Considerações sobre a interdição, a racionalidade e a moralidade do ato de matar a si mesmo

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to analyze the act of self-killing not only as a response to the worst conditions that may occur with an individual, but also to conditions which, although less severe, may nevertheless be reasonably justified. Thus, the question that is still pertinent is how to account for the possibility that one's life may become so painful, even if death is not imminent or he or she isn’t suffering from unbearable and intractable pain, or he or she has not suffered an irreversible loss of dignity. For this, we first defined what we mean by "suicide" when we use this concept, and then we were able to make theoretical considerations about the interdiction, rationality and morality of suicide. Concerning interdiction, we returned to the first heuristic locus in which our theme appears most articulately in Plato, in the dialogues Phaedo and Laws IX, in order to draw the boundaries where the prohibition of self-killing finds exceptions and concessions throughout the conversation preceding Socrates' death. By assuming that Plato concedes that there are destinies for which to die would be better than living, we distinguish the questions of rationality from the questions of morality so that we can analyze each aspect more clearly. Firstly, we discussed the possibility that dying might be better than living, considering what makes life worth living. In addition, we considered that was necessary to discuss the issue about the ability of those who are in a situation where suicide may be a possibility to have clarify judgment. In this way, we questioned under what circumstances suicide would make sense or would be something appropriate to do. Assuming that suicide’s rationality can be assured in certain circumstances, we focus on the questions about morality, discussing ethical theories that we consider pertinent to the treatment of our subject, namely, Utilitarianism and Deontology, commiting ourselves to the state that there is the possibility that there are destinies for which to die is better than living and that for such cases suicide may be a justified response to this condition. Finally, we conclude this paper considering the practical consequences of this debate on suicide intervention.