Altruistic suicide

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(Redirected from
Benevolent suicide
)

Altruistic suicide is the sacrifice of one's life in order to save or benefit others, for the good of the group, or to preserve the traditions and honor of a society. It is always intentional. Benevolent suicide refers to the self-sacrifice of one's own life for the sake of the greater good.[1] Such a sacrifice may be performed for the sake of executing a particular action, or for the sake of keeping a natural balance in the society.

Altruistic suicide was seen by

anomic
suicide.

In contrast, a "sacrifice" which is committed by the force of a

dystopian future society.[5]

Rituals

If a person willingly ends his or her own life, it is not necessarily considered a tragic death.[citation needed] Émile Durkheim notes that in some cultures there is a duty to intentionally commit ritual suicide.

A

funeral pyre in an act of self-immolation. The elderly members of certain cultures intentionally ended their lives, in what is termed as senicide. In hunter-gatherer societies,[6]
death "was determined for the elderly ... normally characterized by a liminal period and ceremonies in which the old person was transferred from the present world to the next."

Durkheim also observes that altruistic suicide is unlikely to occur much in contemporary Western society where "individual personality is increasingly freed from the collective personality".

Dharmashastras.[9] Some perceive self-immolation as an altruistic or "worthy" suicide.[10]

Emergencies

In contemporary Western society, this is seldom referred to as

heroism. This only exists in times of emergency, and is always lauded, and is perceived as a tragic death.[citation needed
]

Self-sacrificial acts of heroism, such as

undercover agents, sailors, and soldiers more often are at risk of opportunities for this form of unplanned self-sacrifice. These are all a result of tragic, life-threatening, emergencies. It is only an emergency measure, a voluntary but unwanted end to the person's life. It is never a result of long-term planned action, yet may involve some short-term planning. Examples of this include Vince Coleman
, a telegraph operator who saved hundreds of lives by sending out a warning about an imminent explosion.

Protests

Thailand

military coup of 2006. He was later found hanging from a pedestrian footbridge. Officials found a suicide note and later ruled his death a suicide.[12]

In 2020,

Khanakorn Pianchana, a Thai judge, committed suicide to protest the Thai justice system. He made a suicide attempt in October 2019, when he shot himself in the chest with a pistol in the Yala province court, after he acquitted five men on murder and firearms charges due to lack of evidence and reading a short statement, in order to protest against interference in the justice system. He died in a second attempt in March 2020, after being subject to investigations following his actions.[13]

Tibet

As of May 2022, 160 monks, nuns, and ordinary people have

Ngawa City, Ngawa County, Sichuan.[18][verification needed] According to the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT),[19] "Chinese police have beaten, shot, isolated, and disappeared self-immolators who survived."[20]

Tunisia

street vendor who set himself on fire on 17 December 2010 in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, an act which became a catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring against autocratic regimes. His self-immolation
was in response to the confiscation of his wares and the harassment and humiliation inflicted on him by a municipal official and her aides.

United States of America

psychiatric disorder, instead of as a form of protest, perhaps due to Christian values historically associated with these cultures.[23]

On April 22, 2022, climate activist

Wynn Alan Bruce set himself on fire in the plaza of the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. The fatal self-immolation, which took place on Earth Day, was characterized by Bruce's friends and his father as a protest against the climate crisis
.

On February 25th, 2024, American serviceman Aaron Bushnell fatally set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., to protest Israeli government's conduct in the Israel–Hamas war and his own government's support of Israel.

Vietnam

In 1963, Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Duc committed altruistic suicide through the means of self-immolation. He did this to protest the treatment of Buddhist practicing peoples by the South Vietnamese government. [24][25]

See also

References

  1. .
  2. .
  3. .
  4. ^ "What are Emile Durkheims four Types of Suicide". Actforlibraries.org. Retrieved 2022-06-16.
  5. ^ Rysa Ket. ReadOn. Rysa. pp. 1–. GGKEY:PJG0JH7UBZD.[permanent dead link]
  6. .
  7. ^ Deniz Yükseker, Lecture on Emile Durkheim, archived from the original on 2011-07-16, retrieved 2010-06-20
  8. .
  9. .
  10. .
  11. .
  12. ^ Taxi driver 'sacrificed himself for democracy'
  13. ^ "Senior judge dies in second suicide bid". Bangkok Post. 7 March 2020. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  14. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  15. ^ "Tibetan Monk Dies After Self-Immolating In Eastern Tibet". Free Tibet. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
  16. ^ Wong, Edward (11 April 2015). "Nun Sets Herself on Fire to Protest Chinese Rule in Tibet". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 April 2015. She was the second woman to set herself on fire this year and the 138th Tibetan to do so since 2009 in Tibetan regions ruled by China, according to the International Campaign for Tibet, an advocacy group based in Washington.
  17. ^ "Self-immolations". International Campaign for Tibet. Retrieved 2022-07-17.
  18. ^ Edward Wong (June 2, 2012). "In Occupied Tibetan Monastery, a Reason for Fiery Deaths". The New York Times. Retrieved June 3, 2012.
  19. ^ Self-immolation fact sheet, (2 December 2019), https://savetibet.org/tibetan-self-immolations/
  20. ^ Ross, Tracy (24 September 2019). "Tibet Is Still Burning". Outside. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  21. ^ "The Pacifists", Time Magazine, November 12, 1965; accessed July 23, 2007.
  22. ^ BBC (21 december, 2010).A life in flames: Anne Morrison Welch
  23. ^ a b Abraham, Margaret (2015). "The Intersections of Protest Suicides, Oppression and Social Justice". Journal of the Brazilian Sociological Society. 1 (1): 17–31. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  24. ^ Oliver, Mark (2017-10-03). "The Full Story Of The Burning Monk Who Changed The World". All That's Interesting. Retrieved 2022-10-16.
  25. ^ VBC (2021-06-10). "Thich Quang Duc, the Buddhist Monk Who Lit a Match and Sparked a Revolt in 1963". Veterans Breakfast Club. Retrieved 2022-10-16.