Suicide

We resign from our jobs, we divorce our husband/wife because we think the status-quo is not something we want to put up with. Suicide is nothing but a resignation from life or an event where we divorce our life. The reason is the same - that the status-quo is unacceptable. And just as we move to a different job, different relationship, we move to a different "life" when we commit suicide. While no one frowns upon resignations, while Catholics and other religious people frown upon divorce, a whole lot more people including the legal apparatus frown upon suicide. An exception was in the case of Sati - a practice that used to exist a 100 years back among recently widowed Hindu women in India.

A close cousin of suicide is euthanasia which is legally allowed, I think, in Switzerland and in few other places but not in India.

Another cousin is the old Tamil practice is "vadakkiruthal" - when a person decided to "resign" he would sit facing the north (= vadakku) and starve to death in a peaceful manner, perhaps taking time to chat with friends and family during his resignation process which could last a few weeks. This is explained in an earlier post.

I am reminded of an incident where a man, a distant acquaintance, encouraged his wife to commit suicide. This, of course, is closer to murder than to suicide. I wonder whether the husband, the instigator, was more weird. Or his wife who acquiesced.

So long as the decision to commit suicide is taken by a person in his right mind - it is no different from a will written by a man. It's his right. Can we deny a man the  right to decide when to "resign" from his life?

Additional reading:
http://www.intropsych.com/ch10_development/suicide.html