Suicide Is Painless

Suicide is Painless

First let us put things into context by bringing in the categorical imperative which states that we must act on that maxim which at the same time we can will to become a universal law. The song Suicide is Painless postulates that the decision to take one's own life may be a universal law (but Kant would not agree that suicide should be considered as a universal law). This is illustrated in the lines "and I can take or leave it if I please...and you can do the same thing if you choose" which are repeated as the last lines of the chorus. But if we read the lyrics of the song, the singer's motivation to take his life is due to the difficulties he is experiencing as illustrated in the line "The game of life is hard to play, I'm gonna lose it anyway, the losing card I'll someday lay, so this is all I have to say". Kant would say that the decision to take one's life is not borne out of good will, but out of a means to an end--to end suffering--and not as an end in itself. Again, in deontological ethics, we must endeavor to act on that maxim which at the same time we can will to become universal law.

Kant, then, would view the singer's duty--as a rational being--to be a direct positive self-duty to preserve life. In addition, the preservation of life is a universal law. That is, the singer ought not to take his own life because life ought to be preserved in order for reason to be preserved. As rational beings, it is our duty to preserve our reason--that which is uniquely human and that which we use to make morally sound decisions.