Kofi Anokye

PHIL_1103_31

22 November 2021

PPI Journal #10

“Kant’s writings reveal his strong opposition to the moral permissibility of suicide. He

does, however, admit that “suicide can be considered under various aspects, from the

blameworthy, the permissible, and even the heroic point of view.” (19). Kant is reluctant to allow

any permissible choice of suicide. He believes that the most important characteristic for oneself

is their very personhood. In his Lectures on Ethics he explains, “Personhood, or humanity in

[one’s] person, is conceived as an intelligible substance, the seat of all concepts, that which

distinguishes man in his freedom from all objects under whose jurisdiction he stands in his

visible nature. It is thought of, therefore, as a subject that is destined to give moral laws to man,

and to determine him: as occupant of the body, to whose jurisdiction the control of all man’s

powers is subordinated. There is thus lodged in man an unlimited capacity that can be

determined to operate in his nature through himself alone, and not through anything else in

nature. This is freedom, and through it we may recognize the duty of self-preservation, which

cannot, therefore, be plainly demonstrated.” (Kant Lectures, p.369). Kant demonstrates how

humanity is based on the morality of an individual. In Kant’s words, freedom is not about a right

to choose or prohibiting external constraints, but the freedom of will.

Aristotle’s views of Euthanasia are presented in a more euphimistic direction, as he uses

the word “suicide” instead of “Euthanasia”. he views it as a cowardly way of death, claiming it
to be an act of injustice. “But to die to escape from poverty or love or anything painful is not the

mark of a brave man, but rather of a coward; for it is softness to fly from what is troublesome,

and such a man endures death not because it is noble but to fly from evil.” (Aristotle, 46). Plato

is against what is known today as Active Euthanasia, claiming that any doctor who administers a

drug should be punished by death as they are contributing to terminating one’s life. “The severer

kinds of purification are practised when great offenders are punished by death or exile, but there

is a milder process which is necessary when the poor show a disposition to attack the property of

the rich, for then the legislator will send them off to another land, under the name of a colony.”

(Plato, 25). He proposes suicide as a criminal offence other than to account for judicial order or

any misfortune that cannot be avoided. He also claims that is one doesn’t resist any temptation to

act in any crime, they should rid oneself of life, death being preferred.

1. Papadimitriou, John D et al. “Euthanasia and suicide in antiquity: viewpoint of the

dramatists and philosophers.” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine vol. 100,1 (2007):

25-8. doi:10.1177/014107680710000111

2. John D Papadimitriou, Panayiotis Skiadas. “Euthanasia and Suicide in Antiquity:

Viewpoint of the Dramatists and Philosophers - John D Papadimitriou, Panayiotis

Skiadas, Constantinos S Mavrantonis, Vassilis Polimeropoulos, Dimitris J Papadimitriou,

Kyriaki J Papacostas, 2007.” SAGE Journals,

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/014107680710000111.