SUICIDE A PHILOSOPHICAL ACT

SUICIDE A PHILOSOPHICAL ACT

The suicide of Gen. Angelo Reyes is a sad spectacle  drawing a lot of speculation. Worst, however, are the unkind words which should have been better left unsaid, whatever, his faults may be, for maligning the dead is downright irreverent.

We cannot fathom the thoughts and feelings of a man who has come to the final deliberation  of ending his life. Our hearts can only go out for him.

In a sense  the act of suicide is philosophical, for it is an exercise of freedom, to painfully release one’s self from one’s existence. It is the final act of  rejection  of one’s essence and existence, perhaps caused by hopelessness, meaninglessness or  despair.

The  Philosopher John Stuart Mill once wrote that as a free moral agent man has been given the freedom of choice and the freedom to make further choices. For Mill any choice that one might make that would deprive him of the ability to make further choices as in killing  himself, subverts the very foundation of this human freedom. To J.S. Mill,   man’s freedom  does not mean that he should be free not to be free.  It is not freedom, to be allowed to obliterate his freedom.

The great G.K. Chesterton has even a sharper observation. He considers suicide as the ultimate act of wiping out humanity’s existence.

The French Existentialist Philosopher Albert Camus  thinks along the same line. He offers the view that suicide is the rejection of freedom and life itself, which, though life is perceived to be meaningless, and absurd, should be embraced to the bitter end.

On the other hand the Liberal Humanist position asserts that a person’s life is his own and no one can force his own ideal of that life upon another. Jean Amery defends the suicidal mind. He believes  that suicide represents the ultimate freedom of humanity. To drive home the point Amery killed himself in 1978.  For Herodotus , “When life is so burdensome, death has become for man a sought-after refuge".

None of these thoughts are reassuring to the desperate suicidal soul who suffers.

 I am partial to the Christian view.

The Bible records the suicide of six Biblical personages. The most well known is that of Judas Escariot  the one who betrayed Jesus which is found in Matthew. In the old Testament  King Saul plunged his body  on his sword impaling himself instead of surrendering to the Philistines who had defeated his army. The most heroic suicide was that of Samson found in  the Book of Judges. Samson who was robbed of his strength and blinded by the Philistines, in the last act of revenge  prayed: "Please God, give me back my strength just this one time more, so that I can get even with the Philistines for making me blind." He then pushed against the pillars supporting the temple of the god Dagon and shouted. "Let me die with the Philistines!"

The pagan temple collapsed and Samson perished, along with his   enemies.

The biblical writers offered no commentary either condemning or commending  the men who died by their own hands. Perhaps we can speculate that  it was inevitable for Samson, Saul and Judas to respond to the difficult   situations they had found themselves  by committing suicide. It is hard to make a moral judgment on this ethical problem.

It is my conviction that Christ is our only hope. He is the way the truth and the life.  Nothing can separate a Christian from God’s love (Romans 8:38-39). If no “created thing” can separate a Christian from God’s love, and even a Christian who commits suicide is a “created thing,” then not even suicide can separate a Christian from God’s love. Let me qualify this affirmation by saying that a committed Christian is unlikely to commit self annihilation, because he has the living hope in  Christ. He can trust that the Author and Giver of life is faithful to his promises. He gives and He takes away Blessed be His name.