Suicide
Medical Author: Roxanne Dryden-Edwards, MD
Medical Editor: Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD
What is suicide?
Suicide is the process of purposely ending one's own life. The way societies
view suicide varies widely according to culture and religion. For example, many
Western cultures, as well as mainstream Judaism, Islam, and Christianity tend to
view killing oneself as quite negative. One myth about suicide that may be the
result of this view is considering suicide to always be the result of a mental
illness. Some societies also treat a suicide attempt as if it were a crime.
However, suicides are sometimes seen as understandable or even honorable in
certain circumstances, such as in protest to persecution (for example, hunger strike),
as part of battle or resistance (for example, suicide pilots of World War II; suicide
bombers) or as a way of preserving the honor of a dishonored person (for example,
killing oneself to preserve the honor or safety of family members).
Nearly a million people worldwide commit suicide each year, with anywhere
from 10 to 20 million suicide attempts annually. About 30,000 people reportedly
kill themselves each year in the United States. The true
number of suicides is likely higher because some deaths that were thought to be
an accident, like a single car accident, overdose or shooting, are not
recognized as being a suicide. Suicide is the eighth leading
cause of death in males and the 16th leading cause of death in females. It
is the third leading cause of death for people 10 to 24 years of age. Trends in
rates of suicides for teens 15 to 19 years of age indicate that from 1950 to 1990,
the frequency of suicides increased by 300% and from 1990 to 2003, that rate
decreased by 35%.
As opposed to suicidal behaviors, self-mutilation is defined as deliberately
hurting oneself without meaning to cause one's own death. Examples of self-mutilating behaviors include cutting any part of the body,
usually of the wrists. Other self-injurious behaviors include self-burning, head banging, pinching, and
scratching.
Physician-assisted suicide is defined as ending the life of a person who is
terminally ill in a way that is either painless or minimally painful, for the
purpose of ending suffering of the individual. It is also called euthanasia and
mercy killing. In 1997, the United States Supreme Court ruled
against endorsing physician-assisted suicide as a constitutional right but
allowed for individual states to enact laws that permit it to be done. As of
2003, Oregon was the only state with laws that authorized physician-assisted
suicide. Physician-assisted suicide seems to be less offensive to
people compared to euthanasia that is done by a nonphysician, although the
acceptability of both means to end life tends to increase as people age and with
the number of times the person who desires their own death repeatedly asks for
such assistance.
Next: What are the effects of suicide? »
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