Many people are against other people committing suicide. Leaving purely religious arguments aside, why do many people actually oppose suicide? A common argument is that suicide is selfish. Though that might be true, but we can wonder whether those who oppose suicide are not selfish themselves?
It is my impression that many people are upset when one of their loved-ones put an end to his own life, but do not care much about when complete strangers are killing themselves. A more sophisticated version of the "Suicide is Selfish"-argument, points to the direct impact on others (for instance train suicides cause significant delays and hence economic damage). An ever more eloquent argument points to the loss for society: if someone commits suicide, then he cannot contribute to society anymore (whether this is through his tax money, or his actual activities).
The first version is clearly selfish: I do not want that my [substitute: child, friend, spouse, parent, sibling, ... ] to kill himself, because I do not want to grieve. So is the second: I do not want to be late at [substitute whatever you don't like to miss]. The third one might be classified as group selfishness, i.e. a group puts its own (collective) interests at the first place. An important question here is, of course, whether an individual is morally obliged to serve the interests of others. I place emphasis on moral, as opposed as respecting the interests of others only because of self-interest. This is quite irrelevant if one is about to kill himself.
