Religious views of suicide

There are a variety of religious views of suicide.

Judaism
Judaism has traditionally, in light of its great emphasis on the sanctity of life, viewed suicide as one of the most serious of sins. Suicide has always been forbidden by Jewish law in all cases. It is not seen as an acceptable alternative even if one is being forced to commit certain cardinal sins for which one must give up one's life rather than sin. Assisting in suicide and requesting such assistance (thereby creating an accomplice to a sinful act) is also forbidden, a minimal violation of Leviticus 19:14, "Do not put a stumbling block before the blind," for the Rabbis interpreted that verse to prohibit any type of stumbling block: theological (e.g., persuading people to believe in false doctrine), economic (e.g., giving bad financial advice) or in this case moral stumbling blocks, as well as physical ones (see Talmud Bavli (B.) Pesah.im 22b; B. Mo'ed Katan 5a, 17a; B. Bava Mezia 75b. and B. Nedarim 42b).

The prohibition against suicide is not specifically recorded in the Talmud. The post-talmudic tractate Semahot (Evel Rabbati) 2:1–5 serves as the basis for most of later Jewish law on suicide, together with Genesis Rabbah 34:13, which bases the biblical prohibition on Genesis 9:5: "And surely your blood of your lives will I require." Cf. M.T. Laws of Murder 2:3; Babylonian Talmud tractate Laws of Courts (Sanhedrin) 18:6; S.A. Yoreh De'ah (Code of Jewish Law) 345:1ff.

According to Chassidic philosophy, a soul descends into this world to perform a mission, which cannot be performed in the "spiritual worlds". This is the Chassidic interpretation of the Talmudic statement "One second in the World-to-Come meaning both the afterlife and the world of Messianic Era is more pleasurable than the whole life in this world. But one good deed in this world is more important than the whole eternity of the World-to-Come" (Ethics of Our Fathers, Mishna). According to Chabad school of Chassidism, although spiritual beings (souls and angels living in spiritual worlds) have access to knowledge of God's existence, they have no access to God's Essence. During performance of Torah's Commandments, a person's body and soul gain access to the Creator's Essence (since Torah represents God's will, which is one with his essence) and purify both the body and the soul, as well as the physical world. The purification of the physical world through performance of Commandments leads eventually to Messianic Era, which is the goal and purpose of Creation. Therefore, life in the physical world presents a person's soul a unique opportunity, and to consciously and willfully break away from this opportunity is regarded as a gravest sin.

The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, the body of scholars of Jewish law in Conservative Judaism, has published a teshuva on suicide and assisted suicide in the Summer 1998 issue of Conservative Judaism, Vol. L, No. 4. It affirms the prohibition, then addresses the growing trend of Americans and Europeans to seek assistance with suicide. The Conservative teshuva notes that while many people get sick, often with terminal illnesses, most people do not try to kill themselves. The committee believes we are obliged to determine why some seek help with suicide and to ameliorate those circumstances.

The Conservative response states:


 * "... those who commit suicide and those who aid others in doing so act out of a plethora of motives. Some of these reasons are less than noble, involving, for example, children's desires to see Mom or Dad die with dispatch so as not to squander their inheritance on 'futile' health care, or the desire of insurance companies to spend as little money as possible on the terminally ill."

The paper says the proper response to severe pain is not suicide, but better pain control and more pain medication. Many doctors, it asserts, are deliberately keeping such patients in pain by refusing to administer sufficient pain medications: some out of ignorance; others to avoid possible drug addiction; others from a misguided sense of stoicism. Conservative Judaism holds that such forms of reasoning are "bizarre" and cruel, that with today's medications there is no reason for people to be in perpetual torture.

It then investigates the psychological roots of hopelessness felt by some patients, and asserts:


 * "Physicians or others asked to assist in dying should recognize that people contemplating suicide are often alone, without anyone taking an interest in their continued living. Rather than assist the patient in dying, the proper response to such circumstances is to provide the patient with a group of people who clearly and repeatedly reaffirm their interest in the patient's continued life ... Requests to die, then, must be evaluated in the terms of degree of social support the patient has, for such requests are often withdrawn as soon as someone shows an interest in the patient staying alive. In this age of individualism and broken and scattered families, and in the antiseptic environment of hospitals where dying people usually find themselves, the mitzvah of visiting the sick (bikkur Holim) becomes all the more crucial in sustaining the will to live."

Jewish views on suicide as an act of martyrdom
Judaism has a great many teachings about peace and compromise, and its teachings present physical violence as one of the last possible options. Although killing oneself is forbidden under normal Jewish law as being a denial of God's goodness in the world, under extreme circumstances when there has seemed no choice but to either be killed or forced to betray their religion, Jews have committed suicide or mass suicide (see Masada, First French persecution of the Jews, and York Castle for examples). As a grim reminder of those times, there is even a prayer in the Jewish liturgy for "when the knife is at the throat", for those dying "to sanctify God's Name". (See: Martyrdom). These acts have received mixed responses by Jewish authorities. Where some Jews regard them as examples of heroic martyrdom, but others saying that while Jews should always be willing to face martyrdom if necessary, it was wrong for them to take their own lives.

Because Judaism focusses on this life, many questions to do with survival and conflict (such as the classic moral dilemma of two people in a desert with only enough water for one to survive) were analysed in great depth by the rabbis within the Talmud, in the attempt to understand the principles a godly person should draw upon in such a circumstance.

