The Ethics of Suicide

Introduction
There are a variety of reasons as to why people part in the behavior of suicide. Some
people kill themselves in desperation or in a state of depravity while others end up
taking their lives in an act of self-sacrifice.
Suicide: Is the intentional and voluntary taking of one’s own life.

SUICIDE FOR ARISTOTLE

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

Aristotle said that committing suicide to avoid pain or other undesirable circumstances is a
cowardly act and he further argues that suicide is unlawful and is an act committed against the
interests of the state.

SUICIDE FOR ST THOMAS AQUINAS

Thomas argues against the legitimacy of suicide, incorporating the arguments of both Aristotle
(referred to as “the Philosopher”) and Augustine. Thomas’s central argument appeals to
Augustine’s inclusive interpretation of the Biblical commandment “Thou shalt not kill”: since
there is a prohibition against killing human beings and suicide is killing a human being, suicide
is therefore a sin, to which Thomas adds three further reasons:

St. Thomas Aquinas articulated three reasons against suicide:

a) an argument from the natural inclination to live/ It is contrary to natural self-love 

b) an argument based on social community /It injures the community

c) argument that life ought not be rejected because it is a gift from God/ It is a rejection of
god’s gift of life 
SUICIDE FOR IMMANUEL KANT

Kant thinks that killing ourselves when life bodes ill is wrong.

Kant argues that choosing to commit suicide entails considering oneself as a means to an end
to escape pain, which is immoral because we should not commit suicide to satisfy.

To Immanuel Kant, a person’s life was certainly of greater moral importance to the universe
than that of the oyster, so much so that Kant held that we rational agents are subject to a
categorical duty of self-preservation, not to take our own lives willfully. Not to commit suicide,
according to Kant, is “the first, though not the principal, duty of a human being to himself as an
animal being.”

From a deontological perspective, Immanuel Kant 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, and claims that
one is ethically required to consider whether one would be willing to universalise the act: to
claim everyone should behave that way. Kant argues that choosing to commit suicide entails
considering oneself as a means to an end, which he rejects: a person, he says, must not be
used "merely as means, but must in all actions always be considered as an end in himself."
Therefore, it is unethical to commit suicide to satisfy oneself.

DEONTOLOGY

The simplest moral outlook on suicide holds that it is necessarily wrong because human life is
sacred.

The great merit of the sanctity of life position is that it reflects a common moral sentiment,
namely, that killing is wrong in itself.

A modern deontological argument can be based on the idea of “sanctity” of life, even when the
term is to be understood in a secular, nor religious sense. The problem is that, if applied
consistently, the argument would prohibit also — for instance — capital punishment, or death
caused by self-defense (remember, deontological systems are prone to make broad
generalizations and are not friendly to nuanced distinctions).
SUICIDE FOR JOHN STUART MILL

Asserted that suicide prevention is never justified after an initial attempt has been made to find
the cause.

Mill states that we ‘are justified in temporarily intervening in order to ensure that a person is
acting intentionally with adequate knowledge of the consequences of the action’, but that once
this has been done the person should be allowed to do as they please

UTILITARIANISM

Utilitarian views hold that suicide would be morally forbidden if the suicide leads to greater
suffering, such as the grieving of family and friends

There is the social utilitarian argument, that suicide is wrong because it violates our duty to
others, for instance in the form of induced grief, long term psychological issues and in some
cases practical (i.e., financial) problems for surviving friends and family.

There is also the act utilitarian argument that suicide may even be valuable, in terms of its
consequences, so that it could be morally permissible, or even morally obligatory, under certain
circumstances, as when a soldier jumps on a grenade to save his comrades, or — more
controversially — in the case suicide for political reasons (which, needless to say, includes
suicide bombings).

Utilitarian views hold that we have a moral duty to maximize happiness, and in the above cases
an act of suicide will produce more happiness than if the individual were to remain alive.