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Suicide: A Complex Issue. Dr. Margaret Battin University of Utah battin@utah.edu. Simplified Suicide. Teen suicide Always bad. Timeline: 2000 BCE - 450 BCE. Approve. Sallekhana. 13 th Khanda. Jain Tradition. Preventing old age. Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha. Hippocratic Corpus.
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Suicide: A Complex Issue Dr. Margaret Battin University of Utah battin@utah.edu
Simplified Suicide • Teen suicide • Always bad
Timeline: 2000 BCE - 450 BCE Approve Sallekhana 13thKhanda Jain Tradition Preventing old age Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha Hippocratic Corpus 2000BCE 450BCE Sophocles Upanishads Egyptian Didactic Tale Euripides Confucius Isa Violent suicide Disapprove
Trends • Situational • Self sacrifice (several) • Old age (Ancient Greeks) • Impassioned action vs. Contemplative movement to the next life (Jain) vs.
Hippocratic Corpus • The Oath • Actual Practice • About Maidens “…I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan…” -Hippocratic Oath ?
Timeline: 450 BCE – 150 CE Stoics Responsible (Socrates) Approve ? Livy Seneca Josephus Plato Martyrdom ≠ Suicide? Chrysippus Interpretation? 450BCE 150 CE 0 Justin Martyr Ignatius Aristotle The New Testament Without good reason Disapprove
Trends • All over the place
Stoics • Chrysippus’s 5 reasons • Commanded to do so by a higher authority • To avoid being forced to do shameful things • Serious illness • Poverty • Dementedness • Seneca: Wise man’s decision
Ignatius “ …I shall willingly die for God… I am the wheat of God, and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts… Then I shall truly be a disciple of Christ…” “ …May I enjoy the wild beasts that are prepared for me; and I pray they may be found eager to rush upon me…and not deal with me as with some, whom, out of fear, they have not touched. -Ignatius of Antioch But if they be unwilling to assail me, I will compel them to do so.”
Timeline: 150 - 1300 Approve Preserving Virginity Self-invited martyrdom Martyrdom? 150 1300 Angela of Foligno Henry de Bracton Aquinas Ambrose Augustine The Quran al-Bukhari Disapprove Catholic position henceforth
Trends • Christians become increasingly negative • Exceptions • Martyrdom: Suicide or something else?
Timeline: 1400 - 1750 DaidojiYuzan (Samurai, Busido) Approve Glory of God (Christ) Thomas More ChikamatsuMonzaemon David Hume Cato 1400 1750 John Donne Martin Luther Immanuel Kant Cotton Mather Disapprove
Trends • Wide swings back and forth
Oral Cultures Many varied views that change over time
Timeline: 1750 - 1900 On the Influence of Passions Hindu Widow Approve Madame de Stael ??? Hara Kiri Nietzsche 1750 1900 John Stuart Mill Disapprove Reflections on Suicide
Early 20th Century:Emil Durkheim and Sigumund Freud • Suicide as a function of psychopathology • Suicide as a function of societal organization • The ethical issues seemed to be eclipsed by the notion that suicide is caused
Suicide as an Ethical Issue Reemerges • Many widely disagreeing opinions
Tactical Suicide • Kamikaze • Jihad
Suicide of Social Protest • SzmulZygielbojm protesting the extermination of Polish Jews • Buddhist monks and nuns protesting Vietnamese War
Physician Assisted Suicide It’s an ongoing issue or legal in all of these countries: