❝ Citação

Another religious argument is that suicide is prohibited because life is a gift from God. To kill oneself is to refuse that gift. But this becomes muddled if one thinks about it for a moment: if life is a gift from God, then what exactly is a gift? A gift is something one gives to another person. After the act of giving, the gift belongs to its recipient. By definition, the giver of the gift no longer has possession of the gift once it is given. So, if the prohibition against suicide is based on the idea that life is a gift from God, then life appears to be a gift with many strings attached, which entails that it is no longer a gift. Namely, a gift that we cannot reject is not a gift. In order to be a gift, life has to be capable of being refused, thrown away, re-gifted to someone else, re-sold for money or given away. If life is a gift from God, then God must allow for the possibility of suicide as the rejection of that gift.

2 Nov 2026

Passagem de Notes on Suicide, de Simon Critchley.

Histórico

2026-11-02 note: Another religious argument is that suicide is prohibited because life is a gift from God. To kill oneself is to refuse that gift. But this becomes muddled if one thinks about it for a moment: if life is a gift from God, then what exactly is a gift? A gift is something one gives to another person. After the act of giving, the gift belongs to its recipient. By definition, the giver of the gift no longer has possession of the gift once it is given. So, if the prohibition against suicide is based on the idea that life is a gift from God, then life appears to be a gift with many strings attached, which entails that it is no longer a gift. Namely, a gift that we cannot reject is not a gift. In order to be a gift, life has to be capable of being refused, thrown away, re-gifted to someone else, re-sold for money or given away. If life is a gift from God, then God must allow for the possibility of suicide as the rejection of that gift.