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Abstract
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Suicide is commonly regarded as either an insane act, a moral offence, or, from a sensational standpoint, as an heroic achievement. Besides these aspects there are others resulting from the consideration of sui cide as the direct and evident outcome of given social conditions.
Self-destruction is sometimes, though not usually, the result of insan ity. In Europe the proportion of suicides to the insane has been estimated by competent observers as about one-third. In this country sufficient statistics to demonstrate the proportion of suicides to the admittedly insane have not been collected, but this proportion is doubtless smaller than is popularly supposed. In most cases of sui cide there is evidence of deliberate rational preparation for the act. The suicide is incited by real motives arising from actual facts, and in no way based upon hallucinations. Instances are many where it is possible to show that the suicide has brought his reasoning powers to bear upon this act as well as Upon any other act of his life. Consider ation for the feelings of friends often covers a case of suicide under the cloak of " temporary mental aberration," when in reality the deed has been well pondered and sanely accomplished. Attempts to de fraud life insurance companies by suicide after obtaining heavy insurance for the benefit of a family, have been contrived and carried out as ingeniously as bank robberies, with the expectation of success resting upon the belief that the average juryman will regard the act of suicide as in itself an evidence of insanity. And the expectation is well founded, notwithstanding the fact that both state and national courts have established the opinion that there is no presumption in law that self-destruction arises from insanity.
To encourage the supposition that the suicide is probably insane, is a mistake which may possibly lend itself to fraud, and which certainly diminishes the means whereby the prevention of suicide may be sought...
Language: en |