Year: 1997 Source: Issues in Law and Medicine, v.13, no.3, (1997), p.283-299 SIEC No: 20041086

This article is a response to an article by M P Battin, entitled “Can suicide be rational? Yes, sometimes.” The author refutes Battin’s idea that the Bible tolerates & even encourages suicide, arguing that the Bible only allows killing in self-defense or as punishment for serious wrongdoing. He reviews several incidences in the Scriptures where suicide is requested from God & refused, where self-inflicted death is condemned by God, & where it is tolerated. He concludes that suicide is not accepted in the Bible except as the sacrifice of one’s life as a means of serving God.