Sallekhana is Not Suicide

SR No.: 001568
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T K Tukol
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1976
Total Pages: 124
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Religion
File Size: 8 MB

Page 93

Suicide and the Law
suicide by the threat of degradations to be inflicted upon the corpse of the person who had committed suicide and also by threatening to forfeit his property to the State. The corpse was to be degraded by being buried on the high way or being buried without any service. Confiscation of property was abolished in 1870.
The Athenian Law did not define suicide as an offence. It laid down that so long as suicide does not become so frequent as to threaten seriously the well-being of the community, the State has no motive to intervene by legislation against it. However the leaders of thought took a different view. Pythegoras, the great mathematician, took the view that suicide was an unwarranted rebellion against the will of God as it behoved everyone to wait until God was pleased to remove and set him free. Plato condemned it on the same ground. Aristotle agreed with this view. The Stoics did not regard suicide as objectionable. According to them, it is for each individual to decide whether living or death is preferable to him. The Mohemmedans regarded suicide as being in contravention of the Quoran which lays down that whoever kills himself will suffer in fires of Hell.
France has a history of its own on the law of suicide. An ordinance was issued by Louis XIV in 1690 prescribing a sentence of condemnation of any one who committed suicide. The French Revolution of 1789 made changes in the old laws. It erased suicide from the list of legal crimes. Religion was against suicide and prescribed punishment by denying service or prayers. The German Penal Code provides for punishment against an abettor. In Russia, attempt to commit suicide is punishable with fine which may vary from person to person. The Penal Code of the State of New York passed in 1881 regards suicide as a crime; an attempt so commit suicide is punishable with imprisonment upto two years. “In feudal Japan suicide was an ultimate act of honour, redemption or union.”
In Canada, it is an accepted policy since 1972 that suicide would not be treated as an offence. So far as America is con