Can a person avoid a terrible death by committing suicide?

[Celeste88]

As a follow-up to the previous question on the morality of suicide:

A person is in a burning high rise with no means of escape except through an open window. He’s on the tenth floor and knows full well if he jumps out the window he will probably die. Yet the flames are getting closer and closer and the man decides to jump to avoid the flames of death. Is this man committing a sin by jumping out the window? Either way he will die.

Another scenario: A woman is terminally ill with horrific cancer pain. The morphine is not helping much and she realizes she faces the grim reality of a slow and painful death. She begins to contemplate taking an overdose of her pills and one day she does.

Are the two examples similar and is each case a mortal sin since the person is taking his own life?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

Celeste88:

A person is in a burning high rise with no means of escape except through an open window. He’s on the tenth floor and knows full well if he jumps out the window he will probably die. Yet the flames are getting closer and closer and the man decides to jump to avoid the flames of death. Is this man committing a sin by jumping out the window? Either way he will die.

In this case there is the possibility that he might not die. If he jumps with the intention of saving his life, he has not committed suicide. If he jumps with the intention of dying, he has committed suicide, but the fear and stress of the situation may mitigate his culpability for the suicide.

Celeste88:

Another scenario: A woman is terminally ill with horrific cancer pain. The morphine is not helping much and she realizes she faces the grim reality of a slow and painful death. She begins to contemplate taking an overdose of her pills and one day she does.

This is why St. Therese of Lisieux, who was also tempted at one point to end her own horrific suffering from tuberculosis, counseled that medicines should not be kept in a place where the suffering person could reach them because of the temptation such medicines would pose to that person. A caregiver who left such medications within reach of a terminally ill person would, at the very least, be extremely negligent.

In any case, if the terminally ill person freely chose to commit suicide, fully knowing the gravity of the action, that person could be guilty of mortal sin. If the knowledge and consent was impeded by fear and pain, the action would not be a mortal sin.

Celeste88:

Are the two examples similar and is each case a mortal sin since the person is taking his own life?

Mortal sin requires grave matter, full knowledge, and full and free consent of the will. If any of the requirements are missing, suicide is not a mortal sin but is still an objectively grave action. The two examples differ in that it is possible that the first person might not intend suicide but to save his life.