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Suicide, Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: A Buddhist Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Damien Keown
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Extract

The debate surrounding the so-called “right to die” has commanded increasing public attention over the last decade. Opinion polls in many Western democracies would appear to show increasing support for euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, and a number of recent legal developments have further advanced the cause. As a result of court decisions since 1984, euthanasia has been legally permissible in the Netherlands; physician-assisted suicide was legalized in the State of Oregon in 1994 as a result of a ballot initiative, and in 1995 a voluntary euthanasia Bill was passed in the Northern Territory, Australia. But, even more recently, the “right to die” campaign has suffered reverses. The implementation of the Oregon legislation has been halted by a Federal court pending a determination of its constitutionality; the Northern Territory legislation was overturned by the Australian federal parliament in 1997, and in July 1997 the United States Supreme Court, reversing the decisions of lower courts, declared that there is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia.

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Articles
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , 1998 , pp. 385 - 405
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 1998

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References

1. On suicide and assisted suicide in antiquity see van Hooff, Anton J. L., From Autothanasia to Suicide: Self-Killing in Classical Antiquity (Routledge, 1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2. A.iii.451.

3. Buddhism believes in reincarnation or rebirth. According to the quality of one's actions in this life, rebirth will be in one of five (sometimes six) realms, including the human world, the animal world, and various heavens and hells.

4. The First Noble Truth is as follows:

What, O Monks, is the Noble Truth of Suffering? Birth is suffering, sickness is suffering, old age is suffering, death is suffering. Pain, grief, sorrow despair and lamentation are suffering. Association with what is unpleasant is suffering, disassociation from what is pleasant is suffering. Not to get what one wants is suffering. In short, the five factors of individuality are suffering.

This and the other Noble Truths are discussed in Keown, Damien, Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction ch 4 (Oxford U Press, 1996)Google Scholar.

5. A noteworthy exception to this is Florida, Robert E., Buddhist Approaches to Euthanasia 22 Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 35 (1993)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6. Textual study and exegesis is central to most Buddhist traditions, and ethical and doctrinal views and opinions that are not in conformity with scripture and authoritative commentaries on it composed through the centuries, have little chance of gaining acceptance. I propose, therefore, to make frequent reference to primary sources in the following discussion.

7. According to Becker, the Japanese word for euthanasia is anrakushi. This is another name for the heaven or “Pure Land” of the Buddha Amida. See Becker, Carl B., Buddhist Views of Suicide and Euthanasia 40 Philosophy East and West at 543, 550 (1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8. See Keown, Damien, The Nature of Buddhist Ethics (Macmillan, 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9. See Keown, Damien, Prebish, Charles & Husted, Wayne R.Buddhism and Human Rights (Curzon Press, 1998)Google Scholar. On the relationship between Buddhism and Christianity, see Keown, Damien, Christian Ethics in the Light of Buddhist Ethics, 106, Expository Times at 132 (1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10. For a discussion of issues in transcultural medical ethics, see Pellegrino, Edmund in Mazzarella, Patricia & Corsi, Pietro, eds, Transcultural Dimensions in Medical Ethics (U Publishing Group, 1992)Google Scholar.

11. This discussion on suicide has been adapted from my paper, Keown, Damien, Buddhism and Suicide: The Case of Channa, 3 J Buddhist Ethics 8 (1996)Google Scholar.

12. Wiltshire, Martin G., The ‘Suicide’ Problem in the Canon 6 J Intl Assoc of Buddhist Studies 124 (1983)Google Scholar. A broader discussion of suicide will be found in a forthcoming book on Buddhist ethics by Peter Harvey to be published by Cambridge University Press entitled An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics: Foundations, Values and Issues, and I am grateful to the author for sight of an advance copy of the relevant chapters.

