Dutiful suicide
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dutiful suicide is an act, or attempted 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 or purely functional.
Perhaps the most famous example of dutiful suicide is a soldier in a foxhole throwing his body on a live grenade to save the lives of his comrades.
Dutiful suicide can be distinguished from a kamikaze or suicide bomb attack, in which a fighter consumes his own life in delivering a weapon to the enemy.
[edit] A list of dutiful suicides or attempts
- Disgraced Roman patricians were sometimes allowed to commit suicide to spare themselves a trial and penalties against their families.
- Suicide was also a way to remove a lowed to restore honor to one's family name among English Aristocracy.
- Nazi SA commander Ernst Röhm was ordered to kill himself by Adolf Hitler. Röhm refused and was executed in prison.
- Erwin Rommel, found to have foreknowledge of the German attempt on Hitler's life, was threatened with public trial, execution and reprisals on his family unless he committed suicide; he did.
- The biblical figure Saul the King is said to have committed suicide at a losing battle with the Philistines.
