David Hume's View On Suicide

In ancient Athens, a person who committed suicide without the approval of the state was denied the honors of a normal burial. The person would be buried alone, on the outskirts of the city, without a headstone or marker.[146] However, it was deemed to be an acceptable method to deal with military defeat.[147] In Ancient Rome, while suicide was initially permitted, it was later deemed a crime against the state due to its economic costs.[148]

Suicide came to be regarded as a sin in Christian Europe and was condemned at the Council of Arles in 452 as the work of the Devil. In the Middle Ages, the Church had drawn-out discussions as to when the desire for martyrdom was suicidal, as in the case of martyrs of Córdoba. Despite these disputes and
David Hume denied that suicide was a crime as it affected no one and was potentially to the advantage of the individual. In his 1777 Essays on Suicide and the Immortality of the Soul he rhetorically asked, "Why should I prolong a miserable existence, because of some frivolous advantage which the public may perhaps receive from me?"[151] A shift in public opinion at large can also be discerned; The Times in 1786 initiated a spirited debate on the motion "Is suicide an act of courage?".[152]

By the 19th-century, the act of suicide had shifted from being viewed as caused by sin to being caused by insanity in Europe.[150] Although suicide remained illegal during this period, it increasingly became the target of satirical comments, such as the Gilbert and Sullivan musical The Mikado that satirized the idea of executing someone who had already killed himself.

By 1879, English law began to distinguish between suicide and homicide, although suicide still resulted in forfeiture of estate.[153] In 1882, the deceased were permitted daylight burial in England[154] and by the middle of the 20th century, suicide had become legal in much of the western