SUICIDE

STORY OF SUICIDE IS AS OLD AS MAN HIMSELF.

Suicide has been glorified, romanticized, bemoaned and even condemned.

Define

Global scenario

Types of suicide

Different views and theories on suicide.

SUICIDE• An act with a fatal outcome that is

deliberately initiated and performed by the person in the expectation of its fatal outcome.

• A complex phenomenon, person feels tremendous pressure on mind, blinding its logic ,forcing it to conclusion of escape.

Derived from a Latin word

Sui=oneself, cidium= killing

Primary emergency for mental health professionals.

Major public health problem

GLOBAL SCENARIO

More than 800,000 people die by suicide every year. (one every 40 seconds)

Estimated annual mortality is 14.5 death per 100,000 people.

75% of suicides occur in low and middle-income countries.

• Tenth leading cause of death world wide.

• It is the second leading cause of death in 15-29 years globally.

Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is the primary suicide site in the world.

Japan is reported to have highest number of cases.

IN PAKISTAN:-

• Incidence of suicide have increased in Pakistan and has become a major public health problem.

• According to the WHO, there were reported 15,696 suicide cases in Pakistan in 2002.

• Most suicides occur in young people (single men and married women) under the age of 30 years.

IN PAKISTAN:-

In section 325 of the Pakistan Penal Code attempted suicide is a criminal offence punishable with one year of imprisonment and/or a fine.

IN UK:- In the UK, the Suicide Act of 1961

decriminalized attempted suicide and suicide, but voluntary euthanasia remains a crime.

COMMON METHODS

Pesticides 30% HangingFirearmsDrug overdoseFatal injuriesDrowningExsanguination

TYPES OF SUICIDE EGOISTIC ALTUISTIC ANOMIC FATALISTIC

MODERN EXAMPLES OF SUICIDE

Cyber suicide:- suicide impact between individuals who meet on internet.

Anniversary suicide:-Persons takes their lives on the day a member of their has family died.

Assisted suicide:- terminal ill patient asks doctor for lethal dose to end his misery.

Copy cat suicide:-suicide with in a group serve as a model for next suicide.( Werther effect)

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

In ancient Greek, a person who committed suicide without the approval of state was denied the honor of a normal burial.

BUT

suicide was acceptable to deal with military defeat.

SOCRATES VIEW ON SUICIDE:- Suicide is always wrong because it

represents releasing of our souls from our bodies the gods have placed us in as a form of punishment (Phaedo 61b-62c).

PLATO VIEW ON SUICIDE:-

In the Laws, Plato claimed that suicide is disgraceful and its perpetrators should be buried in unmarked graves.

According to him suicide is an act of cowardice and laziness, done by those individuals who are to delicate to handle transformation of life.

Plato recognized four exceptions to this principle:-

1. When the individual’s mind is morally corrupted.

2. When it is done because of a judicial order.

3. When it is compelled by extreme unavoidable misfortune.

4. As a result of shame for having carried out immoral actions.

ARISTOTOLE’S VIEW:-

Aristotle who was a student of Plato but he disagrees with his master on this.

He says suicide is a wrong toward society or the state, but not toward oneself, for the simple reason that it is the ultimate consensual act.

Many philosophers and psychologists

do not agree with these Greek philosophers because according to them

They do not show any concern for individual well-being or autonomy and only focus on individual's social roles and obligations.

 The Deontological Argument :-

Suicide is wrong because human life is sacred.

Suicide violates our moral duty.

We have to honor the value of human life, regardless of the value of that life to others or to the person whose life it is.

 ACCORDING TO DAVID HUME:-

Suicide is selfish and harms the individuals and society that are left behind.

He says a person is under obligation to do good in the society and if he ends his life by committing suicide his obligation will end.

In some cases, a person may have become a burden to society, and so may actually do good by committing suicide . It is morally good for him.

Libertarian Views and the Right to Suicide:-

  For libertarians, suicide is morally permissible

because individuals enjoy a right to suicide.

They say suicide violates no moral duties.

• We own our bodies and hence are morally permitted to dispose them of as we wish.

• Other individuals should not interfere with a person's suicidal behavior but to assist in that behavior.

LIBERTARIAN VIEWS

SUICIDE IN ABRAHAMIC RELIGIONS:-

• Judaism:- Buried in a separate part of a Jewish

cemetery, and do not receive certain mourning.

• Christianity:- The Roman Catholic Church says

one’s life is the property of God.

Islam:-

Most Muslim scholars consider suicide forbidden and include suicide bombing as being equally forbidden.

"And do not kill yourselves, surely God is most Merciful to you." (An-Nisa), ayat 29 

Are there conditions under which suicide is morally justified ?

Hitler killed himself in order to avoid the humiliation of execution. Was his suicide justified?

What of the Japanese Samurai, who had a form of ritual self-killing that they used to “die with honour” rather than fall into the hands of their enemies?

Or the soldier who throws himself on a grenade in order to save his comrades?

Socrates? He drank hemlock and thereby killed himself, even though he an option of exile?