Suicidologists have erroneously used “willing & willful self-termination”, a definition of suicide designed for coroners, for the purpose of educing causes of suicide. Suicide is a cultural artifact & can be understood only with reference to the socio-cultural norms & attitudes that govern it in each cultural community. Suicidologists must make a paradigmatic shift from the prevailing universal, invariant definition to systematic research into culture-specific meanings of suicide. (GW)