There’s been a lot of suicide this week. Many
students are killing themselves. A musician killed himself. A very old man
killed himself.
The key to understanding suicide today is to look at
the story of a 104 year old man who travelled to Switzerland to kill himself in
a clinic. This man considered that he had the right to choose the means and the
time of his death. Lots of other people in Britain and elsewhere have gone to
the courts in order to fight for the same right. These cases are usually viewed
sympathetically. Someone with a terminal illness wants to avoid suffering. Few
of us would dare say “no” you must continue to suffer. But every time someone
goes to a clinic to commit suicide it chips away at the taboo surrounding
suicide. Why should we be surprised then, when there are a lot of suicides?
Until relatively recently in history suicide almost universally
was considered to be perhaps the greatest sin. The problem is that the view
that suicide is wrong depends on theology. Without theology it is very easy to
argue for the right to commit suicide. David Hume’s argument is as good as any
other. But then how are we to discourage suicide in an age when Christianity is
in decline? It becomes rather difficult.
Suicides sometimes happen because someone genuinely
is in a position that is impossible. A soldier about to be captured and facing
torture and ultimately death may prefer to kill himself. Another soldier may
choose death in order to save his comrades. But these sorts of situation are
rare in ordinary life.
The two main categories of suicide today are where
someone wishes to kill himself because of a physical illness and where someone
wishes to kill himself because of a mental illness.
The crucial thing to realise however is that while
the situation may appear hopeless to the suicide it isn’t.
Someone who is terminally ill need not commit
suicide because there are ways of alleviating pain such that suffering can be
minimised, even eliminated. If my pain becomes so great that I require a dose
of morphine that ultimately will have the side effect of killing me, I am not
committing suicide. All I am doing is trying to avoid pain. The care that dying
people receive in hospices means that travelling abroad to die is quite
unnecessary.
It is particularly unnecessary when a man is 104,
not terminally ill and is merely looking forward to death. So long as he is not
in any physical pain and has every material need fulfilled, then his position
is better than the vast majority of people in the world. In the natural course
of events his wish to die will be fulfilled, probably quite quickly.
The greatest pity is when someone suffering from
depression believes that his situation is hopeless and that the only
alternative is to die. The reason for this is that the person’s situation is
not hopeless.
Someone may be devastated by an event, failing an
exam, losing a loved one, but each of us who has ever experienced suffering for
these reasons knows that the experience of suffering changes, passes and that
new forms of happiness are possible even after great loss. From the perspective
of twenty years later, failing an exam can seem trivial. The key is to wait and
to be patient. This too shall pass.
Depression may occur because of a tangible reason or
may strike from nowhere. The situation can seem hopeless to the depressed
person. But it isn’t hopeless. It isn’t like the soldier who has no way out.
Depression for the most part can be cured or at least eased. People who have
been depressed frequently go on to live lives where there is the usual mixture
of happiness and sadness, disappointment and fulfilment. Once more the key is
to wait and to be patient.
One of the reasons why in the past depressed people
were able to wait and be patient is that they were taught that suicide is
wrong. The problem today is because no-one is willing to say that suicide is
wrong, there is precious little to deter the person who is contemplating
suicide. If a man of 104 is tired of life and kills himself and everyone looks
at the story sympathetically, is it any surprise when a musician who is tired
of life also decides to kill himself. He will get glowing tributes afterwards
and no-one will say that what he did was wrong. Is it any surprise then when we
get the next suicide?
The immorality of suicide consists not merely in its
rejection of the gift of life, but more importantly in the selfishness of
contributing to the climate which sees suicide as something normal and life as
not really being the most precious of gifts. Better by far not to encourage
suicide with your sympathy.
