My cousin committed suicide two days before Christmas.

To quote Lo Pan, “this pisses me off no end.”

Now, I have never been close to the next generation of the Smallholder family. Honestly, I think I have spoken only a few sentences to this cousin in the last decade - at her dad’s 50th birthday pig roast a few years back. So it is not really a sense of personal loss. I’m sad that she’s gone, but my emotional reaction is much the same as I would have when I read about something bad in the paper.

What pisses me off is that her son is two years old.

Our dear readers know that their humble Smallholder is a firm believer in individual choice. If you decide that life is too painful to continue, I’ll sympathize, I’ll try to convince you otherwise, but when it comes down to it, I believe that you have the right to do what you want with your own life.

Except…

When you become a parent, you are no longer a free agent. Of your own free-will you have entered into an indenture that will last at least 22 years. You have a moral obligation to be there for your child. Once you are a parent you ought not to off yourself.

I call bullshit.