Is suicide wrong?

[puzzleannie]

We take it into our own hands to determine everything that we do. Every choice that we make, even if it is a choice to follow what we believe to be the will of God, is a choice made by us.

This is merely one more of those: why should it be any more offensive than any of the others?

yes, we have free will, but that means freedom to chose what is right, what God intends for us, to carry out the purpose for which we were created. It does not mean license to act like spoiled children, reject God’s gifts, and destroy those gifts for ourselves and others.

Any choice that harms ourself or others or dishonors God is offensive.

 

[Church_Militant]

would i have gone to hell if i considered suicide a week ago. My medicine was poisoning my brain, making it corrupt and stuff. I couldn’t pull myself out of it. I was illurgic to one of my psyche meds

.My dear friend,
No you would not. I’m glad that you are still here to ask this question.
Hang in there.

Suicide

2280 Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.

2281 Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.

2282 If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law.

*Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.

2283 We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.*

Pax tecum,

 

[johnnycatholic]

The Commandment “Thou shalt not kill” is more correctly translated “Thou shalt not murder”. If someone breaks into your house and tries to kill your family, you are not murdering them by shooting them, you are defending yourself. While turning the other cheek is fine, we also know that defense against unjust aggressors is also acceptable, depending on the situation.
Suicide is murder of yourself and it is cowardly. There are times when mental illness may be a mitigating factor, but fear of dying in pain or of being a burden on your family are unacceptable reasons for choosing to end your life. On orthodoxytoday.org there was a fine article written about why, when you get old, you should not feel bad about burdening your children with caring for you. You gave them life, you spent countless nights cleaning their vomit, walking the floor with them as babes until they fell asleep. When the opportunity arises to let them repay some of that gift of life, you do a grave injustice by not humbling yourself to be cared for, and if they would treat you like a burden, then they are selfish brats. The Bible says your parents gave you life and you can never repay that. Children have a duty to Honor their Father and Mother, not guilt them into suicide because they can’t live on their own.
Anyway, obviously in any suicide there are any number of factors influencing whether it is a mortal or venial offense, but it is always morally wrong. We can treat pain, both physical and emotional, but death is not a cure for anything, and it is never a moral option. I hope the euthanasia direction was interesting.

 

[jamannor]

If so, why?

If your church/leader/text says so, why does it say that?

Of course it’s wrong, how could a society flourish if everyone was killing themselves or each other. I just graduated from college and there was a young freshmen Catholic who was a member of many Christian organizations on campus who all would say was a good Christian, and it really struck us all at a lost. At the time I was leading a bible study to mostly Protestants and I can remember everyone asking me if I thought there was a chance for her to go to heaven, and I brought out my catechism book, and told them that first of all that we weren’t the ones to judge her if she is going to heaven or hell. And secondly the church teaches us that we should pray for her. Sometimes the act of suicide is lessened too like others have pointed out…

If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law. Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide. CC 2282

I think this is very important. I believe most people who commit suicide fall into this category. Personally I cannot imagine anyone that doesn’t have psychological disturbances killing themselves. I know that I have trouble rubbing out really sore muscles because they hurt too much, let alone hurting myself in more dangerous ways.

It does make me wonder how Jim Jones, and other cults who do commit mass suicides think. Is it truly voluntary, or is there mental disturbances. I think everyone one of us tonight or even now should make sure we include those people who commit suicide in our prayers.

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

And how to diagnose if it is a clinical depression? I might have not enough sleep, not enough nutrients, therefore I am depressed. I might have overworked, therefore I am depressed, I might have hung on some value (or some valueables) but lost, therefore I am depressed. My husband may have been cheating on me therefore I am depressed. I might have ten children, big houses, big companies to take care, big debt, too many friends and fans, bad relations, not enough friends, not enough activities, too many activities, therefore I am depressed.

All in all, I think antidepressant is the last answer for those of the above. People have combinations of problems. But only one thing to be sure of : to hope in God, He knows your needs. He can heal you of depression (regardless your past, He can heal you NOW), because with God is joy and healing and rest. Joy and rest in Him is what a depressed person need.

Mental illness. I am not talking about mental illness such schizophrenia and other mental illness. If you are schizophrenic, for example, then yes you need your medicine. Here, I am talking about normal people who were depressed (lightly/heavily) but not suicidal, who became suicidal after taking antidepressant.

That’s one of the biggest problems in psychiatry. You get some patients who clearly have a pathology. They don’t talk, or only answer in monsyllables. They respond neither to pleasurable nor to painful stimuli. They just sit quietly staring into space.
Then you get other patients who have a litany of complaints, most of which are fairly rational beleifs that they are unervalued, unsuccessful, not good at making relationships, and so on. However they also seem to lack motivation to deal with these problems except by seeking medical advice.

Then there is a whole range in between. What we don’t know is whether the second lot are suffering from a mild form of the same illness as the first, or whether the similarities are only superficial.

Whether mortal-sin, I do not know. One thing I know, to commit suicide is mortal. It is against the will of life, which is the will of God.

