Conference 43 - Suicide

Conferences on the Virtues

By Fr. Bruno Cocuzzi, ocd

Number 43

Suicide

Now we will return to the subject of Suicide, which we began last time. The author of my textbook cites several “reasons” why suicide, objectively speaking, that is, leaving out of consideration “subjective” states of soul (which, as suggested above, could lessen the gravity, and even perhaps remove the guilt entirely) is a grave sin. He states that suicide is against the Natural Law on three counts:

(a) It does serious harm to the individual. Bodily Life is the greatest of temporal goods and the condition or the foundation for all other goods, both natural and supernatural. It is, for example, a condition for meriting eternal life, for making progress in charity, for repentance, for doing penance, and for the development of a moral and spiritual life. Thus whoever kills himself is violating the love (really the esteem) he should have for himself as God’s image and likeness. He also, violates the God-given instinct for self-preservation.

(b) It does serious harm to society. This “reason” may seem “out of touch” with present day thinking for a complex of reasons: Many people think the world is overpopulated, and that elderly people, especially the sick-elderly, take up too much space and consume too many scarce resources. Then, too, the concept that all our human lives are interrelated, and that any harm done to an individual in the society is inflicted upon the entire society, is also virtually unknown (or rejected) by most people living today. As my textbook explains it:” The part belongs to the whole, that is, to the entire organism as a useful member. Thus, whoever commits suicide deprives the entire society of the value of his personal life.

(c) Suicide violates and damages God’s rights as Author and Lord of our lives and of our bodies.

There is no indication in Holy Scripture that God has relinquished or transferred His rights over human life to His human creatures. Indeed, He has made it known in many ways that He reserves total dominion to Himself, and has placed upon us the duty and obligation to protect and foster human life. Although we speak of the GIFT of life, we cannot read into the word “gift” the notion of a gratuitous transfer of ownership over that life, i.e., to do with as one pleases. Rather, life is a “gift” insofar as God has done us a gratuitous favor, in sharing “being and life” with us. However, He confers it upon us as “stewards” or “trustees” over our individual personal lives, and, in different degrees, over the lives of ALL our fellow human beings. Thus (again objectively speaking), anyone who kills himself seriously violates his sacred trust as steward of his own personal life; that is, he violates the rights of God as Trustor and “Owner”, as well as the rights of his dependents as Beneficiaries.

Part, too, of the gratuitous gift of life is that, as a result of faithfully exercising his stewardship, one merits the ineffable joys of eternal happiness with God.

As already implied, suicide is also a direct violation of the divine positive law: Thou shalt not kill.

St. Augustine reminds us that this commandment concerns only human life. Other passages of scripture corroborate this precept: “It is I who put to death, and it is I who cause life (vivere faciam)” (Deut. 32:39). And again, “it is You, Lord, who have power over life and death” (Wis. 16:13). Then there is the well-known teaching of St. Paul: “No one lives for himself and no one dies for himself. If we live, we live for the Lord. If we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” (Rom. 14:7,8).

Finally, my textbook points out that none of the reasons usually brought forward suffice to justify suicide:

(a) The miseries of this present life. The happiness for which we were created is attainable only in the next life, and the sufferings of this earth provide occasions for repentance and reparation and therefore of acquiring greater certainty of attaining it. Besides, it is utterly irrational to want to free oneself from lesser bodily harm by inflicting the greatest physical harm, namely, death.

(b) To avoid intolerable shame. No one, by dying, is able to recover the honor or good name that he has lost. Shame (or disgrace) is a spiritual or at least “mental” kind of suffering, and usually it becomes more severe the more one is “ruled” by sinful pride. But it is the very vice of pride that causes one to reject God’s will, and thus to separate oneself from God’s love. How really utterly irrational it is to want to escape severe psychological or spiritual pain that is temporary, by running the extremely grave risk of turning it into much, much more severe eternal suffering of soul and body.

(c) To keep oneself from falling into serious sin, i.e., to escape very strong temptations.

