Margaret Pabst Battin

Margaret Pabst Battin is a philosophy professor at the University of Utah. In her book Ethical Issues in Suicide, she contends that suicide can be a rational act, and that the government has no right to prohibit mentally competent individuals from ending their lives. In the following excerpt from that book, she responds to several classical arguments that suicide harms society by causing grief to family members, depriving the community of the good an individual might still do, and inciting others to commit suicide. Battin contends that although these arguments may be used to prove that a specific individual’s suicide is wrong, they do not support a blanket prohibition on all suicide.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What example does Battin give to demonstrate her view that the special-talents argument against suicide is...