Is Suicide a Sin?

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You know, with the sheer amount of bulk rules, laws, and penalities given between Ex, Lev, and Num that does stand out rather ironically as does the need to piece several different parts of the bible together to make the case that its a sin against the 'temple'.

What might be worth even more though about that realization, it draws to mind that Ex, Lev, and Num tells that if you do X, Y, or Z you'll either have to sacrifice an ox/goat/sheep, be outside the camp for seven days and sacrifice at the end, give unto a neighbor what someone damaged in neglegance, and on the heaviest end obviously you have stoning or death by other means. On one hand this raises the possibility that its not in there because stating "Ye who commits suicide will be put to death" doesn't quite sound right, although I can't remember there being any legal statute for people surviving violence to self. Seems like the only reference to that was cutting and things of that nature when mourning as one would with pagan deities (wherin lies the problem of breaking the 1st commandment).

its okay if your really sick or old
suffering without end
most peps engage a slow suicide via a multi decades long degenerative deterioration of health
when they could live till 130 yrs old

much relativity over this issue

its never too late to change

The Hebrew scriptures are not a source of fact. They are mostly just-so stories.

ruveyn

My grandfather died just about 8 months ago.

He was born during WWI, worked through WWII (for the resistance against the German occupation of Denmark, even) and didn't stop until his body physically gave up on him.

He never complained about anything in his life, despite people considered him dumb because of his dyslexia. He worked hard so his son and daughter could get good educations and a better life than himself. His daughter, my aunt, is Romney rich today. His son, my father, is considering whether or not he should buy a *third* house. You know, just to have a hobby in his retirement.

On his deathbed, he asked for "an end", and he didn't get it. Instead, he died a painful and extremely humiliating death. Thanks a lot, world!

I am generally not an emotional person, but my tolerance for general "Suicide is Sin" statements has dropped to the "Them's Fighting Words" level since that episode.

I agree - the way life is being almost hyper-extended in certain facets by the medical community just seems wrong. Its even worse when elderly feel forced to jump off bridges to keep their inheretance to their children from being eaten up in its entirety by the medical establishment. You also do have people who are just put through the cheese-grater almost from the time their born, and if the world has them permanently walled off to where it seems like the only thing that can happen is they either go dark or implode - its really tough to understand a lot of this.

natural law usually kills those not meant to survive the rigours of planet earth
too much breeding, too much deterioration of general overall health

enter autistic prolife ration [hehehehe]

No one is compelled to extend their lives by medical treatment. For those who wish to live longer, such a treatment is a boon. For those who do not so wish, they can simply allow themselves to die.

ruveyn

I personally believe it to be sin. Why?

You're taking a life that God has given you. Afterwards...If you REALLY mean it and we turn from your erroneus ways...OH wait...you're dead and you can't ask....bummer.

(By the way, I don't believe in Hell as in the Eternal hot place, but rather the eternal death.)

It's more a sin against nature, and a waste. Your life matters. Always.

There's something strange about suicide. Mostly people kill other people for self-defense or revenge. How can one kill oneself for self-defense? Or revenge – cui bono? The only understandable reason (be it sin or not) must be escape. If it is escape from severe bodily pain, of such kind that it literally drives you crazy, then it's more understandable. But if it is escape for example from poverty or bankruptcy, it's sheer cowardice.

Cowardice… were those people cowards who jumped from WTC windows? I cannot possibly know what it is like to experience what they experienced, but they didn't commit suicide in the first place because they didn't choose to be in a situation like that, a situation which was objectively hopeless.

Avoidance of intractable intense pain. That is a form of self defense.

ruveyn

Can't disagree with that.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

I can relate. My mother died a slow agonising death from cancer over many months when I was 23 years old. By the end she looked like one of those skin covered skeletons you associate with Nazi concentration camp victims. She begged me to help her die but I was unable to do so (so many conflicting and painful emotions). When she finally did die it was an immense relief for not only her but everyone else too. My father and I suspect that the Macmillan nurse who stayed with us for the last few days assisted her and gave her an overdose of her powerful pain medication but we didn't make an issue of it; it was a merciful release out of her agony either way.

It's not that easy.

My mother died a few years ago from cancer.

The problem is at the start they "sell" the story that it will a very high chance of recovery, the side effects arn't too bad, etc. She was also in her 70s.

Her last few years were in agony, all from treatment. The chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. Once she started the treatment, it was hard to refuse with all the pressure from family etc.

If she left it, she would had at least a year symptom free and die a relatively painless death. In that year she could have had continuous holidays until the symptoms kicked in.

This is what I would do if I was diagnosed with cancer. Plan the greatest holiday of my life. Cancer treatment is still too hit and miss this day and age, and the side effects of treatment are much worse than the symptoms.

If you'd lived through the last few months of my mothers life as I've just outlined you wouldn't be so black and white. There is no Always. How would you feel about your life if you vomited almost everything you ate, you had to be spoon fed and could only eat food that had been blended into a thin purée, you were uncontrollably incontinent (both urine and faeces). Had to be carried to the toilet and held upright so you didn't fall over. Needed your arse wiping for you. All your hair fell out. You knew you would never walk again, never be able to do anything independent of others carrying your body to where you wanted to go, knowing you were in a slow spiral a slow death from which there was no possibility of recovery. You looked like a skin covered skeleton. Were in constant agony. Were on painkillers and morphine so strong you didn't know what day it was or started forgetting who people were. You could hardly sleep due to the pain and sometimes woke up choking on your own vomit. You slowly starved to death over several months. Now tell me suicide is a sin or wrong "Always".

They jape at scars, who never felt a wound.

ruveyn