Is Suicide A Sin?

On Sunday June 16th, the Chicago Tribune ran an article on suicide. Part of the article's focus was on suicides in the baby boomer generation, however it started me thinking about the taking of one's own life and the motives associated with it. To my way of thinking there are three " very general " motives for suicide:

1. To help others live or to support a cause:

     One who lays his or her life  down for friends, country or religion, e.g.,  

      throwing his or her self on a ememy handgrenade to save friends; Kamikaze Pilots; setting self on fire during religious demonstration. You can call the aforementioned acts benevolence or self-sacrifice but never the less it's suicide

2. Refuge from irreversible, unremitting physical pain.

3. Dispair:

One who is strippeed of hope and/or joy. Loss of the drive that moves us toward others whoes love supports us. A situation which is beyond solving or saving such as serious economic problems. One example of a suicide steming from dispair could be suicide by cop.

As for those who dare pass judgemt remember that suicide has two contridicting sides to it, first it can be a sign of power which determines one's own final destiny; secondly it may be the ultimate sign of weakness and failure. It's those contridictions that should give us pause on passing judgement.   

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