13. The literature on suicide includes Poussin, L. de La Vallée, Suicide (Buddhist) in Hastings, James, ed, XII The Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics 24 (Clark, 1922)Google Scholar; Woodward, F.L., The Ethics of Suicide in Greek, Latin and Buddhist Literature, Buddhist Annual of Ceylon 4 (W.E. Bastian & Co, 1922)Google Scholar; Gernet, Jaques, Les suicides par le feu chez les bouddhiques chinoises de Ve au Xe siècle, in II Mélange publiés par l'Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises 527 (1960)Google Scholar; Filliozat, Jean, La Morte Volontaire par le feu en la tradition bouddhique indienne in 251 Journal Asiatique 21 (1963)Google Scholar; Jan, Yün-hua, Buddhist Self-Immolation in Medieval China, 4 History of Religion 243 (1964–1965)Google Scholar; Rahula, W., Self-Cremation in Mahāyāna Buddhism in Rahula, W., Zen and the Taming of the Bull (Gordon Fraser, 1978)Google Scholar; Loon, Louis H. Van, Some Buddhist Reflections on Suicide, 4 Religion in Southern Africa 3 (1983)Google Scholar; Lamotte, E., Religious Suicide in Early Buddhism 4 Buddhist Studies Rev 105 (1987) (first published in French in 1965)Google Scholar; Harvey, Peter, A Note and Response to “The Buddhist Perspective on Respect for Persons” 4 Buddhist Studies Rev 99 (1987)Google Scholar; Becker, Carl B., Buddhist Views of Suicide and Euthanasia 40 Philosophy East and West 543 (1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Becker, Carl B., Breaking the Circle: Death and the Afterlife in Buddhism (S Ill U Press, 1993)Google Scholar; Batchelor, Stephen, Existence, Enlightenment and Suicide: The Dilemma of Nanavira Thera in Skorupski, Tadeusz, ed, IV The Buddhist Forum 9 (School of Oriental and African Studies, 1996)Google Scholar. Woodward refers to a discussion of the Channa episode in Edmunds, , Buddhist and Christian Gospels ii 58Google Scholar, but I cannot locate this passage. For more general treatments see Thakur, Upendra, The History of Suicide in India (Munshiram Manoharlal, 1963)Google Scholar; Farberow, Norman L., ed, Suicide in Different Cultures (Baltimore U Park Press, 1975)Google Scholar; Young, Katherine K., Euthanasia: Traditional Hindu Views and the Contemporary Debate in Coward, Harold G. and Lipner, Julius J., eds, Hindu Ethics, Purity, Abortion, and Euthanasia (SUNY Press, 1989)Google ScholarMcGill Studies in the History of Religions 71 (esp 103–07)Google Scholar. There is additional literature on ritual suicide in Japan (seppuku), but I see this practice as bound up with the Japanese Samurai code and as owing little to Buddhism (Becker apparently disagrees).

14. Wiltshire, , The ‘Suicide’ Problem in the Canon at 124 (cited in note 12)Google Scholar.

15. Poussin, L. de La Vallèe, Suicide (Buddhist) in Hastings, James, ed, XII The Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics 24 (Clark, 1922)Google Scholar.

16. 1922:25. In a more recent encyclopedia entry Harran, Marilyn J. writes: “Buddhism in its various forms affirms that, while suicide as self-sacrifice may be appropriate for the person who is an arhat, one who has attained enlightenment, it is still very much the exception to the rule.” Suicide (Buddhism and Confucianism in Eliade, Mircea, ed in chief, XIV The Encylopedia of Religion 129 (Macmillan, 1987)Google Scholar.

17. Views of this kind with certain variations are expressed by Poussin, , Suicide (Buddhist) in Hastings, James, ed, XII The Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics (cited in note 13)Google Scholar; Wiltshire, The ‘Suicide’ Problem in the Canon (cited in note 12); van Loon, Some Buddhist Reflections on Suicide (cited in note 13); Lamotte, Religious Suicide in Early Buddhism (cited in note 13); Taniguchi, Shoyu, A Study of Biomedical Ethics from a Buddhist Perspective unpublished MA Thesis 86 (1987)Google Scholar; Young, Euthanasia: Traditional Hindu Views and the Contemporary Debate (cited in note 13); Florida, Robert E., Buddhist Approaches to Euthanasia 22 Studies in Religion/Sciences 35, 41 (1993)Google Scholar.

18. Lamotte, E., Religious Suicide in Early Buddhism 4 Buddhist Studies Rev 106 (1987) (first published in French in 1965)Google Scholar.

19. Id at 106f.

20. 1983:24.

21. Becker, Carl B., Breaking the Circle: Death and the Afterlife in Buddhism 136 (S Ill U Press, 1993)Google Scholar.

22. Id at 137.

23. Id.

24. On the criteria for moral evaluation in Buddhism, see Harvey, Peter, Criteria for Judging the Unwholesomeness of Actions in the Texts of Buddhism 2 J Buddhist Ethics 140 (1995)Google Scholar. See also Keown, Damien, Buddhism & Bioethics 37 (Macmillan, 1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25. It may be objected that it is impossible to murder without desire or hatred. Regardless of whether this is psychologically true, the theoretical possibility of desireless murders that would thus be regarded as not immoral reveals the inadequacy of the subjectivist account. Another defect in the account is that the gravity of murders would be nothing more than a function of the amount of desire present. A “crime of passion,” therefore, would be far more serious than a random “drive-by” shooting. The fact that courts often take an opposite view gives us reason to question this conclusion.

