Philosophical views of suicide

In ethics and other branches of philosophy, suicide poses a difficult question, answered differently by philosophers from different times and traditions.

Arguments against suicide

There have been many philosophical arguments made that contend that suicide is immoral and unethical. One popular argument is that many of the reasons for committing suicide – such as depression, emotional pain, or economic hardship – are transitory and can be ameliorated by therapy and through making changes to some aspects of one's life. A common adage in the discourse surrounding suicide prevention sums up this view: "Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem."

Ken Baldwin, a depressed twenty-eight-year-old who attempted suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, recalled his first thought after he leaped: "I instantly realized that everything in my life that I’d thought was unfixable was totally fixable — except for having just jumped." [cite web|url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/10/13/031013fa_fact|title=Jumpers: The fatal grandeur of the Golden Gate Bridge. |accessdate=2008-02-26] However, the argument against this is that while emotional pain may seem transitory to most people, and in many cases it is, in other cases it may be extremely difficult or even impossible to resolve, even through counseling or lifestyle change, depending upon the severity of the affliction and the person's ability to cope with their pain. Examples of this are incurable disease or severe, lifelong mental illness. [Paterson, Craig. Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia. Ashgate, 2008.]

Classical Liberalism

John Stuart Mill argued, in his influential essay "On Liberty", that since the "sine qua non" of liberty is the power of the individual to make choices, any choice that one might make that would deprive one of the ability to make further choices should be prevented. Thus, for Mill, selling oneself into slavery or killing oneself should be prevented in order to avoid precluding the ability to make further choices. Concerning these matters, Mill writes in "On Liberty":

Not only persons are not held to engagements which violate the rights of third parties, but it is sometimes considered a sufficient reason for releasing them from an engagement, that it is injurious to themselves. In this and most other civilized countries, for example, an engagement by which a person should sell himself, or allow himself to be sold, as a slave, would be null and void; neither enforced by law nor by opinion. The ground for thus limiting his power of voluntarily disposing of his own lot in life, is apparent, and is very clearly seen in this extreme case. The reason for not interfering, unless for the sake of others, with a person's voluntary acts, is consideration for his liberty. His voluntary choice is evidence that what he so chooses is desirable, or at the least endurable, to him, and his good is on the whole best provided for by allowing him to take his own means of pursuing it. But by selling himself for a slave, he abdicates his liberty; he forgoes any future use of it, beyond that single act. He therefore defeats, in his own case, the very purpose which is the justification of allowing him to dispose of himself. He is no longer free; but is thenceforth in a position which has no longer the presumption in its favor, that would be afforded by his voluntarily remaining in it. The principle of freedom cannot require that he should be free not to be free. It is not freedom, to be allowed to alienate his freedom.

Yet at the same time, Mill believes the individual to be the best guardian of his or her own interests; he uses the example of a man about to cross a broken bridge: we can forcibly stop that person and warn him of the danger he faces if he continues, but ultimately we should not prevent him from crossing the bridge, for only "he" knows the worth of his life balanced against the danger of crossing the bridge. Thus, if an individual views his or her life as unlivable, it would appear well within their rights to end it.

Deontologism

Immanuel Kant, considered by many to be the father of deontologism, argues against suicide in "Fundamental Principles of The Metaphysic of Morals". In accordance with the second formulation of his categorical imperative, Kant argues that, "He who contemplates suicide should ask himself whether his action can be consistent with the idea of humanity as an end in itself." Kant's theory looks at the act only, and not at its outcomes and consequences. You would then have to think whether you would be willing to "universalise" the act: to claim everyone should behave that way. Kant argues that if a person chooses to commit suicide, that is using him- or herself as a means to satisfy him/herself, but a person cannot be used "merely as means, but must in all his actions be always considered as an end in himself". Therefore, it would be unethical to commit suicide to satisfy oneself.

Yet a criticism of this rebuke of suicide can be found in Kant's view of sexuality. The reason that sex in marriage is acceptable (and, in Kant's eyes, this is the only acceptable place for it) is that there is no other person to use as a means, so it is impossible to take advantage of a non-existent person, and it is not capable to take advantage of oneself. Thus it would seem that suicide to satisfy oneself must be unacceptable to Kant on grounds other than self-satisfaction.

Absurdism

The French-Algerian absurdist philosopher Camus saw the goal of absurdism in establishing whether suicide was necessary in a world without God. For Camus, suicide was the rejection of freedom. He thinks that fleeing from the absurdity of reality into illusions, religion or death is not the way out. Instead of fleeing the absurd meaninglessness of life, we should embrace life passionately.

Existentialist Sartre describes the position of Meursault, the protagonist of Camus' "L'Etranger" who is condemned to death, in the following way:

The absurd man will not commit suicide; he wants to live, without relinquishing any of his certainty, without a future, without hope, without illusions ... and without resignation either. He stares at death with passionate attention and this fascination liberates him. He experiences the "divine irresponsibility" of the condemned man. [Sartre analysis of Mersault, in Literary and Philosophical Essays, 1943]

Social Contract

The Social Contract, according to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, is such that every man has "a right to risk his own life in order to preserve it."

Hobbes and Locke reject the right of individuals to take their own life. Hobbes claims in his "Leviathan" that natural law forbids every man "to do, that which is destructive of his life, or take away the means of preserving the same". Breaking this natural law is irrational and immoral. Hobbes also states that it is intuitively rational for men to want felicity and to fear death most.

