Q&A: The Moral Prohibition of Suicide
The Moral Prohibition of Suicide
Question
You once wrote that you do not see a moral problem in suicide, only a religious one.
According to how I understood your general approach, morality is grounded in the existence of God, and beyond that there are religious commandments that are not connected to morality.
The prohibition against murder, for example, is both a religious prohibition and a moral prohibition.
The moral prohibition against murder is presumably based on the fact that God created man in His image, because otherwise there would be morality even without any need for the existence of God.
If so, one must ask: why is there no moral problem with suicide? After all, the reason that it is forbidden to murder would apply here as well, since God created man, and a person himself also has no moral right to kill himself.
Answer
That is a good point. From the perspective of a moral atheist (a state of affairs that in my view is an oxymoron, but it exists), there is a moral prohibition against murder, but no moral prohibition against suicide. From his perspective, a person has absolute ownership over his own life, and no one else has the right to violate that. However, from a religious perspective there is room to see this as a moral prohibition as well. This really is a rare example of a moral principle that is not universal but rather Jewish (or religious). I had not thought of that. Still, one should remember that this arises only because there is an inconsistent element here (an atheist who is committed to morality). Were it not for that, there would be no disagreement here.
And perhaps one could say that the prohibition against murder itself is divided into a moral prohibition that exists only in relation to another person, and a religious prohibition that exists also in relation to oneself. Meaning, even if the whole world were consistent and understood that there is no morality without God, the prohibition against suicide still would not exist on the moral plane. Rather, according to this, there is here a religious prohibition that is not halakhic / of Jewish law (that is, one that exists even without the halakhic aspect). A kind of going beyond the letter of the law or pious conduct. In that case, the prohibition against suicide turns out to be a measure of piety built on top of the halakhic prohibition against murder, but it belongs to the religious plane and not the moral one.
And indeed, it seems that this is the difference between “You shall be holy” (according to Nachmanides there) and “You shall do what is right and good.” The first is a religious measure of piety, that is, extensions of moral commands, whereas the second is a moral command detached from Jewish law.
An excellent comment, and it is definitely worth further thought.
Discussion on Answer
See a detailed explanation of my answer in column 753
I do not see what would prevent a moral atheist from maintaining a prohibition against self-murder. What does seem to me to be an example of a moral principle that is not universal but faith-based is the categorical imperative. If there is no rational legislator who takes general considerations into account, then it is hard for me to see an obligation by force of a categorical imperative as a moral obligation.