A successful sucide kills himself, so in that very real sense it is a mortal sin.
However there are lots of reasons for suicide: a cry for help or dramatic gesture that goes wrong, euthanaisia in the face of a painful terminal illness, suicide to retrieve honour in the face of unbearable humiliation, suicide to make a political or other point, suicide when someone sees no future because of his financial or other situation, religious suicide because self-sacrifice is demanded by the deity or cult leader. There is also the grey area of a “suicidal mission” where someone accepts the near certainty of death in order to accomplish an ulterior goal.

All of these cases are very different, but with the possible exception of the last all very undesireable, because of the effect on the person and those around them.

 

[aquinas333]

would i have gone to hell if i considered suicide a week ago. My medicine was poisoning my brain, making it corrupt and stuff. I couldn’t pull myself out of it. I was illurgic to one of my psyche meds.

Mental illness is not unlike any other illness. When it flares up or is under or mis-treated, you could get gravely ill and even die as a consequence of th illness…

Church teaching on suicide is that if the individual who commits suicide is experiencing grave psychological distubance, anguish, fear of hardship, suffering or torture, then that individual’s blameworthiness may be diminished in part or completely. My guess is that no, you woud not have gone to hell. After all, Mercy is God’s greatest attribute. Hang in there, my friend. God Bless you!

 

[francisca]

Regarding this CCC :

Suicide

2280 Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.

2281 Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.

2282 If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law.

Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.

2283 We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.

It does not mention anything about “our HOPE of God who is our help” at all.

 

[tptram]

my shifted thinking points out to my brain… i am not ‘mine’.

i didn’t make me. God did. I have no control over how long i breathe, God does. I really, in effect, am here on earth at the request and by the grace of the Creator.

I do not belong to myself. I belong to him.

Suicide is an ultimate act of rebellion against God because it chooses to be an ultimate act of control.
…
I just gotta thank God he’s chosen for me to take another breath.

thats my thinking on it, anyway.

bravo!!!
well said

Tak

 

[Anne_G]

Anti depressants can make people more depressed and suicidal. All anti depressants are now marked with that warning. I have been recently looking into this to find out what happened to my Dad when he took his own life 20 years ago. He was clinically depressed and put in a pyschatric ward and died in their care. He was not suicidal before he when in, only after he was put on the medication. They also put him on anti pyschotics which I don’t believe he should have been on. Like him, I have been in a psych ward against my will too about three years ago, and pumped full of medication that made me like a zombie and extremely ill. I am fine now and not on their medication, though they insist I have to be for the rest of my life regardless of whether I can function on it or not. It is the most frustrating feeling that is really hard to describe being locked up against your will having done nothing wrong except get ill, and have medications forced on you, held down and your pants stripped down and injected when you refuse to take them orally, threatened to have your children taken off you if you don’t take the medication, forced to live in a house that you don’t want to live in, the list goes on. Because of my Dad and God I wouldn’t even contemplate suicide but I can see how an ill person could think that was their only way out of the above mentioned situation. I honestly believe the mental health system drove my Dad to his death. I think that is why God allowed me to end up in there too, so I could see what they did to my Dad and others. I am now starting to write letters to Ministers etc to try to get someone to sit up and take notice of what is happening in these places. I really feel thats what God wants me to do.
I never felt anger at my Dad. I was extremely affected by his death, but was angry at the doctors that they didn’t prepare my Mum for his day leave, never with my Dad. I now know what they did to him and truly belive they pushed him over the edge. They have a lot to answer for. These people aren’t taking their own life to hurt God. It is pure desperation. Also those anti pysch medications can do terrible things to you, make you delusional, depressed, hallucinate, also physically ill. So many of these poor people who have taken their own life are so doped up they don’t know what their doing.
I believed for 15 years God wouldn’t have my Dad in heaven because of how he died, but since turning to God properly and Jesus, I know thats not true, I know he can be forgiven.
I also had an ex work collegue commit suide, and every one at work thought he was terrible. I was the only one that felt for him. He was the only one that showed interest well after my Dad died how I was holding up, everyone else forgot after about a week. He was a lovely man, I’m not sure what happened, but I know he has a good chance of forgiveness from God, and I pray for him and my Dad every day.
Sorry to be so black, but the mental health system is a absolute disgrace here in Australia. They don’t heal anyone, just pump them full of medication, and send them away. Perhaps some of these mental health doctors might be had up for murder by God for treating patients they way they do.
By the way, I don’t believe I was mentally ill either. I honestly thought God was talking to me, if it wasn’t him it was the devil playing games. The doctors said straight out, he is not talking to you, you are mentally ill, and forced the above onto me. I’m not sure how they knew God was not talking to me. They put me on six different anti pyschotics and not one stopped God? from talking to me. He stopped when he chose to. I was told to tell the doctors from day one, their medications wouldn’t stop him from talking to me, and they just looked at me like I was nuts. I don’t think they even believe in God, if they did then they should know it is quite possible for God to talk to whomever he chooses.