The Morality Of Suicide Throughout The Ages

To be, or not to be, is Shakespeare’s most famous soliloquy and arguable the most famous soliloquy ever written. The passage provides readers with an understanding of Hamlets personal fight with suicide. Here Hamlet weighs the positive and negative effects of committing suicide. Although Shakespeare inserted the passage to explain Hamlet’s thoughts it also has significance to the target audience of the Elizabethan/Jacobean Era. As through the passage Shakespeare discusses the controversial action of suicide. In the 17th Century society cared about the honour and respect of their family name. If one was to commit the sinful action of suicide they would be seen as dishonourable. Therefore suicide victims were not provided respectful burials and

Throughout this essay, we will be looking a Durkheim’s analysis of suicide and whether his ideas on suicide were right in his time, and whether they are still relevant in today’s society. Emile Durkheim described ‘suicide’ as a term “applied to any death which is the direct or indirect result of a positive or negative act accomplished by the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result” (Durkheim, Suicide: a Study in Sociology, originally published 1897, 1970). Positive acts were acts that were undertaking with the intention to produce death. Negative acts were actually the distinct lack of survival acts undertaken, with the knowledge that without these acts, death would be the result. As far as Durkheim was concerned, although suicide itself is a very individual act, the reasoning behind suicide was due to predominantly social factors (Durkheim 1970, p44). Suicide was sociological, not psychological. His research was based not on the personality traits of those who had committed suicide, but instead at the suicide rates of different countries compared to the social factors that link the countries together (Durkheim 1970, p40).

Suicide is defined as taking one’s life for the sake of oneself. Killing oneself, does not necessarily mean suicide because suicide is inherently selfish and completely focused on the individual. The reason for killing oneself changes whether it is suicide or not. Suicide has a very negative

In order to discover the different facets of what ‘suicide’ is, it is imperative to first define what the word itself means. Tracing back to Latin, the word is derived from the words sui meaning “of oneself" and cida meaning “killer,” (FIND). Thus, as found in the dictionary, suicide is “the action of killing oneself intentionally,” (Oxford).

Physician assisted suicide, also known as active euthanasia, has been a controversial subject throughout the years dating as far back as the 1800s. In the United States, there have been great debates as to if a sickly individual has the right to end their own life with the assistance of a physician. Many people see the word ‘suicide’ and automatically have a negative connotation associated with it. Suicide is considered the act of taking one’s life and some would go as far as to say it is committing murder. On the other side of the

The debate between Mark A.R. Kleinman and Ira Byock discuss the topic of suicide whether it should be legal or not; Kleinman is arguing for suicide to be legal, which will come to the conclusion that suicide should be allowed for anyone and not have any punishment for an attempt. Byock argues the opposing argument that suicide should be illegal, but the focus of this argument will be Kleiman’s point of view. The exigency, the problem that can be fixed, is viewed in this argument that it is the people’s right to kill themselves and this is due to the depression and/or the feeling of thinking they are better off dead. The audience directed towards this argument is people committing suicide and those who oppose the people committing the ‘crime’ of suicide. Constraints, the biases, in this situation would be ethical beliefs and the people who have witnessed or experienced these suicidal thoughts. Kleinman’s reasoning is the use of emotion and human rights are seen to enhance his argument. Therefore suicide should not be legal, it should be treated instead of encouraged.

In the article “Suicide” on the Opposing Viewpoints website they state “Each year, about thirty thousand people in the United States commit suicide” (“Suicide”).I chose the theme of violence from the novel Kindred, written by the author Octavia Butler. A specific issue that arose within this theme is the act of suicide. Webster Dictionary defines suicide as the act of intentionally causing one 's own death. Suicide is the escape route out of many situations their victims can’t fight. Suicide goes back in history all the way to BC time. One of the first suicide cases was the Greek philosopher Socrates dated on 399 BC May 7. Suicide has been around for several years. This theme relates to kindred because one of the characters commit suicide. . Suicide is a critical conversation in the world today because the suicide rate is increasing rapidly (“Suicide”). It is very common to see someone has committed suicide. The age group that’s being targeted now are young adults, and older celebrities. Teen suicide is a growing health concern. It is the third-leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24, surpassed only by homicide and accidents, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Many people take different viewpoints on this issue. Some people feel as though self-murder is there choice. Another viewpoint people feel is, there is always another option than suicide. In society, we feel like you can seek professional help before you try to commit

In the study of philosophy, it is evident that there are notions that agree and disagree with each other. When we narrow down philosophical time periods, it is even more interesting to see how ideas conflict in such a short period of time. As we observe the period between Georg Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche, we are approached with an array of beliefs as religious philosophy is combined with non-religious philosophy. The undeniable aspect is that each concept can be adequately compared. In studying Georg Hegel, John Stuart Mill, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Friedrich Nietzsche, it is evident that each takes a supreme stance on morality. Therefore, I propose the question, “Is it morally permissible to commit suicide”? By analyzing each philosophical approach to this question, each philosopher’s notion on the concept will be revealed.

On average, every day, 121 people die from suicide, which means 44,193 deaths each year just in the United States. On the other hand, for every one suicide, there are at least 25 attempts. Every attempt that “failed” is just another chance to save a life. An unknown source once quoted “Suicide doesn’t end the chances of life getting worse, it eliminates the possibility of it ever getting any better.” There are multiple methods a person can choose from to commit suicide, but this essay will be discussing two specific methods: jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge and physician-assisted suicide.

Mikva and Rosenthal. “Guns and the Rising Rate of Suicide.” New York Times. 14 Dec. 2015:

 Thesis: While Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, I believe That Suicide is wrong.

According to Naiden, in the case of suicide, the victim does not kill himself or herself but the guilty party was actually the instrument they used to commit the suicide. According to Greek tradition, suicide was viewed as a form of homicide. Additionally Greek families where obliged to avenge and punish the murderer of a fellow family member unless the person forgave his murderer before his death. However, in the case of suicide, there was no one to punish and no one left to do the forgiving. For this reason, the instrument or weapon a person used to commit suicide was convicted of the crime and subsequently punished. However, the victim did not always freely choose suicide and therefore different rules applied. According to Elise

Although a patient’s choice of suicide symbolizes an expression of self-determination, there is a great distinction between denying life-sustaining treatments and demanding life-ending treatments. The right to self-determination is a right to allow or reject offered treatments, not to choose what should be offered. The right to refuse life-sustaining interventions does not correlate with a right to force others to hasten their death. The inability of physicians to inhibit death does not mean that physicians are allowed to help induce death.

“Americans have developed a paradoxical relationship with death-we know more about the causes and conditions surrounding death, but we have not equipped ourselves emotionally to cope with dying and death (Bender and B. Leone).” Death is a scary subject for all humans. And death caused by oneself, or suicide, is even scarier. Suicide on a medical terms, or euthanasia, confuses many people. It poses many moral questions to humans: should it be allowed? How is this

Suicide is mainly frowned upon in the western world whereas in Japan suicide may be seen as something which is noble and required to protect honour which the continuation of life would invalidate. The passage of time has also seen the emergence and rejection of different attitudes. During the persecution of Christians in Rome it was perceived as acceptable that a Christian virgin should commit suicide rather than be deflowered, raped by a Roman soldier. The Romans and Greeks both had the opinion that suicide was a responsible socially acceptable and sometimes necessary course of action, Socrates drank hemlock in the company of his friends. In certain parts of rural India it is still permissible for the wife of a deceased man to commit suicide by throwing herself onto his funeral pyre.