considered every other option. Those who support the right to die argue that suicide is acceptable under certain circumstances, such as incurable disease and old age. The idea is that although life is, in general, good, people who face irreversible suffering should not be forced to continue suffering. Leo Tolstoy wrote in his short work A Confession that after an existential crisis, he considered various options and determined that suicide would be the most logically consistent response in a world where God does not exist. However, he then decided to look less at logic and more towards trying to explain God using a mystical approach in that, for one, he describes God as life. He states that this new understanding of God would allow him to live meaningfully. Leonard Peikoff states in his book Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand: Bioethicist Jacob Appel has criticized "arbitrary" ethical systems that allow patients to refuse care when they are physically ill, while denying the mentally ill the right to suicide. See also Advocacy of suicide Altruistic suicide Assisted suicide Antinatalism Émile Durkheim's Suicide (1897) Fatalism Micromort Nihilism Pessimism Right to die Johan Robeck Self-immolation Suicide attack References Further reading External links Paterson, Craig, "A History of Ideas Concerning Suicide, Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia" Video lectures from Yale University delivered by Shelly Kagan (requires Adobe Flash) from www.videolectures.net: Suicide, Part I: The Rationality of Suicide Suicide, Part II: Deciding Under Uncertainty Suicide, Part III: The Morality of Suicide Philosophy of death Applied ethics Issues in ethics Suicide Suicide