We must not forget that the grace and help God gives to enables us to avoid sin increases proportionately as temptations increase in strength. And He always provides “a way out”, as Scripture assures us (1 Cor 10:13). Besides, the end does not justify the means. If is never licit to do evil so as to bring about a “good result”.

(d) To put an end to a life that one considers to be useless or, worse yet, burdensome to others. It is actually at those precise times that such a life becomes most valuable and helpful to others and to society. Sufferings united to those of Jesus are powerful means of obtaining graces of conversion for sinners, of obtaining the release of souls from Purgatory, and in general, of increasing the vigor and fervor of the LOVE which is the life of the Church. Furthermore, the good example of sufferings cheerfully and patiently borne by those whose lives, assessed according to mere human standards, seem meaningless, can be of immense spiritual help to those who attend them.

With regard to all of the above “proofs” that suicide, objectively speaking, is a very grave sin, it must be remembered that the more lively one’s Christian Faith, the more convincing they become. To one who has no Christian Faith, or a very weak Faith, they would have no, or very weak, persuasive force. Such is the connection between Faith and a “reasoned” conviction.

Thus far we have been talking about direct suicide. Next we must consider the thesis:

Indirect suicide is also illicit (sinful) except when there exists a just and proportionate reason to permit it.

When we speak about indirect suicide we mean the taking of one’s life that is not directly willed or intended, but which is permitted for the sake of achieving a result whose “goodness” outweighs the “evil” of losing one’s life. In order for an act or omission which causes one’s death, to be morally permissible, certain conditions must all be present and verified:

(a) The act or the omission must be intrinsically good or at least morally indifferent.

(b) That some other result in addition to one’s death must also flow from the act or omission in question.

(d) The good result must outweigh the evil result.

(e) The good result must be directly willed or intended and the evil result (one’s death) must NOT be intended.

[The above is nothing more than the Principle of the Two-fold Effect applied to suicide].

The question remains, what would be a good result that would outweigh the evil result of one’s death? The answer has to remain a very general one, obviously, but at least we can say that the proportionately good effect must be one of two certain kinds, namely, a Public Good or a Spiritual Good.

A Public Good: the Common Good of a Community or Society takes precedence over the good of an individual member. At times the virtue of Patriotism (Piety) may require that a soldier (or any citizen) must do or omit what is necessary in defense of the Common Good, even though he knows that a concomitant but independent result of his action/non-action is also his own personal death.

A Spiritual good: out of motives of Charity a victim of a shipwreck may relinquish his place in a lifeboat to save the life of someone more valuable or effective in the service of God and of the Church, or even to save someone he loves more than himself.

The instances in which an indirect suicide might occur are so rare, that it would seem an exercise in futility for the ordinary Christian (as opposed to a “professional” moralist) to learn the principles which govern it. But that is not so, because much more frequent is a situation which does not come up to the level of indirect suicide, but which nevertheless can be understood and evaluated in the light of the doctrine just stated. And those are the situations when one might ask himself, “To what extent may I risk my life in order to achieve a good and laudable result?” When we speak of risk, of course, we are speaking of probabilities.

[In mathematics, when the probability that an event will occur is zero (0), the event cannot happen. When the Probability that an event will happen is One (1), the event is certain to happen. For values less than 1 and greater than 0, the event is more or less likely to happen].

Here are a few “answers” to our question:

(a) The greater the risk of incurring death, the more weighty must be the good result that is directly intended.

Thus it is morally permissible to attend to patients ill with a highly contagious, usually fatal disease, or to visit them out of motives of charity. Similarly it is all right to engage in very dangerous occupations if there is no other way to earn a living for oneself and one’s family.

(b) A less weighty but nevertheless noble objective suffices to permit one to engage in activities that are not life threatening, but which could easily shorten one’s life.

Such is the case when one resorts to fast and vigils and other corporal mortification for the purpose of overcoming concupiscence and growing in virtue. Also, in this category belong those occupations that expose workers to toxic fumes or fibers or caustic chemicals.

(c) It is a sin to refuse to make use of ordinary means of conserving health and life when one is ill. Not so, though, to refuse to use extraordinary means.

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