Suicide/Assisted suicide

[Leyla]

Is thinking about/comitting suicide a sin? If it is do doctors commit a sin, when they assist in a suicide?

[Who me]

2 hours ago, Leyla said:

Is thinking about/comitting suicide a sin? If it is do doctors commit a sin, when they assist in a suicide?

Depends what is meant by 'thinking about'.

If it is working out thearguments for and against no.

If it is because one is contemplating it then yes.

Murder is wrong and assisting someone to commit suicide is helping in self murder. This also applies to euthanasia.

[shortangel]

boy this is a hard one,  I say if somebody is really suffering & if they are terminally ill but also if they can get treatments that might save their life then no they should not ask the doctor to kill them,  but on the other hand if they have reached a point where they have run out of options then I would say they might talk with their family on what their wishes are & if the family can respect their wishes 

[AnOrangeCat]

We all end up with thoughts drifting through our heads, especially in trying times. It's normal. Temptation itself isn't a sin, it's a test. I can understand that suicide and assisted suicide can seem like the right thing, but aside from the element of murder they demonstrate a lack of faith. It's like saying you don't trust God to take care of the problem. I think that's especially important to consider because trying times and being confronted with our own mortality tend to bring our thoughts to God more than anything else.

 

Edit: This is also quite relevant! Saw it in another post and it stood out to me.

 

Edited April 13, 2019 by AnOrangeCat

[johnthebaptist]

17 hours ago, Leyla said:

Is thinking about/comitting suicide a sin? If it is do doctors commit a sin, when they assist in a suicide?

I believe generally suicide and helping people commit suicide is a sin. I can envision a hypothetical case where living is so terribly painful that someone might be driven to suicide. Whether or not such cases exist in reality, I don't know.

[Willa]

Thou shalt not kill" is one of the ten commandments.  There is a time to be born and a time to die, and those times are in God's hands.  People should not play God.  Whether God will extend His grace to such people is something only He knows.  Perhaps God will forgive this if the person is not in their right mind or if murder is not an unrepented habitual sin.   Doctors and other health care workers who would do this are likely to be  serial murderers like abortionists and if not repentant will be delivered over to hell.  I would not want such a doctor caring for me as they are violating their oath to preserve life that they took when they became medical doctors.  

This is one area that should not be decided emotionally.   It should be decided in obedience to God.  Saying that, neither do I believe it is necessary to keep people alive artificially.  

[Heybro]

This story isn't about the suicide issue, but we knew a dear sister in The Lord who was suffering with cancer. She was an older sister with a husband, children and grandies. When she got to the place where things were looking dire, she told the doctors that she was refusing chemotherapy, "if it's The Lords will to take me, I'm ready, and if He wants to heal me, I'm ready." She is now in the presence of our Lord and Master, just saying.

[dr3032]

Fantasizing about doing it is... Not the best. I like to think, if those thoughts do manifest themselves, it's normally a response to something about the person or their situations that they want gone. They don't want to kill themselves, just whatever is bothering them. I thought about it back in high school, and it's not that I truly wished to die, it's just that I didn't like dealing with all the other kids spreading gossip about me. I was an outcast before, but then I became even more of one when the gossip started, and so going to school became a thing of dread. After high school, not so much. I'd like to think suicidal thoughts have crossed enough people's minds for it to not be so shocking, though they're still not okay.

As for assisted suicide, I guess that depends on how you look at it. If the doctor decides to do a lethal injection, even at the patient's behest, that is still murder in my eyes. However, if it's a fairly incurable condition and the patient simply decides against treatment... I'm not sure. I've always thought that, if I got cancer, rather than getting buried in medical costs and going through what is basically torture just to save my life (what is my life on this earth worth anyway), I thought i'd just let it take me. Then my aunt got cancer, and whilst I wasn't there to witness it, she chose to let it take her as well. She was apparently malnourished and delirious before the end, being skin and bones, and seeing things dance on her pillow that weren't there, and it took far too long for that suffering to end. Now i'm not sure. I mean, the cancer is technically what took her life, but then treatment might have saved her, so her decision against it could also be scrutinized. Did she take her life, or did the cancer? Is it considered assisted suicide, if the help is there, and she simply didn't want it?

 

[Xethea]

On 4/13/2019 at 3:02 AM, Leyla said:

Is thinking about/comitting suicide a sin? If it is do doctors commit a sin, when they assist in a suicide?

Thoughts, as if, an idea or imagination without desire- no, that's not sin. But desiring and wanting to kill yourself, is wanting something for yourself for a selfish reason that would make you want to commit suicide, and that would be a sin. I've committed suicide, I have contemplated it, and sometimes i just think about it, but the desire isn't really there anymore, i see now that's my flesh talking, and I remembered God stopped me from dying all those times i tried to kill myself and ended up in the hospital, that i know I am no longer my own, I am God's, and it is not right for me to end what is not mine to decide when my life here ends. It would not only be a sin to murder myself, but to also take authority over what is not mine. My body and all of me belongs to the Lord, He will decide how I die.

Edited April 15, 2019 by Xethea

[missmuffet]

On 4/13/2019 at 12:02 AM, Leyla said:

Is thinking about/comitting suicide a sin? If it is do doctors commit a sin, when they assist in a suicide?

If a person is thinking about  suicide there is something wrong. They need help. Yes, a doctor is committing a sin when he assists with suicide.