Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/833

 the law has, therefore, ranked this among the highest crimes, making it a peculiar species of felony, a felony committed on one's self. And this admits of accessories before the fact, as well as other felonies; for if one persuades another to kill himself, and he does so, the adviser is guilty of murder. A felo-de-se, therefore, is he that deliberately puts an end to his own existence, or commits any unlawful, malicious act, the consequence of which is his own death." The English laws further provided for the forfeiture of the goods and chattels of a suicide to the King. In the State of New York, a felo-de-se does not incur the penalty of forfeiture of property; but "every person deliberately assisting another in the commission of self-murder shall be deemed guilty of manslaughter in the first degree." (2 R. S. 661, § 7.) If a condemned criminal, on the eve of his execution, takes poison, he commits suicide. If, while standing on the scaffold, some one hands him a knife, with which he takes his life, he commits suicide, and the person who furnishes him with the means of death is guilty of manslaughter. If, just before the drop falls, some well-intentioned friend, deeming a speedy death preferable to a slow one, sends a bullet through the heart of the condemned, the friend is guilty of murder.

The relation of suicide to human laws it is not the purpose of this article to consider. Undoubtedly the tacit contract between the government and the individual, while it demands on one side protection to the individual, demands on the other side service to the state; and it rests with neither party to the contract to terminate it at pleasure. Every person, to a certain extent and within proper limitations, places at the disposal of the government under which he lives, his life, liberty, and property. The government becomes the trustee, and, as long as the trust is properly executed, the individual—the cestui que trust—has no right to interfere. But we are to consider suicide morally, not legally. The question to be answered is this: Is suicide ever justifiable?

What is suicide? The voluntary termination of one's own life. And this is very different from submission to or acquiescence in involuntary death. A man may long for the approach of death; he may embrace it eagerly when it comes; but this is not the voluntary termination of life. The voluntary termination of life implies some act or failure to act on the part of an individual, which has for its object, in whole or in part, the death of the actor. Suicide, then, is the voluntary termination of one's own life. Is it of any consequence that the involuntary termination is inevitable? Unquestionably not. Death, whether soon or late, is a creditor who never releases his debt; and, if in one case the certainty of death is pleaded in extenuation or justification, the same plea may be offered in every case. Does the proximity of involuntary death furnish any excuse for voluntary death? Certainly not. The hastening of death is the