Suicide is enough of a problem in this country that we have a national suicide prevention call center (1-800-273-8255).1 Nevertheless, America does not have the highest rates of suicide worldwide.2 On a recent TV show a character committed suicide for no reason that was apparent to investigators. The investigators later discovered that the man had inoperable brain cancer, and they concluded that he committed suicide rather than face the suffering he would experience in his last days. The show prompted the question: why do people commit suicide? The leading explanation for suicide seems to be depression, but there are many possible reasons.3 One possibility is that someone decides everything they care about has passed away so they simply make plans for them to go as well. In this regard one might immediately recall the movie Soylent Green and the suicide of the scholar who remembered how to read books (played by Edward G. Robinson).4
There are several examples of suicide in the Bible but they are not condemned by the biblical narrator. On the contrary, some of those people might even be said to have died nobly.5 In short, suicide is not condemned either in the Old or New Testaments, as is, for example, murder (1 John 3:15; Exodus 20:13 [usually translated “You shall not kill unjustifiably]). Josephus, on the one hand, calls suicide “an impious act against God our creator” (War III.viii.5), but on the other he writes approvingly of acts of suicide by a large body of Jews (War VII.viii.6-7).6
Prior to the Christian period Greeks and Romans had different attitudes about suicide. For example, Socrates committed suicide rather than be exiled from Athens. Some Roman authors (for example, Cicero and Seneca) at times seem to glorify suicide but they grant “the act greater complexity on other occasions.”7
In the early Christian period (second century) the solicitation of martyrdom as a positive act on the part of Christians blurs the distinction between suicide and martyrdom so that even martyrdom might be viewed as suicide, as the legendary Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas clearly shows.8
In the fifth century, St Augustine wrote the book, The City of God, in it making Christianity's first overall condemnation of suicide. His biblical justification for this was the interpretation of the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," as he sees the omission of ‘thy neighbor,’ which is included in ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor,’ to mean that the killing of oneself is not allowed either…
In the sixth century AD, suicide became a secular crime and began to be viewed as sinful. In 1533, those who died by suicide, while accused of a crime, were denied a Christian burial. In 1562, all suicides were punished in this way. In 1693, even attempted suicide became an ecclesiastical crime, which could be punished by excommunication, with civil consequences following. In the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas denounced suicide as an act against God and as a sin for which one could not repent. Civil and criminal laws were enacted to discourage suicide, and as well as degrading the body rather than permitting a normal burial; property and possessions of the suicides and their families were confiscated.9
From this very brief schematic history of attitudes about suicide in Western civilization it does not appear that the prohibition against suicide in modern society is to be tracked to an early Christian consciousness of the sacredness of life, but it grows out of a later ecclesiastical development that condemns suicide as usurping God’s prerogative to give and take life (Job 1:21). Prohibitions against suicide do not rest on concerns for the welfare of the individual as much as they rest on it being an offense against God. Modern attitudes about suicide, however, seem to be motivated by humanitarian concerns for the welfare of the individual. In my view, if suicide involves an offense at all, it is not against God (if God there be), but against Being, since it is an unnecessary diminishment of all existence.
“My personal view of this situation is that being conscious even with pain, is better than being insentient; or put another way, life lived with physical difficulties and pain is better than a death that instantly banishes all pain—for as long as there is life there is hope…But I cannot fault those who might choose a quick death over an inevitable painful lingering death.”10
How do you see it?
Charles W. Hedrick
Professor Emeritus
Missouri State University
6Young, “Suicide,” IDB 4.453-54
7Cicero and Seneca on suicide: https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2018/06/09/the-course-fortune-gave-me-cicero-and-seneca-on-suicide/
8Droge, “Suicide” ABD 6.230-31.
10Hedrick, Wry Thoughts about Religion: “End-of-Life Issues” Tuesday March 15, 2016: http://blog.charleshedrick.com/search?q=End-of-life+Issues
26 comments:
Hi Charlie,
Thank you for this challenging essay. I'm sitting here trying to identify the kinds of self-inflicted death. This is what I came up with:
Isolated self: Gun, knife, pills, auto driving, hanging device, needle, brew, auto emissions, etc.
