Zombie Apocalypse Suicide Question

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Forgive me if I posted this in the wrong thread topic thingy. As you can probably tell by my number of posts, I’m new. 😛

My question is if (obviously this will never happen) in a zombie apocalypse, like 30 zombies are coming to your house, and you had a gun with one bullet, would it still be a sin if you kill yourself with the gun.
I had this stray thought and I just thought I’d ask on here.
My gut feeling would be yes, it would be a sin, but I wanna hear what you guys think.
Thanks 🙂
EDIT: Just in case some of you are confused, I am in no way supportive of euthanasia.
 
I hope you don’t mind if I make it more complicated.

You probably heart story (France, WW2) where mother noticed garnet in living room far from window and only thing she managed to do was to run and throw herself on it just in the moment of explosion. Technically, she comited suicide. But by doing this, she saved her child and it could well have been the only possible action not to let her child die. I guess this suicide was sacrifice to save life and so unsinful.

Now let us have zombies who bite and in that fashion not just kill people but change them into killing zombies as well. And the only way how to kill/eliminate/stop such a zombie is to turn it into ash or shoot it. So it is not “will I kill myself?” or “will I wait until they kill me?”. In this setting we have “by shooting myself will I prevent creating another killing monster probably killing other people?” or “by abstaining from shooting myself will I allow creating another killing monster?”.

In situation like this, I think it would be similar to the story about mother saving her child’s life by commiting sinless suicide.
 
Let’s get something settled here, if there is a zombie apocalypse and you are surrounded with only gun with one bullet, you can still use your fists. Suicide is never justified. But dying for someone is not suicide. The second example you gave is really complicated, not sure how to understand it. Take the example of St. Maximilian Kolbe, he was in a Nazi death camp during WW2. The nazis were picking people to choose to go to a shack (or some type of shed) where they will starve/dehydrate to death. St. Max offered himself to go instead of a man who got picked, in order to save his life. Thus, St. Max chose to give up his life for that man, which is not suicide, but heroic. In fact, that is what Our Lord did for us to redeem us.
 
I’m not familiar with modern day zombies, but back in my day if you got bitten by a zombie you turned into one. There’s no way you could use your fists to fend off a mob of zombies without at least one of them biting a chunk out of you.
 
I don’t think a Zombie Apocalpyse is possible.

If this is a bacteria or virus (natural cause) then the virus or bacteria will reach a certain point in the host where it will eventually eat the host alive and then that’s it, it won’t even move anymore. If this is like “World War Z” where it took 12 seconds to turn, then they’re gone in 2-3 minutes (this assumes the virus has a hyper-ridiculous-warp-speed ability to multiply). The body won’t keep going as a zombie for days/weeks/months/years…

If this is a supernatural (demon possession) then shooting the body won’t do anything, and killing oneself wont do anything. The demon is immortal and will keep going. Call an exorcist and let Jesus do His thing. Suicide is not an option because the body is dead anyway, kill oneself the demon takes over and goes for a drive in your body anyway.

Even if one turned into a zombie, it takes place after one is dead and there is no moral culpability.
 
Nestor_kea said:
I hope you don’t mind if I make it more complicated.

You probably heart story (France, WW2) where mother noticed garnet in living room far from window and only thing **she managed to do was to run and throw herself on it just in the moment of explosion. Technically, she comited suicide. **But by doing this, she saved her child and it could well have been the only possible action not to let her child die. I guess this suicide was sacrifice to save life and so unsinful.

Now let us have zombies who bite and in that fashion not just kill people but change them into killing zombies as well. And the only way how to kill/eliminate/stop such a zombie is to turn it into ash or shoot it. So it is not “will I kill myself?” or “will I wait until they kill me?”. In this setting we have “by shooting myself will I prevent creating another killing monster probably killing other people?” or “by abstaining from shooting myself will I allow creating another killing monster?”.

In situation like this, I think it would be similar to the story about mother saving her child’s life by commiting sinless suicide.
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That is not correct. She didn’t even technically commit suicide. She have her life to save another. That is completely different from suicide.
 
Actually that is suicide.

Modern Catholic Dictionary:

SUICIDE. The direct killing of oneself on one’s own authority. It is a grave sin against the natural and revealed law. The suicide offends against the divine precept “You shall not kill.” One causes grave injury to the welfare of society and violates the virtue of charity to oneself. God is the supreme and exclusive owner of all things, so that exercising ownership over life is lawful only to God. He alone can take human life when he wills. The one who directly takes his or her own life violates the rights of God. (Etym. Latin sui, self + cidium, a killing.)
 
