Whether It Is Lawful to Kill Oneself?
Objection 1: It would seem lawful for a man to kill himself. For
murder is a sin in so far as it is contrary to justice. But no man
can do an injustice to himself, as is proved in _Ethic._ v, 11.
Therefore no man sins by killing himself.
Obj. 2: Further, it is lawful, for one who exercises public
authority, to kill evil-doers. Now he who exercises public authority
is sometimes an evil-doer. Therefore he may lawfully kill himself.
Obj. 3: Further, it is lawful for a man to suffer spontaneously a
lesser danger that he may avoid a greater: thus it is lawful for a
man to cut off a decayed limb even from himself, that he may save his
whole body. Now sometimes a man, by killing himself, avoids a greater
evil, for example an unhappy life, or the shame of sin. Therefore a
man may kill himself.
Obj. 4: Further, Samson killed himself, as related in Judges 16, and
yet he is numbered among the saints (Heb. 11). Therefore it is lawful
for a man to kill himself.
Obj. 5: Further, it is related (2 Mac. 14:42) that a certain Razias
killed himself, "choosing to die nobly rather than to fall into the
hands of the wicked, and to suffer abuses unbecoming his noble
birth." Now nothing that is done nobly and bravely is unlawful.
Therefore suicide is not unlawful.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Civ. Dei i, 20): "Hence it
follows that the words 'Thou shalt not kill' refer to the killing of
a man--not another man; therefore, not even thyself. For he who kills
himself, kills nothing else than a man."
_I answer that,_ It is altogether unlawful to kill oneself, for three
reasons. First, because everything naturally loves itself, the result
being that everything naturally keeps itself in being, and resists
corruptions so far as it can. Wherefore suicide is contrary to the
inclination of nature, and to charity whereby every man should love
himself. Hence suicide is always a mortal sin, as being contrary to
the natural law and to charity. Secondly, because every part, as
such, belongs to the whole. Now every man is part of the community,
and so, as such, he belongs to the community. Hence by killing
himself he injures the community, as the Philosopher declares (Ethic.
v, 11). Thirdly, because life is God's gift to man, and is subject to
His power, Who kills and makes to live. Hence whoever takes his own
life, sins against God, even as he who kills another's slave, sins
against that slave's master, and as he who usurps to himself judgment
of a matter not entrusted to him. For it belongs to God alone to
pronounce sentence of death and life, according to Deut. 32:39, "I
will kill and I will make to live."
Reply Obj. 1: Murder is a sin, not only because it is contrary to
justice, but also because it is opposed to charity which a man should
have towards himself: in this respect suicide is a sin in relation to
oneself. In relation to the community and to God, it is sinful, by
reason also of its opposition to justice.
Reply Obj. 2: One who exercises public authority may lawfully put to
death an evil-doer, since he can pass judgment on him. But no man is
judge of himself. Wherefore it is not lawful for one who exercises
public authority to put himself to death for any sin whatever:
although he may lawfully commit himself to the judgment of others.
Reply Obj. 3: Man is made master of himself through his free-will:
wherefore he can lawfully dispose of himself as to those matters
which pertain to this life which is ruled by man's free-will. But the
passage from this life to another and happier one is subject not to
man's free-will but to the power of God. Hence it is not lawful for
man to take his own life that he may pass to a happier life, nor that
he may escape any unhappiness whatsoever of the present life, because
the ultimate and most fearsome evil of this life is death, as the
Philosopher states (Ethic. iii, 6). Therefore to bring death upon
oneself in order to escape the other afflictions of this life, is to
adopt a greater evil in order to avoid a lesser. In like manner it is
unlawful to take one's own life on account of one's having committed
a sin, both because by so doing one does oneself a very great injury,
by depriving oneself of the time needful for repentance, and because
it is not lawful to slay an evildoer except by the sentence of the
public authority. Again it is unlawful for a woman to kill herself
lest she be violated, because she ought not to commit on herself the
very great sin of suicide, to avoid the lesser sin of another. For
she commits no sin in being violated by force, provided she does not
consent, since "without consent of the mind there is no stain on the
body," as the Blessed Lucy declared. Now it is evident that
fornication and adultery are less grievous sins than taking a man's,
especially one's own, life: since the latter is most grievous,
because one injures oneself, to whom one owes the greatest love.
Moreover it is most dangerous since no time is left wherein to
expiate it by repentance. Again it is not lawful for anyone to take
his own life for fear he should consent to sin, because "evil must
not be done that good may come" (Rom. 3:8) or that evil may be
avoided especially if the evil be of small account and an uncertain
event, for it is uncertain whether one will at some future time
consent to a sin, since God is able to deliver man from sin under any
temptation whatever.
Reply Obj. 4: As Augustine says (De Civ. Dei i, 21), "not even Samson
is to be excused that he crushed himself together with his enemies
under the ruins of the house, except the Holy Ghost, Who had wrought
many wonders through him, had secretly commanded him to do this." He
assigns the same reason in the case of certain holy women, who at the
time of persecution took their own lives, and who are commemorated by
the Church.
Reply Obj. 5: It belongs to fortitude that a man does not shrink from
being slain by another, for the sake of the good of virtue, and that
he may avoid sin. But that a man take his own life in order to avoid
penal evils has indeed an appearance of fortitude (for which reason
some, among whom was Razias, have killed themselves thinking to act
from fortitude), yet it is not true fortitude, but rather a weakness
of soul unable to bear penal evils, as the Philosopher (Ethic. iii,
7) and Augustine (De Civ. Dei 22, 23) declare.
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