Ethical Issues in Suicide

212 Pages·1982·71.055 MB·English

by  Margaret Pabst Battin

PRENTICE-HALL SERIES IN
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MEDICINE
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2018 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/ethicalissuesinsOOOObatt
Prentice-Hall Series
in the Philosophy of Medicine
Samuel Gorovitz,
Series Editor
MAN, MIND, AND MORALITY: the ethics of behavior control, Ruth Macklin
ETHICAL ISSUES IN SUICIDE, Margaret Pabst Battin
Ethical
in
Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 07632
Suicide
M ARGA RET PA BST BATTIN
Department of Philosophy
University of Utah
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Battin, M. Pabst.
Ethical issues in suicide.
(Prentice-Hall series in the philosophy of medicine)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Suicide—Moral and religious aspects. I. Title.
II. Series.
HV6545.B26 179'.7 81-17813
ISBN 0-13-290155-2 AACR2
For M. R. P.
1910-1962
© 1982 by Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 07632
All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or
by any means without permission in writing
from the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 l
Ethical Issues in Suicide
Margaret Pabst Battin
ISBN n-13-B^DlSS-E
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W hitehall Books Limited, Wellington, New Zealand
C o n te n ts
Preface to the Series, 7
INTRODUCTION: Suicide— the Current View 7
Suicide: The Scientific View, 3
The Treatment of Suicide: Prediction and Prevention, 12
Suicide: The Legal Dilemma, 17
The Suicide Taboo, 20
PART ONE: TRADITIONAL ARGUMENTS CONCERNING
SUICIDE 25
1
Religious Views of Suicide 27
The Religious Arguments against Suicide, 28
The Religious Invitation to Suicide, 63
The Social Arguments Concerning Suicide 76
Suicide as an Injury to the Community, 77
Suicide as a Benefit to the Community, 96
Utilitarian Theory and Suicide, 106
V
Suicide and the Value of Life 112
The Principle of the Value of Life, 112
Modifications of the Principle, 115
Kant and Respect for Human Moral Life, 120
PART TWO: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN SUICIDE 129
A
The Concept of Rational Suicide 131
The Characterization of “ Rational Suicide", 131
Criteria for Rational Suicide, 132
Paternalism and Suicide 154
Paternalistic Intervention in Suicide, 154
Paternalistic Facilitation of Suicide, 160
©
Suicide and Rights 176
Suicide as a Right, 177
Rights and the Role of Others, 189
CONCLUSION: Suicide and Moral Rules 192
Index 196
v i Contents
P re fa c e to the S e rie s
It is a commonplace observation that there have been dramatic increases both
in public and professional concern with questions of bioethics and in the role of
philosophers in addressing those questions. Medical ethics is a well established
area of inquiry; not only does it include journals, widespread courses, professional
specialists, and the other features of established fields, but philosophers now par­
ticipate regularly in the deliberations of public agencies at both state and federal
levels. Nonetheless, there is considerably more to the philosophy of medicine than
medical ethics, and even w ithin the area of medical ethics, there are many issues
that have not been adequately explored.
The Prentice-Hall Series in the Philosophy of Medicine has been established
in large measure in response to these two points. Some volumes in the series will
explore philosophical aspects of medicine that are not primarily questions of ethics.
They thereby contribute both to the subject matter of the philosophy of medicine and
to an expanding appreciation of the breadth and diversity of the philosophy of
medicine. Other volumes in the series will illuminate areas of ethical concern
which, despite the recent prominence of medical ethics, have been inadequately
considered.
Each volume is written by a philosopher, although none is written primarily
for philosophers. Rather, the volumes are designed to bring the issues before an
intelligent general readership, and they therefore presuppose no specific background
in either the philosophical literature or the literature of the specific areas of medical
practice or health policy on which they focus.
The problems considered in this series are of widespread public importance.
We suffer from no delusions that philosophers hold the solutions; we do, however,
share the conviction that these problems cannot be adequately addressed without an
informed appreciation of their philosophical dimensions. We must always reach
beyond philosophy in addressing problems in the world, but we should be wary of
reaching without it. The volumes in this series are thus addressed to all those
concerned with the practices and policies relating to medicine and health, and
committed to considering such policies in a reflective and rational way.
SAMUEL GOROVITZ
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Some of the material in Chapter V has appeared in my paper “Manipulated Suicide,”
first published in the volume David Mayo and I have edited. Suicide: The Philosophical
Issues (St. Martin's Press, 1980), and reprinted in the Bioethics Quarterly for Summer 1980.
A section from the final chapter is based in part on my paper “Suicide: A Fundamental
Right?” , which also appeared in the volume of edited essays. I’d like to thank a number of
people who have stimulated or commented on various portions of this book: Virgil Aldrich,
Brian Barraclough, Corrine Bayley, James Bogen, Pearl Bronz. Ric Charnov, Mendel
Cohen, Glendy Culligan, Gary Ferrin, Leslie Francis, Sam Gorovitz. David Hansen, Brooke
Hopkins, Bruce Landesman, Mark Lehman, Michael Martin, David Mayo, Glenn Olsen,
Doris Portwood, Rolf Sartorius, Alan Sullivan, Daniel Wikler, and Peter Windt. Alpha­
betical listing does not do justice to the generosity of their contributions, however, and so I’d
like to mention Leslie Francis, David Mayo, and Daniel Wikler twice. In addition, I'd like to
thank the University of Utah Counseling Center and the Family Health Program for stimulat­
ing workshops with their clinical staffs. I'd also like to thank, gratefully but anonymously, a
number of people—young and old, male and female—who have talked with me openly and
treely about their intentions and attempts at suicide; it is through these people, who actively
contemplate suicide, that I have tried to avoid the philosophers’ “armchair” view. I am
grateful to the University of Utah for leaves and partial leaves as the Biology Department's
Resident Humanist and as a David P. Gardner Faculty Fellow. I wish to thank the Utah
Endowment for the Humanities for support as Philosopher-in-Residence at the Veterans
Administration Medical Center in Salt Lake. Finally, I would particularly like to thank the
National Endowment for the Humanities for a Fellowship for Independent Study and Re­
search in 1977-78, which made possible a great deal of this book.
M.P.B.
v iii Preface