Suicide, Suffering, and the Problem of Agency

This essay unfolds in two movements. The first reconstructs some of the strongest moral arguments concerning the permissibility of an individual's decision to end their own life. The second examines the foundations upon which those arguments rest, questioning their assumptions, limitations, and internal tensions. Rather than advancing a definitive conclusion, the essay leaves a series of questions that become increasingly difficult to dismiss. Its purpose is not to establish the superiority of either position, but to examine the limits of moral judgment when autonomy, suffering, and human agency come into conflict.