Suicide: Some Theological Reflections (IN: Suicide: the Philosophical Issues, ed. by M P Battin & D J Mayo)

Baelz reviews the traditional moral objections to suicide from a Christian perspective. He argues that although suicide is often a kind of killing which we must condemn, it may also sometimes be a kind of killing, like that done in self-defense, which may be morally permissible, particularly when circumstances threaten to destroy a man’s humanity before death itself intervenes. His article contains an extensive review of theological & secular arguments traditionally employed to oppose suicide.