Buddhism and Suicide

Thesis:

Bibliography on Buddhist Ethics

http://jbe.gold.ac.uk/7/harvey001.html#suicide

Incoporate western philoosophy?

Western ethics?

First part-

Bacvkground on Buddhist doctrine concerning suicide

1. No Buddhist Should Commit Suicide

The Milindapanha 98. from the Vinaya Pitaka section on the Order.

Warren, Henry Clarke. Buddhism in Translations. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Ltd. (1995).

King Nagasena explains why a buddhist (priest) may not kill himself. He claims that the world needs Buddhists to spread understanding and enlightenment (Boddhisatva way).

2. Breaking the third paaraajika (Moral Precept) on Taking Life especially in human form (manussaviggaha) is the most serious offense that a Buddhist monk may commit (although just as serious in the Pa~ncasiila or Five Precepts for laymen).

Results in expulsion from the monastic community.

In his Samantapaasaadikaa commentary, Buddhaghosa sets out to clarify the legal provisions of the precept. He discusses a variety of cases, real and hypothetical, where death ensues, and endeavors to clarify the legal requirements for a breach of the precept to have taken place.

The central legal concepts involved in Buddhaghosa's discussion are those of method, intention, and agency.

The sources themselves make a distinction between pa.n.natti-vajja -- or what is prohibited by the Vinaya (for example, eating after midday) -- and what is lokavajja, or regarded as immoral by the world at large outside the cloister (for example, killing, stealing, and lying).

Keown, Damien. "Attitudes to Euthanasia in the Vinaya and Commentary." Journal of Buddhist Ethics.

http://jbe.gold.ac.uk/6/keown993.htm

Suicide and Assisted Suicide, incitement of suicide are all condememned by Buddha in the Vinaya.

Apart from respect for autonomy, a second consideration sometimes advanced in support of euthanasia is compassion. Compassion is of great importance in Buddhism, particularly when linked to the notion of the bodhisattva. Some later sources reveal an increasing awareness of how a commitment to the alleviation of suffering on the part of a bodhisattva can create a conflict with the principle of the inviolability of life. Compassion, for example, might lead one to take life in order to alleviate suffering, and indeed this is the second main ground on which euthanasia is advocated today.

Despite their benevolent motive, namely that a terminal patient should be spared unnecessary pain, the judgement was that those involved were guilty of a breach of the precept. According to Buddhaghosa, the essence of their wrongdoing was that the guilty monks made death their aim (mara.naatthika). This suggests that to make death one's aim, to will death, and a fortiori to embark on any course with death as one's purpose, goal or outcome, regardless of how benevolent the motive, is immoral from a Buddhist perspective.(7)

From this we may conclude that while compassion should accompany moral acts it does not justify them, and that compassion is a virtue only when the end it seeks is good.

You should not kill yourself by throwing yourself off a cliff, nor by any other method even down to withdrawal from food. If one who is sick ceases to take food with the intention of dying when medicine and nursing care are at hand, he commits a dukka.ta. But in the case of a patient who has suffered a long time with a serious illness the nursing monks may become weary and turn away in despair thinking "when will we ever cure him of this illness?" Here it is legitimate to decline food and medical care if the patient sees that the monks are worn out and his life cannot be prolonged even with intensive care.(11)

This example suggests that Buddhism does not believe there is a moral obligation to preserve life at all costs or to eke out a life that is spent. Recognizing the inevitability of death, of course, is a central element in Buddhist teachings. Death cannot be prevented forever, and Buddhists are encouraged to be mindful and prepared for the evil hour when it comes. To seek to prolong life beyond its natural span by recourse to ever more elaborate technology when no cure or recovery is in sight is to live in a state of denial of the realities of human life. The Buddha himself declined to extend his life, although he reports that this option was open to him. Accordingly, in terms of the Vinaya,