Introduction
A brief overview
of other religious perspectives might provide some further context for our
consideration of suicide and euthanasia.
Buddhism
The first of
five precepts in the Pali Canon is
that killing is an evil. Further
comments on this precept state that suicide is not included and that motives
for suicide can be either good or bad (2003b).
After a number of monks committed suicide and several others had other
monks help them in doing so, the Buddha said that a monk must not kill upon
another’s request (assisted suicide) (2003a).
In another story, a man who threw himself from a cliff lived because he
landed on another man, causing his death.
The Buddha declared no monk should throw himself from a cliff, showing
concern for causing others harm; he did not declare that a monk should not
commit suicide (2003b).
Confucianism
Confucianism
views suicide as good when someone’s honour is at stake. This might be when one defends another’s honour,
such as one’s parents.
In Confucius’
Analects, we read, ‘The Master said, “Among those who have [good] purpose and
those who are ren, none will seek life at the expense of harming ren [goodness], and there are those who
will cause death for their person in order to accomplish what is [or accords
with] ren.” (Analect 15.9). In Confucius’ Book of Filial Piety, the
importance of honouring one’s parents and lord includes doing no harm to
oneself: ‘Our body, limbs, hair, and skin are received from our parents, and so
we do not dare to injure or harm them. This is the beginning of filial piety.
When we establish ourselves and practice the Way so as to make our name known
to future generations and thereby bring glory to our parents, this is the
consummation of filial piety. Filial piety begins in service to our parents,
continues in service to our lord, and is consummated in establishing our place
in the world [and therefore our parents’ reputations].’[1]
The Mencius (named for the Confucian
philosopher Meng-tzu) served to define imperial civil service. It is comprised of conversations of
Meng-tzu’s conversations with kings. He
says that he would give up life for righteousness had he to choose between the
two (bk. 4, part A, 10). One may need to
choose to give up life if preserving it or doing so in a certain manner would
mean doing something unrighteous.
Samurai—The Bushido Code (Japan)
The samurai
warrior’s code, Bushido (The Way of the Warrior), expects a wounded
warrior to tell his officers how he was wounded and then commit suicide. A defeated warrior was to commit suicide to
defend his honour rather than be taken prisoner. A samurai lives life the way he does because
he constantly is aware of death, and he must ask himself how he will meet
it. The honour-shame culture requires
him to maintain his composure and not make a poor showing. This would overshadow his good deeds and
cover him with shame in death. The
prescribed suicide was disembowelment (seppuku). Bushi
women used a knife to cut their jugular vein upon their husband’s death.
Hinduism
‘The suicide
rate of Hindu countries is 21/100,000 compared to the global average of 11.4
and higher than Christian and Muslim countries but lower than Buddhist
countries.’[2] Traditionally, the means of suicide include
the cultural practices sati, wives
joining their husbands when they die by throwing themselves onto the funeral
pyre, and self-immolation. This still
occurs, although sati is officially
outlawed.
Judaism
The
Apocryphal work of 2 Maccabees shows Greek influence, despite being a work honoring
Jewish resistance to outside influences.
In the time of the Jewish, Maccabean resistance against the Seleucids, the
Syrian-Greek general, Nicanor, was placed as head over Jerusalem. This story is told in 2 Maccabees
14.37-46. Razis, a notable Jewish elder
in the city, was denounced. He was
regarded by faithful Jews as a father of the Jews, Nicanor decided to arrest
him. When no escape was possible from
the soldiers and crowds, Razis committed suicide. He fell on his sword rather than suffer the
outrages of sinners, but this did not kill him.
He jumped from a wall, but he was still alive. Finally, he pulled out his entrails and threw
them to the crowd in the hope that he would receive them back again (i.e., in
the resurrection). The story is told as
though Razis was a hero for his choice to commit suicide. The author states that he preferred ‘to die
nobly’ (v. 42) and ‘bravely threw himself down’ (v. 43).
Joseph (cf. Wars of the Jews) argues against suicide in a speech he himself gave when a general
in the First Jewish War. At the battle
for Jotapata, when the Romans had already taken the city, a small group hid and
contemplated suicide. They claimed it
would be the noble thing to do. Josephus
agreed that, if the Romans were certain to kill him, he would commit suicide,
but if they were to offer mercy, they should also show mercy to
themselves. He believed the Romans would
show mercy, and so he argues against suicide with several reasons (War of the Jews 3.364-. First, he says it would be ignoble, like a
pilot of a ship who feared a tempest coming and so sunk his ship. Second, no animal commits suicide—nature has
wired all animals with the will to live.
Third, suicide would be an impiety toward God, who gave us life and a
body. He decides when to take it from
us. Fourth, those who die a natural
death win eternal renown, a holy place in heaven, and new bodies in the
resurrection. However, those souls that
take their own lives go to ‘the darkest place in Hades.’ Fifth, legislators rightly render a
punishment for suicide: the body is left exposed until sunset. Elsewhere, the hand that did the deed is cut
off (War of the Jews 3.364-378).[3]
At the end of the
first Jewish War against the Romans (AD 66-74), the Romans laid siege to
Masada, a rocky fortress in the Judean desert near the Dead Sea. The Romans built a ramp to give them access,
but before they could overwhelm the Jews who took refuge there, the Jews
committed mass suicide. Nine hundred and
sixty men, women, and children perished, according to Josephus (Jewish Wars 7.400). Josephus says that they committed suicide
rather than become slaves to the Romans (7.398). He concluded that the Romans ‘wonder at the courage of their resolution and the immovable
contempt of death, which so great a number of them had shown, when they went
through with such an action as that was’ (Jewish Wars 7.406). In saying so, he reflects the idea that
suicide can be a noble death and, particularly, an act of courage.