TheNew52 said:
Forgive me if I posted this in the wrong thread topic thingy. As you can probably tell by my number of posts, I’m new. 😛

My question is if (obviously this will never happen) in a zombie apocalypse, like 30 zombies are coming to your house, and you had a gun with one bullet, would it still be a sin if you kill yourself with the gun.
I had this stray thought and I just thought I’d ask on here.
My gut feeling would be yes, it would be a sin, but I wanna hear what you guys think.
Thanks 🙂
EDIT: Just in case some of you are confused, I am in no way supportive of euthanasia.
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No way man. Grab a huge knife in one hand and cleaver in the other and head for the biggest Zombie:D
 
ChurchSoldier said:
No way man. Grab a huge knife in one hand and cleaver in the other and head for the biggest Zombie:D
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According to Christopher Moore, Zombies like Ikea furniture in addition to brains. So run into an Ikea warehouse, then escape while they are distracted.
 
So I find the answers here curious. Almost everyone agrees that suicide is never justified and that if someone were in this situation then it would still be a sin. However I remember hearing the story of St. Pelagia, who leapt to her death to avoid being raped by roman soldiers. Historically her act of suicide is considered valiant by many in the Church. Does not the same rule apply to this situation as well?
 
It still makes it suicide no matter what fate would have befallen them.
 
A lot of you seem to have strayed from the initial question…🤷

I’ll use The Walking Dead as an example.

1.) You’re bit (let’s say in the hand), but otherwise safe from being eaten alive.
2.) You lack the implements to sever your arm to stop the spread, as well as the medical supplies to stop yourself from bleeding to death.
3.) you have a firearm

Options are:
1.) You let yourself get sick from the bite and die. Your body rises and roams around killing others.
2.) You put a bullet in your head so your body actually stays dead.

Ever since you got bit, your a dead man walking. Choosing to save lives is the most important thing, so you choose option 2.
 
It’s terrible, but how is this any different from euthanasia? Let’s say in circumstances as above, being:
  1. You have almost 100% certainty you will die
  2. You must suffer terribly before dying
Is euthanasia then justified? According to our faith, it’s not, it’s sin. So how is the situation above any different?
 
However tragic the fate that might befall a person in the various scenarios you give it is still suicide.
 
The problem that I am having with your posts, thistle, is that although you are technically correct, it is awfully harsh given the realities of what some people have experienced.

If you ever read something like “the Rape of Nanking,” or books about what the Russians did to German women when the red army rolled through Germany in 1945, I really, really think you’d maybe exhibit a bit more understanding towards women who took their own lives, particularly since rape was used a game by invaders in those instances.

Maybe *seeing, with our own eyes, *things like the following, might give some perspective:

-Pregnant women raped at the moment of their births, followed by the evisceration of their babies;
-Girls of 8 and grandmothers of 80 raped;
-Fathers forced to rape their daughters, brothers their sisters, and sons their mothers;
-Priests forced to rape nuns.

Not too nice to contemplate, no?

In other words: The mouth of hell opened and hell itself was loosed on innocent women and girls.

Anyone who’s going to condemn a women who, in that situation, took her own life, really, really needs some sense of Christian compassion.

Are you doing that? Not exactly. But by blindly saying, “it’s still suicide!,” with nothing more, really gets awfully close to doing so tacitly. How about a bit of understanding, OK?
 
PolarGuy said:
The problem that I am having with your posts, thistle, is that although you are technically correct, it is awfully harsh given the realities of what some people have experienced.
…
Are you doing that? Not exactly. But by blindly saying, “it’s still suicide!,” with nothing more, really gets awfully close to doing so tacitly. How about a bit of understanding, OK?
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People die in slow and gut wrenchingly painful ways every day not just in times of war. What are we to make of their requests to end their own life? What would be the difference between someone who faces torture at the hands of ISIS or the Nazis and someone who faces torture when their own body turns against them?

I would say objectively taking your own life is wrong but that subjectively there are circumstances that we can not judge.
 
PolarGuy said:
The problem that I am having with your posts, thistle, is that although you are technically correct, it is awfully harsh given the realities of what some people have experienced.

If you ever read something like “the Rape of Nanking,” or books about what the Russians did to German women when the red army rolled through Germany in 1945, I really, really think you’d maybe exhibit a bit more understanding towards women who took their own lives, particularly since rape was used a game by invaders in those instances.

Maybe *seeing, with our own eyes, *things like the following, might give some perspective:

-Pregnant women raped at the moment of their births, followed by the evisceration of their babies;
-Girls of 8 and grandmothers of 80 raped;
-Fathers forced to rape their daughters, brothers their sisters, and sons their mothers;
-Priests forced to rape nuns.

Not too nice to contemplate, no?

In other words: The mouth of hell opened and hell itself was loosed on innocent women and girls.

Anyone who’s going to condemn a women who, in that situation, took her own life, really, really needs some sense of Christian compassion.

Are you doing that? Not exactly. But by blindly saying, “it’s still suicide!,” with nothing more, really gets awfully close to doing so tacitly. How about a bit of understanding, OK?
Click to expand...
You don’t seem to understand. There are two issues here.
  1. The act that is being discussed here is a suicide. The possible fate that would have befallen the people in the various scenarios does not change that.
  2. The possibility of reduced culpability for the sin of grave matter (which suicide is) would depend on the mental state of the person committing the act.
I have never said that such an act is always a mortal sin because culpability can be reduced. What I am saying is that the act is still a suicide.
 
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