Altruistic Suicide: A Heroic Form Of Suicide

Suicide is an act that involved a mixture of many different emotions. To commit suicide is defined as the act of killing yourself because you do not want to continue living. Emilie Durkheim wrote a book in 1897 in which he studied suicide and its relation to society. In his book, Suicide, Durkheim discusses the suicide rates between Protestants and Catholics. He comes to the conclusion that due to social control by the Catholics leads to a lower rate in suicide. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, in 2015 an American die by suicide every 12.95 minutes and for every woman who dies by suicide four men die by suicide. These statistics show how relevant Durkheim’s study is still a problem in modern times and being one

This suicide occurs when there is an extreme ruling of people by social forces. This is seen as a “Heroic” form of suicide because the individual takes their life more for others than themselves. This form of suicide can be seen in an Indian practice called Sati. Sati is a Hindu practice where a widow will throw herself into her husband’s funeral pyre. Jumping into the pyre, the widows are seen as loyal and would mean that they will acquire a greater life for offering herself. A current example would be suicide terrorism. Terrorists give up their lives in order to make some type of political statement. An example would be the terrorist attack that occurred on September 11th 2001 when the World Trade and Pentagon were attacked by Islamic terrorists who were a part of a group named al-Qaeda. The attack had individuals from the group take over planes and fly them into buildings. The terrorists that engaged in this act, were thought, due to religion would be seen as heroes in their native area. Al-Qaeda had control over these individuals and made them believe that by giving up their lives to commit this act, they would be doing what’s best for

With a high level of regulation, individuals feel as though they are not accepted in their societies if they do not fit the mold of what that society deems as normal. A great example would be the deaths due to the sexuality of an individual. In the United States, the LGBT community is still not accepted fully by the population. There are many people against the idea of same sex marriages, and transgendered individuals leading to hate crimes. According to bullyingstatistics.org, a recent study states that “gay and lesbian teens are two or three times as more likely to commit teen suicide than other youths. About 30 percent of all completed suicides have been related to sexual identity crisis.” Many individuals see that the LGBT community goes against what is considered “normal” and is seen as a threat to heterosexuality, this is why it is not accepted. The individuals that are questioning their sexuality fear for their lives and still struggle to accept it and come out because of the reaction of the people around them. This leads to the act of committing