Contemporary Medical

Procedures and Practices

and Their Moral
Implications:

SELF- KILLING
(Suicide)

Charmaine S. Principe, B.S.N.,

R.N.
Objectives:
• To have a broader knowledge regarding suicide; its
definition, causes and methods

• To be able to know the different perceptions about

suicide

• To be able to determine the pros and cons of suicide

• To be able to identify the ethical applications of

suicide
SELF- KILLING (Suicide)

• Act of deliberately taking one's own life voluntarily

and intentionally.

Suicidal behavior

• Is any deliberate action with potentially life-

threatening consequences, such as taking a drug
overdose or deliberately crashing a car.
Causes:
• can accompany many emotional disturbances, including depression,
bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia

• More than 90% of all suicides are related to a mood disorder or

other psychiatric illness

• Overwhelming views of Person:

• (1) social isolation,
• (2) death of a loved one,
• (3) emotional trauma,
• (4) serious physical illness,
• (5) unemployment or financial problems,
• (6) guilty feelings,
• (7) or dependence on alcohol or other drug
Method of Suicide:
a. Nonviolent

b. Violent

• Males violent methods suicide attempts by males are more

likely to be completed

• “FIREARM”

• During 2002-2006, the greatest percentage of suicides among

males occurred by firearms (57.7%) while the greatest percentage
of suicides among females occurred by poisoning (38.8%).
(Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: National
Suicide Statistics at a Glance)
Suicide in Ancient Greeks and Romans..

• Socrates
 an individual was a property of the gods, so that
self- killing would bring about their anger

• Plato cited three other exceptions to the prohibition of

suicide:

A. Any shame of extreme distress and impoverishment

B. Affliction by any extraordinary sorrow
C. Inevitable turn of fortune
Suicide in Ancient Greeks and Romans..

• Aristotle
 suicide is an act of cowardice and offense
against the state

• Lucius Seneca (Roman stoic philosopher)

 argued eloquently in favor of suicide as an
escape from suffering and from the decay of
old age
Bible (likewise replete with suicide cases)..

• Judas Iscariot

 preferred to commit suicide by hanging

himself rather than to be alive forever haunted
by his ignominious act of betrayal and
treachery against the Lord Jesus
Psalm 55:12-14

• "For it is not an enemy who reproaches

me; Then I could bear it. Nor is it one
who hates me who has exalted himself
against me; Then I could hide from him.
But it was you, a man my equal, my
companion and my acquaintance. We took
sweet counsel together, and walked to the
house of God in the throng."
Meaning of Suicide:

• Suicide is the direct, willful destruction of one’s

own life.

• Direct  killing of oneself

• Willful  deliberate, voluntary, and

intentional

• Destructive  violent, brutal or very

** In some respects, the concepts of active-voluntary
euthanasia and suicide overlap, but there are several
differences.
EUTHANASIA vs. SUICIDE
 Do so for medical reasons  Destructive and violent
termination of one’s life
 Presupposes incurable  Presupposes one’s healthy
ailment/ terminal condition physical condition
 Easy, painless, quiet  Sudden interruption or
acceleration of imminent or destruction of the life
certain death, in order to process
rid oneself of prolonged
suffering
Reasons for Suicide:
• Personal Reasons

1. Misfortune and frustration in love or marriage

2. Parental indifference or apathy towards one’s
boyfriend or girlfriend
3. In law problems
4. Failure in an examination
5. Loss of honor and integrity
6. Nervous breakdown due to one’s inability to cope
with life’s problems
Reasons for Suicide:
• Financial Reasons

1. Poverty and impoverishment

2. Great loss of money or collapse in business
venture

• Social and Political Reasons

CONS

SUICIDE
PROS
The CONS of Suicide

• In Jewish tradition, we find the earliest

rejection of suicide in the teachings of Flavius
Josephus, a famous soldier, statesman and
historian who was the commander of a
defeated army.

• Against his soldiers’ wishes to kill themselves

and avoid surrender in shame.
The CONS of Suicide
Josephus argued:
 
• Suicide is a crime which is contrary to the
common nature of all animals

• The soul is a depositum (deposited for

safekeeping) received from God, so that to kill
oneself is contrary to the divine will, and hence
a wicked act
The CONS of Suicide
• St. Augustine contended:

• Suicide is itself greater sin than any and all sins that
could be allegedly avoided by committing it

• Self- murder is against the fifth commandment (“Thou

shall not kill”)

• Suicide deprives one of the opportunity to repent

• It is an ignoble act through which one attempts to

escape the ills of life
The CONS of Suicide

• St. Thomas Aquinas gave a threefold

argument:

• Suicide is against the natural law

• Being a member of a society, a person who

kills himself will deprive the community of his
activity
The PROS of Suicide

• Michel de Montaigne, a French essayist and

skeptical philosopher was the first to explicitly
question the views of Augustine and Aquinas

He argued:

• “One’s fear of suffering that is worse than

death itself is the most excusable incitement to
self- killing.”
The PROS of Suicide
• John Donne, a British clergyman and a
religious writer, criticized the Christian
prohibition of suicide as self- serving for
capitalists and Christian authorities who
exploit and oppress their laborers.

His view:

• “Suicide is a means of liberating oneself from

exploitation and oppression.”
The PROS of Suicide

• David Hume, a Scottish philosopher.

 
Defended suicide:
 
• The removal of misery makes suicide morally
justifiable and permissible
• Moral duty is reciprocal
• There is no such thing as order designed by
God
Application of Ethical
Theories
 Natural Law Ethics

• Principle of Stewardship considers suicide as

self- murder.

• An individual has no right to murder himself as

he has no right to murder someone else.

• Only an individual who has dominion over a

thing has the right to destroy it.
 Utilitarian’s Principle of Utility

• The greatest good/happiness for the greatest

number”

• An individual may deliberately terminate his

own life if and when suffering becomes too
much to bear.
 Kant’s Ethics

• In the context of categorical imperative’s not using

ourselves only as a means but always as an end, may
be taken as a rejection or prohibition of suicide.

• Principle of Autonomy, a rational being’s autonomy

and self- regulating will to support and justify their
argument that an individual not only has a duty to
preserve his life, but also has to die with dignity if
and when the situation warrants such a moral
decision.
THANK YOU! 