Are Smokers committing suicide if they die from it?

Any thoughts?

The equivalent of 9/11 dies every 2 days as a result of smoking.

If every terrorist in the world convinced one person each to take up smoking... they'd do more damage than the sum of all terrorism in human history.

Yes, that's the plan anyway.

Lokarin posted...

If every terrorist in the world convinced one person each to take up smoking... they'd do more damage than the sum of all terrorism in human history.

Not really, considering that smokers tend to die at an older age(granted, not as old as they otherwise would have gotten to, but still fairly old) while a large component of the tragedy in acts of terrorism are the deaths of people who are far too young to die. Not to come across as agist, but the death of a man who's just about to enter the workforce is more of a blow to society than the death of a man who is in retirement and is just taking social security checks at this point.

No, because suicide requires intent to die. They're just being really indifferent towards their health.

Lokarin posted...

The equivalent of 9/11 dies every 2 days as a result of smoking.

If every terrorist in the world convinced one person each to take up smoking... they'd do more damage than the sum of all terrorism in human history.

Food for thought, really.

If that was true then overweight people would be too.

Zeus posted...

No, because suicide requires intent to die. They're just being really indifferent towards their health.

this. my grandmother lived into her 90s being a smoker. (also alcoholic) so if suicide was her intent it failed her.

I do joke though that me smoking is just me committing gradual suicide as I don't have the balls for a instant one. (am trying to quit smoking however. no longer enjoy it. just a habit. and if I no longer enjoy it I don't see a point in clinging to it)

Yellow posted...

If that was true then overweight people would be too.

Given that obesity is closely linked to depression, it could be true on a subconscious level... granted, the link between obesity and depression might actually be the other way around, with obesity leading to depression. Correlation and causation are tricky like that.

Anything willfully unhealthy with no benefit can only be seen as stupid.

TheCyborgNinja posted...

Anything willfully unhealthy with no benefit can only be seen as stupid.

Few things:

1) Stupid and suicidal are two very different kettles of fish. One is intentional, the other is just reckless.

2) The benefit is pleasure. It's not like there's *no* benefit, it's just that the health detriment broadly outweighs the benefit, rationally speaking.

Considering the fact smokers don't plan on dying from it I voted no.

Yes. It just happens to be one of the slowest, least efficient manners possible, and stinks up everyone else's air in the process. It's rather inconsiderate.

wwinterj25 posted...

Considering the fact smokers don't plan on dying from it

In which case it's the suicidal equivalent of manslaughter. Anyone with half a brain knows smoking is most likely going to kill you, unless something else gets to you first. Being ignorant of that fact isn't really something that can be justified at this point.

Yellow posted...

If that was true then overweight people would be too.

Eh, not necessarily. The line for obesity causing health problems isn't that clear, and the process of crossing that line is very slow and hard to notice unless you're watching closely for it. Fixing it is also pretty complicated, given that it often requires a major lifestyle overhaul. Resigning oneself to death by refusing to do anything about it could be considered a suicidal sort of thought, but the cause-effect relationship isn't nearly as clear-cut there as it is with smoking. There are many, many causal factors that contribute to being morbidly obese. There's exactly one causal factor contributing to smoking, and that's putting a cigarette in your mouth.

It's just negligence.

Of course not, suicide is intentionally wanting to die. Smokers don't want to die, they just have poor judgment.
If someone drives drunk and crashes into a tree, that's not suicide. Same goes for smoking.

No because by that logic then just about everybody is being suicidal just by getting in a car or boarding an airplane.

I think there are people that subconsciously try to kill themselves with cigarettes or food

On some level I've tended to think of tobacco smoking as a mass amount of people committing a mass murder mass suicide. It all just happens a lot slower then a large amount of people using a faster method to kill a lot of people and then themselves.
I know it isn't really that way, but I can't help thinking about what if it is.

Playsaver posted...

On some level I've tended to think of tobacco smoking as a mass amount of people committing a mass murder mass suicide.

I mean, no. Smokers don't smoke for the reasons they shouldn't. They don't smoke to get cancer and die.

We all do things that we know are not good/great for us, for a variety of reasons. We are not suicidal because of that, we are just putting some other advantage/pleasure etc over our long term health.

Just because you smoke does not mean you will die from it or anything related to it.

Yes, it's possible, but so are a ton of other ways to die.

I have 4 family members who smoked their whole lives, none died from anything smoke related (unless smoking can cause high blood pressure and heart failure, but even then, many relatives who didn't smoke died from the same causes).

Smoking is bad, and honestly I never got why anyone does it, but smoking just gives you one more way to die long term, it certainly isn't suicide (other then on your wallet/pocketbook if your not making a decent living).

Your more likely to kill yourself if you drink fairly heavily (and kill others as well), heck even eating unhealthy foods over the long term is more likely to kill you (and not exersizing etc).

In the end it's a dumb thing to do, in a world with TONS of dumb things to do. Starting heroin for instance, could be considered semi-suicidal (and totally disregarding the danger to others as well), since that pretty much always ends badly (and usually for more then just the person doing the drug).

mooreandrew58 posted...

(am trying to quit smoking however. no longer enjoy it. just a habit. and if I no longer enjoy it I don't see a point in clinging to it

This so much. Cigarettes are only really enjoyable for me if i haven't had one in a while.

wolfy42 posted...

Your more likely to kill yourself if you drink fairly heavily (and kill others as well), heck even eating unhealthy foods over the long term is more likely to kill you (and not exersizing etc).

No way the latter is true. Cigarettes kill 1 in 2. Funions gasps at such killing rates.

are NASCAR drivers committing suicide if they die from it?

wah_wah_wah posted...

wolfy42 posted...

Your more likely to kill yourself if you drink fairly heavily (and kill others as well), heck even eating unhealthy foods over the long term is more likely to kill you (and not exersizing etc).

No way the latter is true. Cigarettes kill 1 in 2. Funions gasps at such killing rates.

1 in 2? 50% of people who smoke die from it? I call bullshit