Read More