26. Other canonical suicides include those of the unnamed monks in the Vinaya whose deaths led to the promulgation of the third . At M.ii.109f. a husband kills his wife and then himself so they will not be separated. Cases of attempted suicide leading to enlightenment include those of the monk Sappadāsa in the (408), and the nun Sāhā in the (77) (both discussed by Sharma, 1987:123f. Compare Rahula 1978:220f). At Ud. 92 f. the aged Arhat Dabba rises in the air and disappears in a puff of smoke. There is a similar passage on Bakkula at M.iii.124-28.

27. Vakkali … te maranam bhavissati ap .

28. Horner, I.B., IV Kindred Sayings 33 (Pali Text Society, 1930)Google Scholar. In her introductory essay to the Majjhima translation, Homer seems to suggest that the compilers of the canon had actually “rigged” the text in order to exonerate Channa. Of the Buddha's exonerating statement she writes “they make him [the Buddha] sanction the unworthy act of the poor little sufferer” (xi).

29. Keown, Damien, Buddhism and Suicide: the Case of Channa 3 J Buddhist Ethics 8 (1993)Google Scholar.

30. The use of the word “blameworthy,” however, is unusual. The Buddha does not elsewhere describe those who are reborn as “blameworthy.”

31. For example, when asked about worshipping the six directions in the -sutta, the Buddha deftly switches the context to social relationships.

32. This distinction is made clear in Catholic teachings. The Declaration on Euthanasia (St. Paul's Books and Media, 1980)Google Scholar prepared by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith states at 7: “Intentionally causing one's own death, or suicide, is therefore equally as wrong as murder … although, as is generally recognized, at times there are psychological factors present that can diminish responsibility or even completely remove it.”

33. The situation in four contemporary cultures influenced by Buddhism is summarized by Harvey (An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics: Foundations, Values and Issues, forthcoming). He reports that in Sri Lanka attempted suicide is punishable by up to a year in prison while aiding and abetting suicide is treated the same as murder. In Thailand, while it is illegal to encourage suicide, suicide itself is not illegal. In Taiwan, attempted suicide is not a crime. Japanese law does not criminalize suicide but it is an offence to assist or encourage it.

34. This is similar to Christ's reaction to the woman taken in adultery: in defending the woman with the words “Neither do I condemn thee,” (John 8, 11) Christ is not endorsing adultery by displaying compassion for the woman who has sinned.

35. Wiltshire, , 6 J Intl Asso of Buddhist Studies at 132 (cited in note 14).Google Scholar.

36. The textual problems are examined more fully in Keown, Damien, Buddhism and Suicide: The Case of Channa 3 J Buddhist Ethics 8, 22–24 (1996)Google Scholar. These turn upon the meaning of the term anupavajja, which is usually translated as “blameless”. The commentary, however, plausibly in my view, understands it as meaning “not to be reborn” (apparently deriving it from the root vraj, meaning to go, walk or proceed). The terms occurs again towards the end of the discourse in the context of certain families who are either “blameworthy” or “to be visited” (upavajjakula) depending on which interpretation is preferred.

37. Schopenhauer, A., Foundation of Morals quoted in Battin, Margaret Pabst, Ethical Issues in Suicide 74 (Prentice Hall, 1982)Google Scholar.

38. This is suggested at Miln 195 and following.

39. As suggested, for example, by Florida, Robert E., Buddhist Approaches to Euthanasia, 2 Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 35, 45 (1993)Google Scholar. Compare Poussin, “In the case of Sākyamuni we have to deal with a voluntary death.” We must bear in mind, however, that the Buddha had rejected Māra's overtures in this direction at the start of his teaching career (D.ii.102) and did so again three months before his death (D.ii.99).

40. The story of the hungry tigress is found in the and the .

41. See Fairbaim, Gavin J., Contemplating Suicide 144 (Routledge, 1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Fairbaim suggests that seppuku is not suicide since the samurai does not seek to end his life, but only to perform his duty.

42. It is not easy to find a good English translation for ahimsā. Terms such as “pro-life” and “the sanctity of life” have theological and other associations which may color their use in a Buddhist context. The phrase “respect for life” is less loaded but not strong enough More satisfactory, and the phrase I shall adopt to translate ahimsā. is “the inviolability of life.”

43. D.iii.48.

44. Vin ii.79.

45. Pellegrino, Edmund D., Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in Kilner, John F., Miller, Arlene B. & Pellegrino, Edmund D., eds, Dignity and Dying, a Christian Appraisal (Paternoster Press, 1996)Google Scholar.

46. Vin ii.86.

47. Vin. iii.85.

48. S.V.420; Vin.1.10.

49. I am grateful to Peter Harvey for this information from his forthcoming book mentioned above.