Rabbinic teaching about suicide shows some ambivalence. Several passages from the Babylonian Talmud speak to the issue. In bBava Kamma 91b, we see that Jewish sages from AD 10-220, the Tannaim, disputed whether a man might commit suicide. The ambivalence can be seen in bAboda Zara 18b. It tells of the execution by fire of rabbi Chanina b. Traydon. Urged by his students to die quickly by opening his mouth to the flame, he replied that a person should not harm himself but let God, who gives life, take it. The passage opposes suicide even when being put to death. However, it continues with the executioner asking the rabbi if he sped up his death he would take him with him to the world to come. The rabbi agrees, and the executioner then built up the fire, removed the wet wool on his heart, and jumped into the flames.
Another Talmudic
tractate, bGittin 57b, presents the
story of four hundred Jewish boys and girls who were taken captive and
transported by boat to be used as prostitutes.
They discussed suicide by jumping into the sea to avoid prostitution.[4] The eldest quoted Psalm 68.22, that God would
‘bring back from the depths of the sea’, and so the girls all jumped into the
sea. The boys then reasoned that, if
girls committed suicide on account of a natural sin, how much more should they do
so to avoid an unnatural (homosexual) sin?
Also, bSemahot 2.1-2 states that rites are not
performed over one who commits suicide.
R. Akiva taught that nobody was to rend their clothes, remove their
shoes, or eulogize the suicide, but neither should the person be cursed. People might line up for those mourning and
bless them, for they are the living.
Thus, the rule that applies in such a situation is to honor the living.
The view that
suicide is self-murder is taught in Genesis Rabbah, a commentary from the 3rd
to the 5th century on Genesis.
Regarding the passage of Genesis 9.5, where God requires a reckoning of
anyone shedding human blood, the commentary states that this includes suicide.
Islam
The
Quran says, ‘...And do not kill ˹each other or˺
yourselves. Surely Allah is ever Merciful to you’ (An-Nisa 4:29). The passage
may be suggesting that God’s judgement of those who commit suicide is left to
Him rather than stated definitively.
Clearly, though, suicide is proscribed.
The Hadith, also
considered authoritative, states,
Whoever kills himself with (an
instrument of) iron he will come on the Day of Judgement with his iron in his
hand, to continually stab himself in the stomach with it, in the fire of Johannam, dwelling in that state
eternally. And whoever kills himself
with poison, then his poison will be in his hand, to continually take it in the
Fire of Johannam, dwelling in that
state eternally (2043).[5]
Hadith 2044 repeats this, adding ‘...And whoever
throws himself from a mountain to kill himself, then he will be continually
throwing himself in the Fire of Johannam,
dwelling in that state eternally.’ It
also adds that a more correct statement leaves out eternal punishment and
allows that, after punishment, ‘the people of the Tawhid would be punished in the Fire and then be removed from
it’. Finally, Hadith 2636 says, ‘whoever kills himself with something, then Allah
will punish him with whatever he killed himself with on the Day of Judgement’.
An incident of a man committing suicide is mentioned in Hadith 1068. It states that the Prophet did not perform Ṣalăt, a funeral prayer. However, the comment continues to say that
people differ. Some say prayer should be
given to anyone who prayed toward the Qiblah,
even one who killed himself. Others say
the Imam must not pray but others
may.
As to assisted suicide, Hadith
2045 seems to be relevant. It says,
‘Abü Hurairah narrated: "The Messenger of Allah forbade from cures that
are Khabith”.’ ‘Khabith’ means something
filthy or unlawful and so here is a reference to poison.
[1] Translations are taken from Confucianism
| The Ethics of Suicide Digital Archive (accessed 14 January, 2025).
[2] Lakshmi Vijayakumar, ‘Hindu Religion and Suicide in India,’ The Oxford Textbook of Suicidology and
Suicide Prevention, ed. Dunuta
Wasserman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021); online: Oxford
Textbook of Suicidology and Suicide Prevention - Google Books (accessed 7
April, 2025), p. 26.
[3] The Works of Flavius Josephus,
trans. William Whiston (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Pub., 1987).
[4] The 14th/15th
c. Tosafist commentary on bAvodah Zarah 18a, saying that this example shows that
suicide is acceptable when one fears that torture may lead one to sin. See ‘Tosafot’ in ‘The Ethics of Suicide
Digital Library’; online: https://ethicsofsuicide.lib.utah.edu/selections/tosafot/ (accessed 31 December, 2024).
[5] English Translation of Jami‘
At-Tirmidhi, trans. Abu Khaliyl (Maktaba Dar-us-Salam, 2007).
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