Early Christianity
Early Christianity was attracted to death as martyrdom, something they felt called upon by their faith to permit. Even the death of Jesus could be considered a kind of suicide, and has been considered so by some theologians such as Tertullian. There were seven suicides in the Old Testament. In Matthew 27:3, the suicide of Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, is perhaps a sign of his repentance or at least the recognition of his guilt.

The most notable pro-suicide group was the Donatists, who believed that by killing themselves they could attain martyrdom and go to heaven. They jumped off cliffs, burned themselves in large numbers, and stopped travellers, either offering to pay them or threatening them with death to encourage them to kill the Donatist would-be martyr. They were eventually declared heretics.

As Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman empire, its views on suicide gradually changed. 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 his novel interpretation of the commandment, "thou shalt not kill", and the rest of his reasons were from Plato's "Phaedra". Although this was a humanitarian opposition, some Christians ended up persecuting suicides, degrading their bodies (sometimes by being buried at crossroads with a stake through their body), defaming their memories, and persecuting their families.

In the sixth century, suicide became a religious sin and secular crime. In 533, those who committed suicide while accused of a crime were denied a Christian burial, which was a requirement for going to heaven. In 562, all suicides were punished in this way. In 693, even the attempt of suicide became an ecclesiastical crime, which could be punished by excommunication, with civil consequences following. In the 13th century Thomas Aquinas vilified 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 denying a proper burial and degrading the body, property and possessions of the deceased and their family were confiscated.

Many Christians believe in the sanctity of human life, a principle which, broadly speaking, says that all human life is sacred – a wonderful, even miraculous creation of the divine God – and every effort must be made to save and preserve it whenever possible.

It was not until about a thousand years after St. Augustine that Christians again questioned suicide. Thus, even while believing that suicide is generally wrong, liberal Christians may hold that people who choose suicide are severely distressed and that the loving God of Christianity can forgive such an act.

Modern Catholicism
In Catholicism, death by suicide is considered a grave and mortal sin. The chief Christian argument is that one's life is the property of God, and to destroy that life is to wrongly assert dominion over what is God's. In point 2281 of the Catechism it is stated:

''2281 Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.''

The 1997 Catechism of the Catholic Church indicates that suicide may not always be fully conscious – and thus not one-hundred-percent morally culpable: "Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide."

The essential context regarding the Catholic Church's condemnation of suicide is the Church's absolute insistence on the sanctity of life. It is in this regard, and taking into account the clear deliberation of the act by a thinking person, that the Church regards suicide as being among the gravest sins a person may commit and therefore creating the risk of eternal damnation.

The gravity of the Church's position resides in a twofold argument - 1. Suicide is a rejection of God's love for mankind, and mankind's love for God. 2. Suicide causes fracture to the social community of friends, loved-ones and broader human society.

Modern Protestantism
Conservative Christians (Evangelicals, Charismatics and Pentecostals) have often argued that because suicide involves self-murder, then anyone who commits it is sinning and is the same as if the person murdered another human being. A number of Biblical figures committed (or attempted) suicide, most notably Saul and Judas Iscariot, who hanged himself after betraying Christ. While suicide is certainly treated in a negative way in the Bible, there is, however, no specific verse that explicitly states that suicide leads directly to Hell. Yet because Jesus Christ took the punishment for the sins of mankind, and suicide is seen as a sin, the result would be that the person who commits suicide would not be culpable, and that all his sins (including the killing of himself) would be covered by Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). Consequently, there is a growing belief that Christians who commit suicide are still granted Heaven.

Islam
Islam, like other Abrahamic religions, views suicide as sinful and highly detrimental to one's spiritual journey. For those who formerly believed, but ultimately rejected belief in God, the result seems unambiguously negative.

A verse in the fourth chapter of the Quran, An-Nisaa (The Women) instructs; "And do not kill yourselves, surely Allah is most Merciful to you." (4:29)

The prohibition of suicide has also been recorded in authentic statements of hadith. For example; "He who commits suicide by throttling shall keep on throttling himself in the Hell-fire, and he who commits suicide by stabbing himself, he shall keep stabbing himself in the Hell-fire."

Buddhism and Jainism
According to Buddhism, individuals' past acts heavily influence what they experience in the present; present acts, in turn, become the background influence for future experiences (the doctrine of karma). Intentional action by mind, body or speech have a reaction. This reaction, or repercussion, is the cause of conditions and differences we come across in the world.

Buddhism teaches that all people experience substantial suffering (dukkha), which suffering primarily originates from past negative deeds (karmically), or just from being in samsara, the cycle of birth and death. Another reason for the prevalent suffering individuals experience is impermanence and illusion (maya). Since everything is in a constant state of impermanence or flux, individuals experience dissatisfaction with the fleeting events of life. To break out of samsara, Buddhism advocates the Noble Eightfold Path.

For Buddhists, since the first precept is to refrain from the destruction of life, including oneself, suicide is clearly considered a negative form of action. Despite this view, an ancient Asian ideology similar to seppuku (hara-kiri) continues to influence oppressed Buddhists to choose the act of honor suicide. The most well-known instance of this was Thich Quang Duc's suicide by self-immolation to protest the government of Ngo Dinh Diem. Also in modern times, Tibetan monks have used this perceived ideal to protest the Chinese occupation of Tibet and China's human rights violations against Tibetans.

In Jainism, the practise of fasting to death is not considered completely taboo. However, this is not a form of suicide, as it is not done on impulse.

Hinduism
In Hinduism, murdering one's own body is considered equally sinful as murdering another, with the exception of the currently defunct practice of sati. Scriptures generally state that to die by suicide (and any type of violent death) results in becoming a ghost.