I think it depends on the situation. If you are depressed and you keep that to yourself and end your life because you think others will be better off... weak. If you are terminally ill, your family understands your wishes, you want to keep dignity in death... brave My partners father commited suicide when my partner was 10. He had cancer, and was getting worse... but his family didn't know what he was feeling and just found him shot dead behind a barn on the farm. My partner thought for 10 years that his dad was getting better and just didn't want to live. In this case it was weak, as there was no communication and he was just running away thinking everyone would be better without him. My partner has suffered for many years because of this. I think this is a very difficult topic as it is very emtional, and people can use threats of suicide as emotional blackmail. Very scary territory. People sometimes don't realise that there is help out there and depressed suicidal thoughts are like cravings - they come and go, if you can ride the waves you'll live through them.

I don't think suicide is ever brave. It may make your pain go away, but what it does to the loved ones you leave behind is very painful. I can understand someone suffering from a terminal disease wanting to end the fight, but at least then the loved ones know why. They know it has nothing to do with them. I still don't see it as brave, it would take more guts to suffer the pain of the cancer than to take an overdose and end it.

The fact that someone has committed suicide is insufficient information to justify me drawing a conclusion or judgment on that person.

It is all very situational. I would not judge anyone on this one way or another. What they do with their life is up to them, including deciding to end it if they feel they are going to be better off, go to a better place, etc. I hate to see impulsive suicides by youth or adults, or by people who needed help for deep depression and did not get the help they needed. But for people of sound mind who make a non impulsive decision to end their lives, I respect their right to make that decision. I assume they know far better than I do what they feel like and are dealing with, and so I do not judge it one way or another.

Brave for NOT taking the step,and WEAK if you actually do it.

The act of overcoming the fear of dieing may seem brave but the sadness and grief that the person leaves behind is not brave at all it is cruel and often intended to be, to make people feel guilty I think that it is very difficult to judge a persons actions in such an extreme case, but I do not think that Suicide is EVER the answer

I would say more like sheer desperation. Anyone who commits suicide is emotionally unstable so I do not label them as brave or weak, but very deeply troubled.

Some people are in intolerable medical situations - often these are brought about by medical intervention by either surgery or drugs and the body is surviving with artificial help when nature would have 'taken it's course' Many of these people have no hope of recovery and face a life of pain, indignity and hopelessness. While I do not support suicides for any other reason I can understand why some of these terminally ill, traumatised people wish to end their pain. I know that medically assisted suicide in these few extreme cases is often frowned upon, but a surgeon friend has told me that people will take terribe alternatives if they can't get help. He has seen people throw themselves in front of trains, blow their faces off in failed attempts - terrible, distressing cases. Brave or weak - it is difficult for us to judge unless we have walked in their shoes and their pain.

i would like to say it depends on the situation etc but there is always someone out there who loves you and will miss you. just gets me angry at the person... such a weak and selfish thing to do. if things are truly that bad then they can only get better. then again.... i don't know what it's like to be mentally ill so i shouldn't go judging like that.

It does depend on the situation. For example, if you have an illness and it's clear you're not going to live through it an are in alot of pain, i'd consider suicide to be brave. However, people who do it because of emotional problems, i would consider emotionally 'weak'. I believe that if you could not end your life at any time, then you dont have full control over it.

It all depends on the why. If they did it due to depression, but never got the proper treament then I consider it to be weakness. If they have a sever mental illness like a form of phychosis that makes it completely impossible for them to function then it would be a relife. And for the termanily ill that are in sevear pain and have no hope of a cure a kindness and a death with dignity. I always feel that it is better to try to live each day to the fullest, but if you can't do that then it's best to go where you won't hurt anymore. I have an Aunt who commited suicide at a young age and I've never found her acts to be brave. They were more a cry for help that she never got. Her weakness is what took her. And I've also had a Grandmother with terminal lung cancer that wanted to die, but the doctors' made her live on in horrible pain. And as I see it if she would have been a dog we would have considered it an act of commpassion and not murder to let her go. I think she was brave for continuing to live, but her death was cruel. As for myself I fight my depression every day, especially now, but I hold onto the hope that things will get better. And I relie on the fact that I have two small boys to raise alone who need me to keep me going.

Ah, a question pondered by perhaps one of the world's most well known literary figures. In the words of Hamlet: To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. - Soft you now! The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remember'd.

I believe it depends on the situation. Some people get cancers that shut off the pain killing mechanism in their bodies, so every moment of his or her life will be in the worst kind of pain you can imagine, like when you are just recovering from surgery. There is no cure or no way to stop the terrible pain. In that case, I think that suicide is a very tempting option, if not the only real one.

