Forced suicide

Forced suicide is a method of execution where the victim is given the choice of committing suicide or facing an alternative they perceive as worse, such as suffering torture; having friends or family members imprisoned, tortured or killed; or losing honor, position or means.

In ancient Greece and Rome

Forced suicide was a common means of execution in ancient Greece and Rome. As a mark of respect it was generally reserved for aristocrats sentenced to death; the victims would either drink hemlock or fall on their swords. Economic motivations promoted some suicides in ancient Rome. A person who was condemned to death would forfeit property to the government. People could evade that provision and let the property pass to their heirs by committing suicide prior to arrest.

Probably the most famous forced suicide is that of the philosopher Socrates, who drank hemlock after his trial for corrupting the youth of Athens. The Stoic philosopher, Seneca, also killed himself in response to a request by his pupil, the Roman Emperor Nero, who himself was forced to commit suicide at a later date. Other famous forced suicides include those of Brutus, Mark Antony and Emperor Otho.

In Asia

Forced suicides have occurred in ancient China, where generals who were responsible for major debacles that seriously brought a downfall in the course of a state's history would be held liable and were given orders to commit suicide. It was also the most common way to execute female criminals, as it was considered more humane than beheading.

The ancient practice of sati, in which a recently-widowed woman would immolate herself on her husband’s funeral pyre,cite book
author=Hawley, John C.
title=Sati, the blessing and the curse: the burning of wives in India
publisher=Oxford University Press
location=Oxford [Oxfordshire]
year=1994
pages=102, 166
isbn=0-19-507774-1
oclc=
doi=
accessdate=2008-02-11] cite book
author=Smith, Bonnie G.
title=Women's history in global perspective
publisher=University of Illinois Press
location=Urbana
year=2004
pages=103
isbn=0-252-02997-6
oclc=
doi=
accessdate=2008-02-11] cite book
author=Jörg Fisch
title=Immolating Women: A Global History from Ancient Times to the Present
publisher=Orient Longman
location=
year=2005
pages=320
isbn=81-7824-134-X
oclc=
doi=] generally is not considered a type of honor killing. [Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, "Real and Imagined Women", Routledge, 1993.] [Lata Mani: "Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India". Berkeley & Los Angeles, 1998] However, the extent up to which Sati was a purely voluntary act or one that was coerced is actively debated. There have been some incidences in recent times, such as the Roop Kanwar case, [citeweb|title= Self-immolation of a widow: India's best kept secret about women|url=http://www.helium.com/tm/362550/immolation-widow-indias-secret|publisher=helium.com|accessdate=2008-02-08] in which forced sati was "suspected." [Douglas James Davies and Lewis H. Mates (eds.), "Encyclopedia of Cremation", p371, Ashgate Publishing, 2005.] Additional cases are under investigation,cite book
author=Mani, Lata; (Kim, Seung-Kyung and McCann, Carole R., eds.)
title="Multiple Mediations" in Feminist theory reader: local and global perspectives
publisher=Routledge
location=New York
year=2003
pages=373-4
isbn=0-415-93152-5
oclc=
doi=
accessdate=2008-02-09] though no evidence of forced suicide has yet been found. [citeweb|title=Woman commits Sati in Uttar Pradesh|url=http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/may/20sati.htm|publisher=rediff.com|accessdate=2008-02-08] [citeweb|title=Woman dies after jumping into husband's funeral pyre|url=http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/aug/22pyre.htm|publisher=rediff.com|accessdate=2006-08-22] [citeweb|title=Visitors flock to 'sati' village|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5278898.stm|publisher=bbc.co.uk|accessdate=2008-02-08]

Japanese seppuku falls into this category. The culture of Bushido practiced by the samurai expected them to ritually kill themselves if found disloyal, sparing a daimyo or shogun the indignity of executing a follower. This was especially the case in the Edo period, and Asano Naganori was a clear example.

In modern Europe

Another famous example is the forced suicide of Erwin Rommel, a field marshal in the Second World War German Army. After Rommel lost faith in Germany's ability to win the war, and came under suspicion for having taken part in the July 20, 1944 plot to kill Adolf Hitler, he was forced to commit suicide. Due to Rommel's popularity with the German people, Hitler gave him an option to commit suicide with cyanide or face dishonor and retaliation against his family and staff. Since the guilty verdict had already been entered, the option of facing trial was hopeless, and thus, in order to save his family and his honor, he was forced to take cyanide.

As a substitute for honor killings

A forced suicide may be a substitute of an honor killing when a woman violates the "namus" in conservative Islamic societies. According to a BBC report, [" [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5010892.stm UN probes Turkey 'forced suicide] ", BBC News, 05-24-2006.] the United Nations is, as of 2006, investigating reports of forced suicides of women in Turkey.

References