Assisted self: A physician cooperatively provides the means of death
Death by cop: Putting self in position for others to do the killing
Military order: Giving another authority over a given life/death choice
Probable risk: Freely placing oneself in danger for the greater good. This would include everything from Jesus going to Jerusalem, to King's freedom marchers, to pulling a child off a busy highway, to treating a contagious disease, etc.
It seems to me that Being denies itself every time death occurs, whatever the means. Of course the NT message claims victory.
Gene Stecher
Chambersburg, Pa.
I like the way you look at the various attitudes other historical societies have had to suicide. The Romans positively admired it, and regarded those who shirked it as cowards. There is a famous story in Tacitus of a Roman noble who was required to kill himself by the emperor (not uncommon in the era); he hesitated to use the blade till his wife took it, stabbed herself and then said expiring, see Paetus, it doesn't hurt." And Seneca, who opened and closed his wrists repeatedly in the bath, talking and writing all the while. Elsewhere Tacitus condemns suicides because they are showoffs... And then of course there is the culture of suicide in Japan among Samurai... I guess my point is that the existential fear of annihilation does not seem to be universal; or at least it is subordinated in some cultures to the greater fear of disrepute.
I like the way you look at the various attitudes other historical societies have had to suicide. The Romans positively admired it, and regarded those who shirked it as cowards. There is a famous story in Tacitus of a Roman noble who was required to kill himself by the emperor (not uncommon in the era); he hesitated to use the blade till his wife took it, stabbed herself and then said expiring, see Paetus, it doesn't hurt." And Seneca, who opened and closed his wrists repeatedly in the bath, talking and writing all the while. Elsewhere Tacitus condemns suicides because they are showoffs... And then of course there is the culture of suicide in Japan among Samurai... I guess my point is that the existential fear of annihilation does not seem to be universal; or at least it is subordinated in some cultures to the greater fear of disrepute.
Suicide affects family and friends of the dead the rest of their life. I often think, thirty-five years later, what a friend would have thought about the world today, the gadgets and devices, the society, and what he could have accomplished. There will always be questions lingering about “why” and “whether” there was anything one could have done to stop it.
That said, having lived with unbearable physical pain at various junctures of life & having seen people in that state causes me to support euthanasia (which I think comes from “good” – eu and “death” – thanatos) and suicide. Though it is a burden for family and friends, the decision to end one’s life is a personal one with many factors, which can be summarized in the last line of the chorus in “Lonesome Valley.”
Then, there was Seneca. Seneca had a difficult time committing suicide when Nero sentenced him to death, from accounts. (He had probably planned for this possibility a good deal of his life. Caligula spared his execution because he was told Seneca probably would die soon, anyway, since he was always puny. Claudius later had banished him to Corsica for 8 years until Nero’s mom brought him back to tutor the young Nero. Fast forward to Nero the ruler, and he was having many of the court and family killed.) Seneca slashed his wrists but still lived. Then he slashed the backs of his knees and still didn’t bleed out. (He had spoken about this possibility in “Natural Questions” 3.15.5.) Then, Seneca drank hemlock and even that didn’t work. Finally, he was put in a hot bath, where he suffocated (Wilson, The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca).
Dennis Dean Carpenter
Dahlonega, Ga.
Thank you,
And I am sharing with our readers the extensive list of essays on suicide through history and cultures that you sent me: http://ethicsofsuicide.lib.utah.edu
Dad and Charlie
Hi Gene,
With so many means of suicide readily accessible the greatest chance of reducing the number of suicides is to work on the individual.
Cordially,
Charlie
The methods aren't distributed equally. Firearms account for half of the suicides in the USA and over half of deaths by firearms are suicides.
Dennis Dean Carpenter
Dahlonega, Ga.
Hi Dennis
Those are striking figures. Can you point us to a source?
