Discussion Board

Charles McCawley

Suicide

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Suicide

            Suicide has been present throughout our history and the opposing views, beliefs, or attitudes regarding suicide have also been just as varied. Possibly the first recorded suicide in history dates back to the time of Pharaoh Ramses II (1303-1213 BC) in which a story from two centuries earlier was recorded about two brothers who had committed suicide. [1] Some questions that people have regarding suicide are:

1. Is suicide a sin?

2. Is suicide a crime?

3. Is suicide morally wrong?

4. Can suicide be forgiven?

How do we answer the question to what some have claimed to be the “one serious philosophical problem?” [2]

            So, in order to answer these questions, I will review suicide from the viewpoint of the Divine Command Theory? “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27) [3] “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31) Life as a creation of God is good and as such the taking of a life is a sin and morally wrong. According to the Bible, God prohibits us from intentionally taking one’s life for he stated, “You shall not murder.” (Exodus 20:13) Murder is defined as “the crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought.” [4] Since suicide is the intentional taking of a life, it violates God’s prohibition of murder and as such is a sin and morally wrong.

             I have established that suicide is a sin and morally wrong, but is it a crime? Until as recently as 1966, Britain considered suicide to be a crime and suicidal attempts were punishable by death. [5] But not all societies view or have viewed suicide as a crime. Instead those who commit or attempt to commit suicide are viewed as “misguided or sick.” [6]

Which leaves us to answer, “Can suicide be forgiven?” All sin can be forgiven. This is the message throughout the Gospel, that our sins are forgiven through God’s grace and mercy. When Paul stood before Agrippa, he told of an encounter with the Lord on the road to Damascus and the Lord said to Paul “I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” (Acts 26:17-18)

However, not all people and societies throughout history had the same views upon suicide. Ancient Rome was one such culture that accepted suicide and Epicureanism and Stoicism, the two prominent philosophical schools of the time, approved of suicide and during this time suicide was “praised for widows who followed their husbands after death.” [7] In the Middle Ages, Vikings occasionally committed mass suicides “at the end of banquets in order to gain entry to Valhalla.” [8] Also from the 12th century to as recently as 1970, the Japanese have performed voluntary and obligatory suicide known as seppuku. Seppuku came to be as a honorable method for the samurai class in feudal Japan to take their own life to avoid being captured by the enemy in battle. [9]

 

[1] Leonardo Tondo. (2014). Brief history of suicide in Western cultures. In S. Koslow, P. Ruiz, & C. Nemeroff (Eds.), A Concise Guide to Understanding Suicide: Epidemiology, Pathophysiology and Prevention (pp. 3-12). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139519502.003

[2] Chris Kelly and Eric Dale. 2011. “Ethical Perspectives on Suicide and Suicide Prevention.” Advances in Psychiatric Treatment 17 (3). Cambridge University Press: 214–19. doi:10.1192/apt.bp.109.007021.

[3] Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced employ the New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011).

[4] Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “murder,” accessed June 15, 2020, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/murder.

[5] Kelly and Dale, “Ethical Perspectives on Suicide and Suicide Prevention,” 214.

[6] Robertson McQuilkin and Paul Copan. 2014. An Introduction to Biblical Ethics: Walking in the Way of Wisdom. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press. Accessed June 15, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central.

[7] Tondo, “Brief history of suicide in Western cultures,” 4.

[8] Tondo, “Brief history of suicide in Western cultures,” 6.

[9] The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, “Seppuku”, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., accessed June 15, 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/seppuku .

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