"Suicide is for p*ssies" - David Draiman of Disturbed at a show, march '03

I heard suicide described as, "An act of rage against life!" I agree with that description. If people think they are escaping from pain or suffering by prematurely "jumping" off this mortal coil, they will be doomed to suffer the same pains until they work it out. I think suicide is seen by many as an escape, but you can't escape your Karma.

How about an escape? It's not weak or brave... just an escape....

I think that its a selfish copout you put youself and your problems before the grief of your friends and family.

To assume either is sick. Your dealing with a dead person for Christ's sake and now your going to label them. I think I'm going to throw up. God, that is sick, just sick.

Weak for giving up and not getting help. Life is never that bad to commit suicide no matter how troubled or depressed you are.

'

Sometimes it's for the best, like abortion, and should be legal.

I think of it as neither brave or cowardly, because everyone that does it has different reasons for doing it...sure it takes guts to go through with it but if your quality of living is crap or you are terminally ill or you just don't want to be here any longer it should be your choice to decide if you no longer want to go and there's nothing weak about that, it's just a decision people make.

i say let them kill themselves. but the last thing i wanna here about is suiced "attempts". everyone feels sorry for them "like oh noes she tried to kill herslf" NO! u don't TRY to kill yourself u either do or don't. if you here of suicide ATTEMPTS it is JUST A CRY FOR ATTENTION. obviously that person is too scared too actually go through with it, and just wanted to see what everyones reaction would be. the reaction of course being mollycoddling wich they don't deserve. If someone actually hated their life and actually wanted to die they would kill themselves. it's not hard. you can't screw something like that up if you mean it. suicide is the cowards way out but the real pussies are the ones who make people feel sorry for them. its just shamefull and a disgrace. i will never feel sorry for someone who says they feel suicidal. get a life. don't ruin mine.

Neither. It's just a choice like abortion.

Flat out stupid and against God.

Depends on the situation but unless it is for a good reason Weak. So very weak.

Neither, just plain stupid...

Can't say, I'm not where they were / are.

Neither brave nor weak...I just think that it is so very very sad when one decides that comitting suicide is preferable and less painful than life. My sister in law committed suicide last week...and I think she thought that nobody cared about her...and so many people did...but we didn't know how to help her:(

I believe that there is more strength in "letting it go" than there is in following through. It takes determination to "live for another day." Some of the most "magical" people I have known, considered suicide at one time or another. We were meant to "do something" with our lives, at this moment in time, and suicide breaks our connection necessary to complete our path in this life. I believe that people who "follow through" are destined to repeat this lifetime again and again until they are a complete person. This was taught to me by my Native American grandmother. I hope that it helps you too!

I can't think of one reason, anyone has that could be bad enough to kill themselves. Life changes almost daily! I think for the most part they are very weak, just for thinking about suicide. Surely they give signs that they are this unhappy. I think they are more self centered, they care nothing for what their suicide can bring others.

cowardly for taking the easy way out

Afraid of going to hell... Or worse, having to come back and do this all over again! Ugh!

I would have to go with "weak for letting it go". Most people who have reached that point think they have thought things through. They are blinded by the depression and forget to tie up some very important loose ends.

Or sometimes, it can be just in the middle, just like in this story: Passer-by pushes suicide jumper in south China http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/1:y_news:4429c669448472b99889aa1b591cde42/Passer-by-pushes-suicide-jumper-in-south-China-AP

weak for not having the determination to carry on.

Suicide is more like an escape from the pain the person is feeling inside himself or herself. A strong person is capable of committing suicide and so is a weak person. A brave person is capable of committing suicide as well.

For those who think it is weak - Ask yourself this: Would YOU have the strength to end your own life? Think long and hard about that.....It's not as easy as you may think. There are some for whom suicide is the ONLY way to end their pain (physical or otherwise).... I think that the weakness is on the part of those calling the suicide weak.

its a mixture of both, I think

not for us to decide

I THINK THAT YOU ARE BRAVE FOR LETTING IT GO, AND YOUR NEXT STEP SHOULD BE TURNING TO JESUS WITH JESUS YOU LIVE

Does it make you feel strong and stable to stand back and label others who are in darkness? How does your statement help anyone. Using the same calculator, if they are unstable, you are arrogant and sick.

By either theistic or atheistic worldviews, life is still is quite belle (and remarkable)! Anyone who wants to end it prematurely does not most likely see the bigger picture; its infinitesimal beauty is often brushed aside for coarse cynicism.

Neither I think some people are in so much pain sometimes that they see no other way to stop their pain and suffering, not to mention those facing a terminal illness who I believe should have control over their body and the right to die with some dignity and be alotted some compassion and love.