Why the Church is against suicide
Over the course of 550 years — twice the whole history of the United States — the Inquisition was a major fundraising mechanism for the Catholic Church, thanks to its rule that it could immediately seize all the property of anyone who was accused of heresy.
Early in the Inquisition’s history, it was noted that people who feared to be accused would often commit suicide rather than face the torture chamber, thus depriving the Church of their property. So the Church declared that suicide was a mortal sin and the victim would be subjected in hell to eternal torture without any possibility of parole or pardon. It worked because people had enough imagination to think hell’s torments would be even worse than those of the inquisitors. Eventually, it was ruled legal for the Church to seize the property of self-killers or of those who pitied the dying enough to help them along, but this took a while to institute.
In time, laws against suicide were enacted in most Western countries and became part of the general culture because Protestant churches also came to see that keeping the terminally ill alive as long as possible could be a significant source of funds — as did, of course, the medical profession. Thus, ending one’s own life came to be generally viewed as a crime, even though the criminals could never be satisfactorily punished. Instead, the heirs were punished by the loss of their inheritance, a circumstance that could only lead to desperate choices between pity and greed on the part of those whose terminally ill relatives begged them for their final relief.
Suicide is still viewed as a crime by most religious traditions, and by Catholicism in particular. Those who assist in suicide are considered criminals also. Agonizing terminal illness is not viewed as an excuse.
To kill yourself to avoid pain has been generally derogated in Western culture, based primarily on this Catholic history of ecclesiastical greed. It is still one of the most unkind beliefs ever perpetrated, a rule of outstanding brutality that allows convicted murderers to be killed painlessly, but insists on unbearable moribund sufferings for law-abiding citizens. We take pity on our pet animals in their final hours, and release them from their pain by a simple, comfortable shot of barbiturate or sodium pentathol. Why can’t we — or our doctors — do the same for our suffering relatives or friends?
If we were truly civilized, the barbaric rules derived from the avarice of a barbaric religious tradition would have become obsolete long before now
FFRF Life Member Barbara G. Walker is a researcher, lecturer and author of 24 books on comparative religion, history, mythology, symbolism, mineral lore, knitwear design, the tarot, the I Ching, a collection of original Feminist Fairy Tales, an autobiography, a novel, and two essay collections: Man Made God and Belief and Unbelief. Her Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets has been in print since 1983 and was named Book of the Year by the London Times.
Early in the Inquisition’s history, it was noted that people who feared to be accused would often commit suicide rather than face the torture chamber, thus depriving the Church of their property. So the Church declared that suicide was a mortal sin and the victim would be subjected in hell to eternal torture without any possibility of parole or pardon. It worked because people had enough imagination to think hell’s torments would be even worse than those of the inquisitors. Eventually, it was ruled legal for the Church to seize the property of self-killers or of those who pitied the dying enough to help them along, but this took a while to institute.
In time, laws against suicide were enacted in most Western countries and became part of the general culture because Protestant churches also came to see that keeping the terminally ill alive as long as possible could be a significant source of funds — as did, of course, the medical profession. Thus, ending one’s own life came to be generally viewed as a crime, even though the criminals could never be satisfactorily punished. Instead, the heirs were punished by the loss of their inheritance, a circumstance that could only lead to desperate choices between pity and greed on the part of those whose terminally ill relatives begged them for their final relief.
Suicide is still viewed as a crime by most religious traditions, and by Catholicism in particular. Those who assist in suicide are considered criminals also. Agonizing terminal illness is not viewed as an excuse.
To kill yourself to avoid pain has been generally derogated in Western culture, based primarily on this Catholic history of ecclesiastical greed. It is still one of the most unkind beliefs ever perpetrated, a rule of outstanding brutality that allows convicted murderers to be killed painlessly, but insists on unbearable moribund sufferings for law-abiding citizens. We take pity on our pet animals in their final hours, and release them from their pain by a simple, comfortable shot of barbiturate or sodium pentathol. Why can’t we — or our doctors — do the same for our suffering relatives or friends?
If we were truly civilized, the barbaric rules derived from the avarice of a barbaric religious tradition would have become obsolete long before now
FFRF Life Member Barbara G. Walker is a researcher, lecturer and author of 24 books on comparative religion, history, mythology, symbolism, mineral lore, knitwear design, the tarot, the I Ching, a collection of original Feminist Fairy Tales, an autobiography, a novel, and two essay collections: Man Made God and Belief and Unbelief. Her Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets has been in print since 1983 and was named Book of the Year by the London Times.
