"We're not him, we'll never know how he felt anyway."
Therefore, don't pass judgment on him or anyone else, even the 24 year old. It is a tragedy for the living but that's all we know.
There is nothing dignified, rational, or courageous about being able or being unable to decide the manner of your death. You die. That's the fact. The manner of it doesn't change that. Thinking one death is better than another is an illusion that the living imparts on the event. There are certainly painful ways to die but we should withhold other adjectives like courageous, dignified, etc. A soldier getting blown to bits by a shell didn't die a better or worse death than his comrade who live to die of a sudden heart attack. Nor is a cancer patient who endures painful rounds of chemotherapy only to die in some horrifying way any less courageous than one who chooses to end it by suicide.
What we do have some small measure of control over is how we live and that's what really matters.
Therefore, don't pass judgment on him or anyone else, even the 24 year old. It is a tragedy for the living but that's all we know.
There is nothing dignified, rational, or courageous about being able or being unable to decide the manner of your death. You die. That's the fact. The manner of it doesn't change that. Thinking one death is better than another is an illusion that the living imparts on the event. There are certainly painful ways to die but we should withhold other adjectives like courageous, dignified, etc. A soldier getting blown to bits by a shell didn't die a better or worse death than his comrade who live to die of a sudden heart attack. Nor is a cancer patient who endures painful rounds of chemotherapy only to die in some horrifying way any less courageous than one who chooses to end it by suicide.
What we do have some small measure of control over is how we live and that's what really matters.