Every 39

seconds
someone
commits suicide
World Health
Organization
10 to 20
million
non-fatal attempted
suicides
every year worldwide
SUICIDE
• Latin suicidium, from sui caedere, to
kill oneself.

• is the intentional taking of one's own

life.

• willful destruction of one's self-

interest

• sometimes interpreted in this framework

as a "cry for help" and attention, or to
EPIDEMIOLOGY 
Worldwide suicide rates have increased by 60%
in the past 50 years, mainly in the developing
countries.
Most suicides in the world occur in Asia
China, India and Japan may account for 40% of
all world suicides.
GENDER
 In the Western world, males die much more often
by means of suicide than do females
 China is the only country in the world where more
women than men take their own lives

AGE
 In the USA, males over the age of seventy die by
suicide more often than younger males

SEASON
 People die by suicide more often during spring and
summer.
 Some studies have found that elderly people are
more likely to commit suicide around their
birthdays
Euthanasia and assisted suicide
Individuals who wish to end their own life may
enlist the assistance of another person to
achieve death, e.g. by a deadly poison

Murder-suicide
A murder-suicide is an act in which an
individual kills one or more other persons
immediately before or at the same time as him
or herself.
Suicide attack
 A suicide attack is when an attacker perpetrates an
act of violence against others, typically to achieve
a military or political goal, that foreseeably results
in his or her own death as well.

Self-injury
 Self-injury is not a suicide attempt; however,
initially self-injury was erroneously classified as a
suicide attempt.

Suicide locations
 Some landmarks have become known for high-
levels of suicide attempts. Two of the most popular
locations in the world are reportedly San
Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and Japan's
SUICIDE METHODS
 Firearms
 Asphyxiation methods (including hanging)
 Toxification (poisoning and overdose)
 Blunt force trauma (jumping from a building or
bridge, self-defenestrating, stepping in front of a
train, or car collision)
 Exsanguination or bloodletting (slitting one's wrist
or throat), intentional drowning, self-immolation,
electrocution, and intentional starvation
 Individuals may also intentionally provoke another
person into administering lethal action against
them, as in suicide-by-cop.
 
RECKLESS DISREGARD
Many suicides are recorded as accidents
High-risk activities, such as mountain climbing,
glacier trevassing, skydiving, deep scuba
diving, and high-speed motorcycle riding, are
openly indifferent to the heightened possibility
of death.
REASONS FOR SUICIDE
Mental disorders
Suffering
Stress
Grief
Suicide headache
Unrequited love
Withdrawal or discontinuation of psychoactive
substances
As philosophically or ideologically motivated
move
To escape punishment or an abusive
environment
Guilt or shame
Catastrophic injury
Financial loss
Self sacrifice
As part of a military or social strategy (e.g.
suicide attacks)
Belief that life has no inherent value (e.g.
absurdism, pessimism, nihilism)
As part of a religious or cult doctrine
Loneliness
To restore honor (e.g. seppuku)
Curiosity for post-life occurrences
Fear of aging
Unresolved sexual issues
Drugs as in the paradoxical effect of some
sedatives
Medical causes
Serious depression can lead to specific changes
of the DNA in the human brain. Those changes
affected on the genes' activeness, which lead
to pathological psychological disturbances.

a process of methylation, which is a chemical

reaction, representing an adding of a methyl
group to aminic groups of substances which is
responsible for methylation process of the DNA
Suicide and Mental Illness
psychiatric disorders

"We say, in essence, ‘All people who attempt

suicide are mentally ill.' If someone asks, 'How
do you know they are mentally ill?' the implied
answer is, 'Because only mentally ill persons
would try to commit suicide.”
A. Suicide as a form of
defiance and protest
Heroic suicide, for the greater good of others,
is often celebrated.
People who commit suicide may not always be
suffering from depression or despair.
Some people may kill themselves for the
purpose of experiencing life after death, or
have a different existential, religious or
philosophical motive. This points out that views
of suicide are individually and culturally
subjective.
B. Judicial Suicide
A person who has committed a crime may
commit suicide to avoid prosecution and
disgrace
C. Military Suicide
 Soldiers and civilians committed suicide to avoid
capture and slavery
 Commanders committed suicide rather than accept
defeat.
 Spies and officers have often committed suicide to
avoid revealing secrets under interrogation and/or
torture.
 A soldier falling on a grenade to save his comrades.
 Soldiers under cannon fire at the Battle of Waterloo
who took fatal hits rather than duck and place their
comrades in harm's way.
D. Ritual Suicide
 
