Death (suicide and euthanasia)

a. The term suicide describes the act of taking one's own life. There are various kinds of suicide,
so our first task is to clarify our use of the term. Within this article, we are referring to suicide in
the conventional sense, in which someone plans out or acts upon self-destructive thoughts and
feelings, often while they are experiencing overwhelming stress. “Assisted suicide” occurs when
a physician helps a terminally ill person to die, avoiding an imminent, inevitable and potentially
painful decline. Our current discussion of suicide does not address assisted suicide.

The intent of suicidal behavior, whether consciously or unconsciously motivated, is to

permanently end one's life. Truly suicidal acts (or, as they are sometimes called, "gestures")
need to be distinguished from other self-harming, self-injurious, or parasuicidal acts and gestures
which are also deliberate, but not intended to cause death. Typical self-injurious acts include
cutting or burning oneself. The intention behind these behaviors is to cause intense sensation,
pain and damage, but not to end one's life. Self-injurious behaviors may lead to accidental
suicide if they are taken too far, but their initial intent and goal are not suicidal. (REISS, N. S.,
PH.D, & DOMBECK, M., PH.D. (2007, October 24). Defining Suicide. Retrieved June 12,
2018, from https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/defining-suicide/)

b. Christianity, born at a place and time in which suicide was commonly accepted as an
honorable departure from life, early placed itself in opposition to the practice.

The commandment “Thou shalt not kill” was interpreted categorically. While exceptions were
made for warfare and the administration of justice, both legitimate functions of duly ordained
governments, none was made in the case of killing oneself. Suicide is homicide, murder.
Nowhere in the Bible is there precept or permission to take one’s life. Just as Christians are to
uphold and respect the life of others, they are to uphold and respect their own. Although our life
is “given” to us by God, we are God’s creatures and still belong to him. “Hence whoever takes
his own life sins against God, even as he who kills another’s slave sins against their slave’s
master.”

CHURCH’S RESPONSE

There would seem to be some exceptions to the Christian stance against suicide: The Old
Testament hero, Samson, pulled down the building, killing himself along with his enemies. But
Samson, says Augustine, was justified on the ground “that the Spirit who wrought wonders by
him had given him secret instructions to do this.” Perhaps the holy women who threw themselves
into the river to avoid ravishment during the persecutions, and are today venerated as martyrs,
are also exceptions. Perhaps, they too were “prompted by divine wisdom”; Augustine does not
know. Abraham, when he went to kill Isaac, was prepared to violate the injunctions against
private execution (moreover of an innocent person), but he certainly was responding to a direct
order from God. These cases, indeed, are very exceptional. “He, then, who knows that it is
unlawful to kill himself, may nevertheless do so if ordered by Him whose commands we may not
neglect. Only let him be very sure that the divine command has been signified.” Jesus
consistently urged his followers to flee persecution to preserve their lives,never once advising
them to “lay violent hands upon themselves.” The members of the Jim Jones cult in Guyana who
took their lives were probably deceived - by their own feelings and by the monstrous man who
gave the orders.

Augustine, who had a vivid conception of the dangers, trials, and temptations of human
existence, inveighed against suicide. Christian women who have been raped by barbarians should
not commit suicide, for the sin was not theirs. And even if they did sin by assenting in some
sense to the act, suicide would be wrong. For here, as in all cases of moral disgrace (including
that of Judas), suicide precludes the opportunity to repent. Those who commit suicide for fear
that they will do an immorality have foolishly chosen a certain sin over an uncertain sin. The
pagans mistakenly extol the purity of Lucretia, the noble matron of ancient Rome who destroyed
herself after having been raped by King Tarquin’s son. Her act “was prompted not by love of
purity, but by the overwhelming burden of her shame.”

Christians may expect many tribulations in this “vale of tears” through which they must pass. If
some are relatively fortunate in this life, they need only look at the misfortunes of others now
and in times past - or read the account of Job in the Old Testament. The recourse of the Christian
is not to take his or her life but to call on God for help during times of distress. God does not
inflict anything on us that we cannot, with God’s help, bear. Misery may be the occasion for a
closer union with God. And there is the ultimate consolation that we are members of a higher
realm than the “earthly city”: We belong to the “city of God,” where there is infinite and
everlasting peace. One of the great Christian virtues is hope. Paul wrote: “we know that the
whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we
ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoptions as sons,
the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we are saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope.
For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with
patience.” It is through hope that another great virtue is sustained: fortitude.