Cordially,
Charlie
Sure. It's fairly well documented.
http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/TUTORIAL/GUNS/GUNSTAT.html
One reads here, " In 2015 over 36,000 persons died from a firearm-related injury, and of these, 61% were suicides, 36% homicides, and 1% unintentional."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_the_United_States
This was quoted from the CDC in on the above link: "Approximately half of suicides are committed using a firearm, accounting for two-thirds of all firearm deaths.[26] Firearms were used in 56.9% of suicides among males in 2016, making it the most commonly used method by them.[17]" (I usually don't rely on wiki, but my internet is running really slowly.
I was just describing numbers, not looking at causality. As a owner of a couple of firearms I am not condemning ownership, just looking at data. Suicide is far more complex, however, than numbers. There is what I would consider a meta-analysis looking at research about firearms and suicide by Rand I read the other day.Dennis Dean Carpenter
Dahlonega, Ga.
Here is an excellent link.
This is from the National Institute of Mental Health/National Institute of Health.
There were 47,173 suicides in 2017. Percentages (from a table of numbers linked below):
Firearm: 51%
Suffocation: 28%
Poisoning: 14%
Other: 8%
It was the second leading cause of death for those 10-34, the fourth for those 35-54, eighth for those 55-64 and altogether the tenth largest cause of death in the USA in 2017.
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide.shtml
Dennis Dean Carpenter
Dahlonega, Ga.
Good Evening Charlie,
I'm sorry to say this, but I am very confused by your blog because I can't tell whether or not you are talking about euthanasia or suicide. They are two completely different things. You seem to be supporting a more compassionate attitude towards euthanasia, but what about suicide? Do you even know the leading causes for suicide? It usually is linked to depression and mental illness. I've read in some cases that it's almost like an entity has taken over the person's mind and is running the show- it is very very tragic and horrifying to endure such a state. But recommending suicide to such an individual goes against every moral value that I hold... I would never support someone with debilitating depression to use a firearm and end it all. That beyond unthinkable to me.
Looking at the statistics listed, I don't think suicide by firearm has anything to do with euthanasia at all. I'd like to know the breakdown between the cases of suicide caused by terminal illness and those caused by PTSD, depression, despair, bi-polar disorder, etc. From what I see, it looks like only a small amount of suicides are due to terminal illness compared to depression and hopelessness. I cannot condone the act of committing violent harm to one's own body. That is and should be illegal. I know someone personally who tried to commit suicide several times and fortunately did not succeed... If they had, my life would have been irreparably altered.
Suffering is not an excuse to harm oneself. There is no justification to take the life of a human being, even if it is one's own. (No, I do not support the death penalty.) For one thing- how can you be absolutely sure that your suffering will end after death? Do you know that with absolute certainty? How do you know that? How do you know there's no suffering in the non-physical state? "Death banishes all pain??" There's no proof or evidence of that at all. You have no idea what is beyond the grave and neither do I.
"Prohibitions against suicide do not rest on concerns for the welfare of the individual as much as they rest on it being an offense against God." Speaking for myself, my concern is for the individual and not at all for God. What God says or thinks is irrelevant- it doesn't affect God whatsoever. However it does indeed affect the person doing it, and the people who depend upon him or her. As I said- mental suffering is no excuse to cause physical harm to one's self. There are other ways to transcend suffering and pain without committing physical violence... Using a firearm and blowing one's brains out not only adds to that individual's suffering but to the suffering of many other loved ones. There's no peace on the other side of suicide. Many thanks as always! Elizabeth
Good Morning Elizabeth,
I was only writing about suicide in the current blog. If you are interested in euthanasia, I did a blog in 2016 on euthanasia: http://blog.charleshedrick/2016/03/end-of-life-issues-hospice-lingering.html
Cordially,
Charlie
You seem to be uncomfortable with the fact that society harshly condemns suicide (and euthanasia because it's mentioned at the end of your blog)... And you seem to be concerned that suicide has a bad rap. Does life equate to suffering and does death somehow end the suffering? Suffering is mental, pain is physical... Why do you think death is somehow the end of suffering? For myself, I have no idea whether or not there's any suffering after death... I do know that suffering here on earth can be transcended without resorting to drastic measures like suicide. Elizabeth
Hi Elizabeth,
My personal attitudes about suicide and euthanasia I stated at the end of two blogs: Being alive is always better than being insentient even with painful suffering (both emotional and physical). However, having witnessed the deaths of two family members lingering between life and an inevitable death I cannot fault anyone who might choose a quick death over an inevitable lingering painful death. You are certainly correct that there is a difference between physical pain and emotional distress. But in the case of a lingering inevitable and painful death how can one sort one from the other? I know nothing about what happens after death except what others tell me, but I must assume that the dead are insentient, which is wore than suffering in my view, for where there is life there is hope.
