Those who have read my post "I'm a What, Now?" will know my frustration with how society defines the term "suicide survivor." Recently I heard about a change in terminology that is just as frightening: those who died from suicide are now said to have "completed suicide" rather than having "committed suicide." The reason is that "committed suicide" makes it sound like the person was a criminal, and they don't want to speak ill of the dead. However, suicide is a crime. It's a crime a person commits against themself and against God. As was pointed out in a response to the post where I initially heard about this new term, if suicide was not a crime, the police would not be able to respond if a person is threatening to kill themself. In addition, if they had used that same deadly force on someone else, we wouldn't hesitate to say they committed murder. Why should it be any different because it was themself they killed?
In addition, the word commit does not only refer to crime. You can commit to a cause, a workout program, a committee, and even commit your life to another person through marriage. While the word "commit" is defined as carrying out a crime, it is also defined as making a promise and following through. Isn't that what happens when someone commits suicide? They make a promise to end their own life, and they carry it out. In many cases, they also plan it out quite intensely before carrying it out. While the word commit can have a negative connotation, most of the time it doesn't, and as such is a perfectly valid word to use to refer to someone who dies by suicide.
My main objection to this change in terminology has nothing to do with the validity of the current term, but the dangerous message that the new term can send those suffering from suicidal depression. If suicide is something to be completed, then those who attempt suicide but don't die from their attempt left something incomplete, and from my experience in my own life, you don't tell an anxious person that something is incomplete unless you want them to complete it. In college, there was a class that was marked as incomplete due to a power outage causing a school cancellation that led to important paperwork not getting to the right place before grades were posted. I found this out in the middle of Christmas break, and I did as much as I could through e-mail and calls before returning to campus to try and fix it. Since it wasn't fixed yet when I got back, I went around to make sure all the paperwork had gotten to where it needed to be so that I could get a grade for that class.
There are very likely people suffering from suicidal depression that, if they knew that they didn't "complete" suicide, would show this same dedication and focus to completing it. This is the last thing we as Christians should want, and is the main reason why using the term "completed suicide" is incredibly dangerous. Had this change occurred 12 years ago, and 16-year-old me had gotten wind of it, there might not be a 28-year-old me right now. We must do all we can to resist this change, not only because the word "commit" is so accurate in describing what suicide is like, but also because if suicide is something to be completed, it can drive people to make sure it is not left incomplete. Suicide has never been, nor will ever be, something worth completing.
In addition, the word commit does not only refer to crime. You can commit to a cause, a workout program, a committee, and even commit your life to another person through marriage. While the word "commit" is defined as carrying out a crime, it is also defined as making a promise and following through. Isn't that what happens when someone commits suicide? They make a promise to end their own life, and they carry it out. In many cases, they also plan it out quite intensely before carrying it out. While the word commit can have a negative connotation, most of the time it doesn't, and as such is a perfectly valid word to use to refer to someone who dies by suicide.
My main objection to this change in terminology has nothing to do with the validity of the current term, but the dangerous message that the new term can send those suffering from suicidal depression. If suicide is something to be completed, then those who attempt suicide but don't die from their attempt left something incomplete, and from my experience in my own life, you don't tell an anxious person that something is incomplete unless you want them to complete it. In college, there was a class that was marked as incomplete due to a power outage causing a school cancellation that led to important paperwork not getting to the right place before grades were posted. I found this out in the middle of Christmas break, and I did as much as I could through e-mail and calls before returning to campus to try and fix it. Since it wasn't fixed yet when I got back, I went around to make sure all the paperwork had gotten to where it needed to be so that I could get a grade for that class.
There are very likely people suffering from suicidal depression that, if they knew that they didn't "complete" suicide, would show this same dedication and focus to completing it. This is the last thing we as Christians should want, and is the main reason why using the term "completed suicide" is incredibly dangerous. Had this change occurred 12 years ago, and 16-year-old me had gotten wind of it, there might not be a 28-year-old me right now. We must do all we can to resist this change, not only because the word "commit" is so accurate in describing what suicide is like, but also because if suicide is something to be completed, it can drive people to make sure it is not left incomplete. Suicide has never been, nor will ever be, something worth completing.
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