by Margaret Pabst Battin

About the author: Margaret Pabst Battin, a professor of philosophy at the University of Utah, is the author of the book Ethical Issues in Suicide, from which this viewpoint is extracted.

Although traditional moral arguments still inform many of the precritical assumptions we make about suicide, they have fallen into disuse. In the twentieth century we have tended to treat suicide as the product of mental illness, as a desperate and dangerous cry for help used by someone who does not really want to die, or, more recently, as the result of altered neurobiological states. These views suggest that the traditional moral arguments no longer have relevance either for persons contemplating suicide or for bystanders who would intervene. But these views sidestep a crucial issue: Can suicide ever be a rational act? If so...