Cordially,
Charlie
Thank you Charlie... I cannot answer the question about the difference between physical pain and emotional distress without knowing the specifics of a certain situation. Other than to say, nothing is inevitable. How can I say that? Two different people can have the exact same "terminal" illness and pain and prognosis and symptoms... And yet experience to completely different outcomes. Generally speaking, nothing is inevitable. I've known several people who refuse to allow a terminal illness dictate or determine their attitude. Elizabeth
Hi Charlie,
I've been giving some thought to the question, "When is death or potential death a suicide or suicide attempt?"
How about a person who enters Hospice services knowing that the pain medication will hasten death?
How about a person who takes a street drug knowing its high potential to be lethal?
How about a patient experiencing a heart attack who tells a doctor not to intervene if the chance of survival becomes less than 50%, not wanting to risk a vegetative state (I did this in 1998).
What about a late stage patient of any severe disease who chooses short term quality of life over a treatment program?
What about the person with a terminal disease who stops taking his/her medication saying, "Its in God's hands."
I think that all of these can be called suicide or attempt. Perhaps honest communication toward mutual understanding is the healthiest approach, and whatever happens, happens.
Gene Stecher
Chambersburg, Pa.
Some things are inevitable. Death is one of them. Bob Dylan in “It’s Alright Ma,” stated the obvious: “He not busy being born is busy dying.” One can wait for his or her death to arrive, one can extend it (if one has the means), or one can hasten it. Medical stats inform us of ways we didn’t even know could hasten death... Being sedentary, consuming quantities of the wrong foods or drink, using the cellphone and driving... The list is long. Looking behaviorally at suicide, it is the ultimate negative reinforcer. It produces a permanent escape response, assuring the unpleasantness will not reoccur. (That was a main reason in Herodotus’s tales of those I have found who committed suicide in “The Histories”.)
I’ve been more interested in variables that affect suicide. As I posted above, age seems a factor in the rates. I also learned that those with a college degree are less likely than those with a high school education to commit suicide (in a huge survey of documentation over a decade and a half) and, among those with a high school education males are twice as likely to commit suicide as males with a college education. Among the more educated, job or marital problems were listed as most common reasons, while among the less educated interpersonal relationships and drug abuse were listed as most common. What are the ramifications?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28756896
But the reasons for suicide are many and complex. Pain and suffering? In some cases. I doubt that differentiating words like “pain” or “suffering” helps, since emotions can cause physical distress, just as physical pain can cause emotional distress. They are inextricably connected and debilitating to those who have experienced the harshest of either. Other emotions are also at play and as important, if not more. Emotions also interact. Anger is often involved, as is fear, frustration, anxiety, stress, and other emotions or attitudes one has toward oneself, others or “life,” as one can infer from the NIH survey. Impulse control is probably an aspect. When one looks at the Mayo Clinic’s risk factors, one finds different categories of indicators.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/suicide/symptoms-causes/syc-20378048
Dennis Dean Carpenter
Dahlonega, Ga.
Hi Gene and Charlie!
I don't know what I'm missing, but for some reason I fail to see an equivalence between risky behavior and a suicide attempt. With this coronavirus going around, is my 80 year old dad attempting suicide by going to church and exposing himself to possible sickness? It's risky, yes. But the operative phrase is when Gene wisely stated, "whatever happens, happens." Suicide is decisive and violent action against the human body. However- it may or may not end suffering and pain. Death itself is inevitable for us all, but do you know the timing of it? Do you have it marked on your calendar? Do you want it marked on your calendar? Statistics pertain to other people, they have nothing to do with my life. I determine my own statistics.
