Is Suicide Murder?

It is not without significance, that in no passage of the holy canonical books there can be found either divine precept or permission to take away our own life, whether for the sake of entering on the enjoyment of immortality, or of shunning, or ridding ourselves of anything whatever. Nay, the law, rightly interpreted, even prohibits suicide, where it says, You shall not kill.1

I'm fortunate that suicide has only touched my life a handful of times. When a colleague suffocated herself, I found that it helped in sorting out my thoughts and feelings on the matter to write a short story to explore the issue.  Admittedly, those thoughts and feelings can be a little overwhelming. In 1998, a young woman named Mora McGowan and her addict boyfriend hung themselves off of Portland's Steel Bridge. I had known Mora and her sister in elementary school and junior high, and I'll never forget the child's happy, innocent smile or how much she loved to read good books. Suicide is an ugly thing.  If we try to look beyond the emotions, though, what is the morality of suicide?

If murder is indeed the intentional killing of a human being, then suicide seems to fit that description. With the well-publicized suicides of Robin Williams and Oregon's Brittany Maynard, we need to take a close look at the minefield before us. If we accept that suicide is a legitimate answer in only some situations--e.g. terminal illness--then we are, in effect, placing the pain of one select group of people on a pedestal, discounting the pain of others as inferior and less real. This only makes it that much more abundantly clear that suicide is never the answer.

In other words, if you support a terminally ill patient's attempt to kill herself, why don't you also support the depressed teen or the mentally ill person who may have a similar desire? How about a disabled person who is tired of living with the pain of a severe disability? You see, don't you, where this leads? There is, frankly, no end to the people you might encourage in their planned suicide. We all experience pain, after all. If you pick and choose...you're placing the pain of one group of people above the pain of the other. Your logic crumbles, and it exposes a black heart.

Suicide, euthanasia, and abortion are all manifestations of a devaluation of life around us. Life is not a commodity; it is a sacred gift from God. We didn't create ourselves, and we didn't set our own hearts to beating. Ending this life in suicide is throwing away the greatest gift we have. Perseverance, hope, and prayer don't offer an immediate release, but, of course, neither does suicide. Death is just the beginning of what's to come.

So, I ask you to stop glorifying and praising suicide as a "personal choice." It's the wrong choice; it's a selfish choice, and it's murder. For once, let's call it for what it is. Instead, embrace life with thankfulness and endeavor to offer up the pain, and pray for those who have passed on in the sin of suicide.

Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said “dignity is something other than putting an end to one’s own life,” when asked about Maynard’s decision to kill herself. Carrasco de Paula said “Brittany Maynard’s act is in itself reprehensible, but what happened in the consciousness we do not know.”2

¹North, Wyatt; St. Augustine (2012-02-27). The Life and Writings of Saint Augustine (Kindle Locations 7651-7653). Kindle Edition.

²Courtesy LifeNews.com