 Ritual suicide is the act of suicide motivated by a
religious, spiritual, or traditional ritual.
  Sati is a Hindu funeral practice in which the widow
would immolate herself on her husband's funeral pyre
as an assurance that she will be with her husband for
the next life.
 Other rituals of self-immolation or self-starvation were
used by Hindu, Jain and Buddhist monks for religious or
philosophical purposes, or as a form of extreme non-
violent protest.
 Samadhi is a form of Hindu spiritual suicide where the
person departs to a cave or and enters deep Yogic
meditation, and essentially forgets the physical world
around him/her
 In Japan, rituals of suicide like seppuku by men and jigai
E. Dutiful Suicide
 Non-fatal attempt at the act, of fatal self-violence
at one's own hands done in the belief that it will
secure a greater good, rather than to escape harsh
or impossible conditions.
 It can be voluntary, to relieve some dishonor or
punishment, or imposed by threats of death or
reprisals on one's family or reputation (a kind of
murder by remote control).
 It can be culturally traditional or generally
abhorred; it can be heavily ritualized as in seppuku
or purely functional.
VIEWS ON SUICIDE
 Medical
 Modern medicine treats suicide as a mental health
issue.
 Mental health professionals advise that people who
have expressed plans to kill themselves be
encouraged to seek help. This is especially relevant
if the means (weapons, drugs, or other methods)
are available, or if the person has crafted a detailed
plan for executing the suicide.
 The predominant view of modern medicine is that
suicide is a mental health concern, associated with
psychological factors such as the difficulty of
coping with depression, inescapable suffering or
fear, or other mental disorders and pressures
Criminal
In some jurisdictions, an act or incomplete act
of suicide is considered to be a crime. More
commonly, a surviving party member who
assisted in the suicide attempt will face
criminal charges.

Unlike other countries, helping a suicidal

person to obtain the materials or medication
needed to carry out the act is not usually
viewed as a criminal offense
Cultural
In Japan, samurai who disgraced their honor
chose to end their own lives by seppuku, a
method in which the samurai takes a sword
and slices into his abdomen, causing a fatal
injury.
In today's society, suicide is also viewed as a
cultural norm.
Often suicide is portrayed in movies and music
with such band names as Suicide Silence and
Suicide Opera.
Religious
Christianity
Suicide is considered a sin
The idea that life is a gift given by God which
should not be spurned
Suicide is against the "natural order" and thus
interferes with God's master plan for the world.
Judaism
 focuses on the importance of valuing life
 suicide is tantamount to denying God's goodness in
the world.
 heroic martyrdom

Islam
 Suicide is not allowed; however, martyring oneself
for Allah (during combat) is not the same as
completing suicide.
 Suicide in Islam is seen as a sign of disbelief in
God.
 The use of suicide attacks is strictly forbidden in
Islam however it is practised by Radical groups
Hinduism
suicide is frowned upon and is considered
equally sinful as murdering another.
Hindu Scriptures state that one who commits
suicide will become part of the spirit world,
wandering earth until the time one would have
otherwise died, had one not committed suicide.
Philosophical
 Some see suicide as a legitimate matter of personal
choice and a human right (colloquially known as the
right to die movement), and maintain that no one
should be forced to suffer against their will, particularly
from conditions such as incurable disease, mental
illness, and old age that have no possibility of
improvement.
 Proponents of this view reject the belief that suicide is
always irrational, arguing instead that it can be a valid
last resort for those enduring major pain or trauma.
 A narrower segment of this group considers suicide
something between a grave but condonable choice in
some circumstances and a sacrosanct right for anyone
(even a young and healthy person) who believes they
have rationally and conscientiously come to the decision
to end their own lives.
CONCLUSION &
RECOMMENDATIO
N