Letting nature take its course is terrifying and impossible for negative, cynical people... Nevertheless, trusting life is always preferable to trusting death. You're always trusting something to be true, and for some reason it's our human tendency to trust that a negative outcome is far more likely than a positive one. Elizabeth
PS: To clarify the phrase I used "letting nature take its course," I did not mean to imply that I'm against taking medication or other preventative measures to combat illness. (I'm not a Christian Scientist) As you know, there are limits to the results modern medicine can achieve in alleviating illness and discomfort, the rest is determined by nature and attitude.
Hi Elizabeth,
Taking your example of possibly risky behavior, my thought is that if I, you, Charlie or anyone else went to church thinking that there was a better than 50% chance of contracting an illness and dying, that would be suicidal behavior. I would hope for a non-judgmental intervention.
Gene Stecher
Chambersburg, Pa.
You are totally right Gene- I should not have used that as an example because my dad is not going to attend church any time soon... (he hurt his back) I was speaking hypothetically and I should have made that clear. It was the first example that popped into my head, but it's not going to happen... My mother would intervene, I assure you- judgmentally or otherwise!! ;-) Elizabeth
Dennis thanks for the reference to Herodotus. It appears that Suicide is not a modern problem!
Charlie
You're welcome. Here are the precise references:
7.107 speaks of a governor of Eion, Boges who, during the siege by Athenians built a fire, killed those of his household and then threw himself in the pyre after tossing silver and gold through the city. He ends the story with, “No wonder then, even to this day, that the Persians should sing the praises of Boges.” (I'm not sure whether he was saying Boges was a great person or the Persians were barbarians. Maybe I'll get the opportunity to read it in Greek some day!)
6.75 Cleomenes, king of Lacedaemon,, “descended into lunacy” and was locked up. He “badgered” the guard into giving him a knife. Giving said knife, he hacked himself to death.
2.100 Nitocris, a queen of Babylon, in order to escape vengeance from some Egyptians she had killed, killed herself by throwing herself in a “chamber full of ashes.”
3.75 Prexaspes, the chamberlain of Cambyses, when he was ordered to announce Cyrus’s son Smerdis, as ruler, climbed the tower to give the address but instead gave a genealogy of Cyrus, ending with telling the crowd he was forced by Cambyses to kill Smerdis, then jumped headlong off the tower.
Dennis Dean Carpenter
Dahlonega, Ga.
Gene, that doesn’t seem to take into account those who have weakened immune systems (for instance, from chemotherapy or certain diseases) who know the risks but because of a sense of duty or who have faith (confidence) attend church on at least a weekly basis. I wouldn’t call that “suicidal behavior,” because suicide has the motivation factor of wanting oneself dead. A missionary I know who came back from Africa with malaria was quick to point out that she knew going in that it was inevitable, but she felt it her duty to provide medical services there. After MLK Jr. had his house fire bombed in 1956, he knew the risks but continued. I don’t consider that “suicidal behavior,” but the highest level of moral development. Kohlberg as addressed that “cosmic orientation” with his stages of moral reasoning. Motivation matters. Responsible “houses of worship” will cancel services until a clearer picture emerges of the corona virus.
Dennis Dean Carpenter
Dahlonega, Ga.
Hi Dennis,
As I indicated in the very first post of this Suicide essay, I have a broad and complex view of what constitutes suicidal behavior as it is interlaced with other motives, actions, and contexts. If the actor thinks that a behavior is more likely than not to result in quickened death we have an example of suicidal behavior. But, as you say, it's obviously more than that, as well. The matter is so complex that I hope the bottom line human response would always be compassion rather than judgment.
Gene Stecher
Chambersburg,Pa.
Gene,
My definition wouldn't be as broad, but I agree with the "bottom line." One reason I limit my definition to a more traditional one is because too many times when someone younger dies from natural causes one hears, generally from those who don't know him or her, the judgment of which you speak. ("Troubled," "wrong crowd," "tortured mind," and other syllables of ignorance are whispered ignorantly or even muttered from the funeral pulpit, if it is a fundamentalist church.) If one can't understand the death, it causes fear and fear plus ignorance causes for the judgmental a lashing out.
Dennis Dean Carpenter
Dahlonega, Ga.
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