Note 63 — Chapter XI · IS THE ACT OF SUICIDE THE RESULT OF INSANITY?

“Pain is an evil; death, the deprivation of every hope or comfort in this life. No man in his senses will burn, drown, or stab himself; for these all produce what are called evils; neither can any of these actions be executed without the probability of pain in the convulsive action or struggles of death. As no rational being will voluntarily give himself pain, or deprive himself of life, which certainly, while human beings preserve their senses, must be acknowledged evils, it follows that every one who commits suicide is indubitably non compos mentis, not able to reason justly, but is under the influence of false images of the mind; and therefore suicide should ever be considered an act of insanity.”—Dr. Rowley.