Suicide Essay

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Suicide |
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Say Xiong |
5/1/2012 |

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Suicide is the act of taking one's own life on purpose. (New York Times, 2012) It is shocking to hear it on the news and even more devastating when it happens to someone that a person knows. Taking one’s own life is serious and unwanted.   Prevention at all cost would be the best solution to any suicide attempt. To understand more about suicide, we must look into various accounts which can lead to one taking away his or her life.   We must explore the history of suicide, what causes suicide, some symptoms of suicide and possible treatments to prevent it from occurring.
First, from ancient Egyptian civilization to the great Greek philosophers, suicide was a way for an individual to rid themselves of harsh conditions such as physical and or emotional suffering. The history of suicide dates back immensely.   Initially, suicide was not considered a cultural taboo.  To the ancient Egyptians, suicide was not a violation of either the spiritual or legal code. Suicide was seen as a way to die if one was faced with unendurable suffering - be it physical or emotional. (Center, 2011)   The first person to mention or even talk about suicide was a Greek Philosopher named Socrates. He mentioned that we as human beings belonged to the Gods and did not have the right to take away life. Life did not belong to humans but to the Gods. (Center, 2011) These two beliefs are contradicting each other, where one believes suicide is just when faced with hardship; on the other hand one believes it is unjust to take away something that did not belong to oneself.
Second, Durkheim believed that suicide is perhaps "the most personal act" any human can undertake.   In 1987, Emile Durkheim conducted research on the topic of suicide. His goal was to establish sociology as a social science like psychology. Durkheim believed that if he could show that the most individual of acts, which had previously been attributed to psychological...