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Re: SuicideMichael Bauser (MBAUSER@KENTVM.KENT.EDU)Wed, 26 Oct 1994 18:32:44 EDT
>I heard once that starvation is the only *acceptable* form of suicide in >the Catholic church (i.e., not a mortal sin), because of the suffering >involved, or some such logic. I know that the concept of suicide is a BAD >thing, but is there such a "loophole"? I think what you're looking for it the Catholic Church's statement on hunger strikes (as practiced in British-occupied Northern Ireland). Hunger strikes are essentially a combined protest/extortion, aimed at a specific person or group. By taking an action that will eventually result in death, the hunger-striker is seeking to force that person to deal with a specified issue. The Church has proclaimed that hunger-striking is NOT suicide, because death is not the desired goal of a hunger-striker. Rather, they are *risking* death in order to reach another goal, and taking such a risk in not suicide. The Church has compared such risking to being a soldier, in that soldiers may enter a situation that might (or even probably) kill them, even if they don't want to die. Saintly marytrdom is something similar--saints don't want to die, it's a risk/side-effect of other actions. Starving oneself with the expressed intent to die (regardless of other's intervention) is still suicide in the eyes of the Church, and is not approved. That's the explanation as I learned it from my undergraduate advisor (Seamus Metress, University of Toledo) and confirmed by the instructors of a Catholic Thought class. (Ah, the good old days, when I had the time to take classes outside my department....) --
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