Suicide is Not Sin

Many ask if suicide impacts one’s eternal destiny. I answer as an emergency physician who has seen beyond the veil. 

Suicide has no more impact on a soul’s eternal wellbeing than does coronary disease or diabetes. People with severe mental health challenges do not take their lives. Their disease takes their lives, just as coronary disease or diabetes takes lives.

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Those with persistent intentions toward self-harm may be rightfully committed to intensive therapy because they are not in a competent mental state to make such ominous decisions. It’s absurd to suggest those same people, if they are more ill and die by suicide without seeking care, should then be deemed competent and accountable, and that their actions are somehow damnable. There is no truth in the thought. They are not blamable for their illness. The glory of their future is not dimmed.

In this sacred season, whether celebrating Passover, Atonement, Resurrection or the Spring Equinox, let us reject the notion that suicide is a character flaw, moral failing, sin or crime. Never compound suffering by blaming the sufferer.