Christian-inspired philosophy

G. K. Chesterton calls suicide "the ultimate and absolute evil, the refusal to take an interest in existence". He argues that a person who kills himself, as far as he is concerned, destroys the entire world.

Other arguments

David Hume left an essay on suicide to be published after his death. [cite web|url=http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/suicide.htm|title="Essays on Suicide and the Immortality of the Soul: The Complete 1783 Edition"|accessdate=2008-09-22] Most of it is concerned with the claim that suicide is an affront to God. Hume argues that suicide is no more a rebellion against God than is saving the life of someone who would otherwise die, or changing the position of anything in the one's surroundings. He spends much less time dismissing arguments that it is an affront to one's duty to others or to oneself. Hume claims that suicide can be compared to retiring from society and becoming a total recluse, which is not normally considered to be immoral, although the comparison would not seem to justify a suicide that leaves in its wake children or dependants who are thereby rendered vulnerable. As for duty to self, Hume takes it to be obvious that there can be times when suicide would be desirable in order not to continue living, though he also thinks it ridiculous that anyone would consider suicide unless he or she had considered every other option first.

The writer Dorothy Parker, who attempted suicide several times, wrote a famous, blackly comic poem entitled "Résumé" which contemplates suicide and ultimately rejects it. [cite web|url=http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dorothy_Parker#Sourced|title="Résumé"|accessdate=2007-01-21]

Arguments for suicide

There are arguments in favor of allowing an individual to choose between life and suicide. Those in favor of suicide as a personal choice reject the thought that suicide is always or usually irrational, but is instead a solution to real problems; a line of last resort that can legitimately be taken when the alternative is considered worse. They believe that no being should be made to suffer unnecessarily, and suicide provides an escape from suffering.

Idealism

Some thinkers have had positive, or at least neutral, views on suicide. Some philosophers, such as Goethe and Schopenhauer, view suicide as the greatest comfort in life.

Herodotus wrote: "When life is so burdensome, death has become for man a sought-after refuge". Schopenhauer affirmed: "They tell us that suicide is the greatest act of cowardice... that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person."

Schopenhauer would be expected to take the subject seriously, due to his bleak view of life. His main work, "The World as Will and Representation", occasionally uses the act in its examples. He denied that suicide was immoral and saw it as one's right to take one's life. In an interesting allegory, he compared ending one's life, when subject to great suffering, to waking up from sleep when experiencing a terrible nightmare. However, most suicides were seen as an act of the will, as it takes place when one denies life's pains, and is thus different from ascetic renunciation of the will, which denies life's pleasures. This seems somewhat contradictory, but it is clear that, all in all, Schopenhauer had a lot of sympathy for those who commit suicide.

In the late 18th century, Goethe's "Die Leiden des jungen Werthers" ("The Sorrows of Young Werther"), the romantic story of a young man who kills himself because his love proves unattainable, was reputed to have caused a wave of suicides in Germany.

Liberalism

Liberalism asserts that a person's life belongs only to him or her, and no other person has the right to force their own ideals that life must be lived. Rather, only the individual involved can make such decision, and whatever decision he or she does make, should be respected.

Philosopher and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz goes further, arguing that suicide is the most basic right of all. If freedom is self-ownership, ownership over one's own life and body, then the right to end that life is the most basic of all. If others can force you to live, you do not own yourself and belong to them.

Jean Améry, in his book "On Suicide: a Discourse on Voluntary Death" (originally published in German in 1976), provides a moving insight into the suicidal mind. He argues forcefully and almost romantically that suicide represents the ultimate freedom of humanity, attempting to justify the act with phrases such as "we only arrive at ourselves in a freely chosen death" and lamenting "ridiculously everyday life and its alienation". Améry killed himself in 1978.

Philosophical thinking in the 19th and 20th century has led, in some cases, beyond thinking in terms of pro-choice, to the point that suicide is no longer a last resort, or even something that one must justify, but something that one must justify "not" doing. Many forms of Existentialist thinking essentially begin with the premise that life is objectively meaningless, and proceed to the question of why one should not just kill oneself; they then answer this question by suggesting that the individual has the power to give personal meaning to life.

Neutral and situational stances

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism can be used as a justification for, or an argument against, suicide. Although the death of a depressed person negates his or her sadness, the person's family and friends may grieve.

Nihilism

Nihilist thinkers reject this emphasis on the power of the individual to create meaning, and acknowledge that all things are equally meaningless, including suicide.

Other Arguments

Those who support the right to die argue that suicide is acceptable under certain circumstances, such as incurable disease and old age. The idea is that although life is in general a good, people who face irreversible suffering should not be forced to continue suffering.

Leonard Peikoff states in his book :

Suicide is justified when man's life, owing to circumstances outside of a person's control, is no longer possible; an example might be a person with a painful terminal illness, or a prisoner in a concentration camp who sees no chance of escape. In cases such as these, suicide is not necessarily a philosophic rejection of life or of reality. On the contrary, it may very well be their tragic reaffirmation. Self-destruction in such contexts may amount to the tortured cry: "Man's life means so much to me that I will not settle for anything less. I will not accept a living death as a substitute."

References

See also

* Religious views of suicide
* Suicide

External links

* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/suicide/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - suicide]
* [http://comp.uark.edu/~mpianal/schopenhauer.htm Schopenhauer - On Suicide]
* [http://comp.uark.edu/~mpianal/hume.htm Davide Hume - On Suicide]
* [http://ssrn.com/abstract=1029229 Paterson, Craig, "A History of Ideas Concerning Suicide, Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia"]