"And so the argument might then go, look, either God gave us life, or nature gave us life, or our parents gave us life. Whatever it was, we owe a debt of gratitude for this wonderful gift. And as such, how do you repay the debt? You repay the debt by keeping the gift. If you kill yourself, you're rejecting the gift. That's being ungrateful, and ingratitude is immoral. It's wrong. And that's why suicide is wrong.
Perhaps it won't surprise you that I don't find this second argument persuasive either. Not because I'm skeptical about debts of gratitude, but I want us to pay attention to what exactly obligations of gratitude require us to do. In particular, it's important to bear in mind that you owe the person who gives you a gift something only when what he's giving you, or she's giving you, is a gift.
...Well, if God takes on the role of bully and says, "Eat the pie or I'll send you to hell," maybe it would be prudent of you to do what he says. And if God takes on the role of bully and says, "Even though your life has become so horrible that you'd be better off dead, I insist that you keep living or I'll send you to hell if you kill yourself," maybe it's prudent of you not to kill yourself. But there's no moral requirement here. God's just a bully on this story."
© Shelly Kagan
Yale Lectures on Philosophy of Death, 2007
Perhaps it won't surprise you that I don't find this second argument persuasive either. Not because I'm skeptical about debts of gratitude, but I want us to pay attention to what exactly obligations of gratitude require us to do. In particular, it's important to bear in mind that you owe the person who gives you a gift something only when what he's giving you, or she's giving you, is a gift.
...Well, if God takes on the role of bully and says, "Eat the pie or I'll send you to hell," maybe it would be prudent of you to do what he says. And if God takes on the role of bully and says, "Even though your life has become so horrible that you'd be better off dead, I insist that you keep living or I'll send you to hell if you kill yourself," maybe it's prudent of you not to kill yourself. But there's no moral requirement here. God's just a bully on this story."
© Shelly Kagan
Yale Lectures on Philosophy of Death, 2007
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