Hello! This is my first post, and of course I'm diving right into a heavy one! This is something I have considered a lot, actually, though obviously it's a tricky subject to talk about sometimes. I think the crux of the issue can be boiled down to a few things.

Q0) Does life have inherent value?

A0) Depends on the scale you're talking. Cosmically? Not really. Personally? Very much so. Spiritually? Obviously very debatable. I find there are a lot of different contradictory ways to answer this question, and how someone chooses to answer it tells you a bit about them.

Q1) Does life have value even when it isn't pleasant or is there a degree of unpleasantness to which death would be preferable?

A1) I feel like this is ultimately subjective, as the nature of suffering is personal and individual for the most part. From my perspective there are fates much worse than death, but I imagine everyone would have slightly different ideas on what that would be and some would disagree entirely.

Q2) If life does not have value when it is unpleasant, can value be generated or life be made less unpleasant?

A2) Again, ultimately subjective and/or due to circumstance. Fate is fickle though, so it's difficult to say with certainty if anything is truly unchangeable, so it's also difficult to advocate for walking away from the table when the game isn't over yet. Granted, I do also believe that sometimes a person can know when the only remaining move it to longer play. I just think that's a very personal decision.

Q3) If life does not have value, what is "the point" of anything?

A3) This is one I've personally struggled with, but I think it can rephrased and answered with another philosophical question I've chewed on over the years. "Why is there something instead of nothing?" can also be put "Why am I alive instead of dead?" And I think the answer then is simply "because you still are."

Ultimately, we are all surrounded at all times with a variety of ways to end our lives if we really really wanted to, and yet most people don't. Many don't ever even consider it. I believe to some degree life has a kind of momentum to it. So instead of "What is the point?", perhaps it's more like "What *is* the point." Being alive is to some degree, inherently self-affirming, or at least that's how I've tried to square that circle.

I think everyone comes up with reasons *why* they stay alive, be it religion, love, family, duty, honor, etc., Along the way, sometimes we lose those reasons, temporarily or permanently. Sometimes we find new reasons, sometimes we don't. However, I wonder if a lot of it really just boils down to "The argument against suicide is that you are alive to ask the question."