A handbook for the study of suicide

Lipp MR. A Handbook for the Study of Suicide. Coronavirus Resource Center. Our website uses cookies to enhance your experience. By continuing to use our site, or clicking "Continue," you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy Continue. Twitter Facebook. This Issue. June 30, Martin R. Lipp, MD. Access through your institution. The study compared individuals of a similar age who had died of other causes or who were still alive to those who died by suicide by the end of The researchers also evaluated suicide risk in terms of a pregnancy complication score, a composite of pregnancy-related factors such as maternal age, multiple pregnancies, growth indicators of the developing fetus, and maternal infections during pregnancy.

The researchers examined social characteristics and identified the following suicide risk factors:. Being born to a mother who had a high rate of pregnancy complications more than doubled the risk for suicide.

The authors called for more research examining how early life factors might influence suicide risk throughout adulthood. Vidal-Ribas said. Vidal-Ribas, P. In at least one culture with polygamy, wives would compete to be slain and buried with their husband. In Italy, suicide was only punishable for three classes of people: criminals, soldiers, and slaves criminals primarily because it was seen as an attempt to escape punishment.

The criminalization of suicides was one attempt to discourage suicide. Other attempts were various desecrations of the body, including being dragged naked through town. They might also be prevented from a burial with standard religious ceremonies. Other desecrations, such as being pinned down at a crossroads, were an approach to preventing the spirits of those who committed suicide from haunting the living.

If you look at various religions, you can find evidence of some poor choices — for instance the Shakers. Christianity promises an afterlife that vastly exceeds anything that someone could expect in this life, thereby making death a doorway to something better. Suicide was simply walking through that doorway. This became a problem for the early Church, and therefore suicide became progressively associated as a sin until about the last half century.

Over time, scholars have unwound the foundations for suicide being a sin, and instead suicide was transformed into a weakness or mental illness. The logic is circular. Only a person with a mental illness would consider and complete suicide, so everyone who does die by suicide must therefore have a mental illness. Consider a person who is terminally ill, fighting pain, and worried about the financial burden that a prolonged illness will create.

If this is a reason why suicide is the right answer, at what point does it become the unacceptable answer? In my own life, my grandfather took his own life when he decided that his health was failing and he could no longer have the quality of life that he wanted. While I miss him, and it was sad that he is gone, I accept that he had reasons for deciding that he was done. The philosophical problem is what happens when the person is wrong?