Suicide
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X4001300307 |
| Date | 01 July 1940 |
| Published date | 01 July 1940 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Suicide
By
FRANK
W.
MARTIN,
M.D.
Late
Divisional
Casualty
Surgeon,
City
of Glasgow Police
WE hear and read much about suicide to-day, and as a
result we are inclined to think that cases of suicide are
on the increase. Suicide, however, is not
just
apresent-day
fashion: it has existed from time immemorial. To-day it is
brought prominently to the notice of the public through the
medium of the sensational press; for this section of the press
lives by providing the public with sensations; cases of suicide
are therefore as manna to it.
Suicide is defined by legal textbooks as " self murder."
At one time it was an offence against the Church and was
punishable by ecclesiastical law; indeed
it
continued to come
under the jurisdiction of the Church until cleric and judge no
longer sat together in the civil courts.
The
criminal law records of the thirteenth century show
that aperson who committed suicide in order to evade a con-
viction for a criminal offence had all his lands confiscated.
In
other instances, however, he only forfeited his goods and
chattels.
That
law prevailed right through the centuries until
1870, when an Act of Parliament was passed abolishing all such
forfeitures.
Christianity has always looked askance at suicide, and
practically all Christian nations make the act of felo de se a
crime. No sympathy was shown to the person who took his or
her own life.
In
the"
good old
days"
which we so often hear
about, when a verdict of felo de se was returned, the victim
had to be interred at four crossroads, with a stake driven
through the body. Nobody seems to know how or when this
custom arose and certainly no Act of Parliament was ever
passed to legalise the procedure.
3°3
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