Background

• Until 1961, suicide was a criminal offence in the UK
• 1961 Suicide Act


  A person who aids, abets, counsels or procures the suicide of another or an attempt by another to commit suicide shall be liable for a term not exceeding fourteen years.
• The history of social attitudes to suicide give us insight

  16th century = suicide meant an immediate loss of property

  17th century = attempt reduced noblemen to rank of commoner

  Enlightenment =against the state, not God

  until 1961 in the UK = criminal offence
• Plato

  egoistic and altruistic suicide
• egoistic suicide is an act of defiance against the Gods and moral order
• altruistic suicide is selfless and for others, not focused on ones own needs eg a soldier in a battlefield
• St Augustine

  • killing is condemned under thou shalt not kill
  • self killing is murder
  • a guilty man cannot condemn a guilty man
  • Judas's suicide