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Fatal Freedom: The Ethics and Politics of Suicide
Fatal Freedom is an eloquent defense of every individual's right to choose a voluntary death. The author, a renowned psychiatrist, believes that we can speak about suicide calmly and rationally, as he does in this book, and that we can ultimately accept suicide as part of the human condition. By maintaining statutes that determine that voluntary death is not legal, our society is forfeiting one of its basic freedoms and causing the psychiatric/medical establishment to treat individuals in a manner that is disturbingly inhumane according to Dr. Szasz. His important work asks and points to clear, intelligent answers to some of the most significant ethical questions of our
• Is suicide a voluntary act?
• Should physicians be permitted to prevent it?
• Should they be authorized to abet it?
The author's thoughtful analysis of these questions consistently holds forth patient autonomy as paramount; therefore, he argues, patients should not be prevented from exercising their free will, nor should physicians be permitted to enter the process by prescribing or providing the means for voluntary death.
Dr. Szasz predicts that we will look back at our present prohibitory policies toward suicide with the same amazed disapproval with which we regard past policies toward homosexuality, masturbation, and birth control. This comparison with other practices that started as sins, became crimes, then were regarded as mental illnesses, and are now becoming more widely accepted, opens up the discussion and understanding of suicide in a historical context. The book explores attitudes toward suicide held by the ancient Greeks and Romans, through early Christianity and the Reformation, to the advent of modern psychiatry and contemporary society as a whole. Our tendency to define disapproved behaviors as diseases has created a psychiatric establishment that exerts far too much influence over how and when we choose to die. Just as we have come to accept the individual's right to birth control, so too must we accept his right to death control before we can call our society humane or free.
• Is suicide a voluntary act?
• Should physicians be permitted to prevent it?
• Should they be authorized to abet it?
The author's thoughtful analysis of these questions consistently holds forth patient autonomy as paramount; therefore, he argues, patients should not be prevented from exercising their free will, nor should physicians be permitted to enter the process by prescribing or providing the means for voluntary death.
Dr. Szasz predicts that we will look back at our present prohibitory policies toward suicide with the same amazed disapproval with which we regard past policies toward homosexuality, masturbation, and birth control. This comparison with other practices that started as sins, became crimes, then were regarded as mental illnesses, and are now becoming more widely accepted, opens up the discussion and understanding of suicide in a historical context. The book explores attitudes toward suicide held by the ancient Greeks and Romans, through early Christianity and the Reformation, to the advent of modern psychiatry and contemporary society as a whole. Our tendency to define disapproved behaviors as diseases has created a psychiatric establishment that exerts far too much influence over how and when we choose to die. Just as we have come to accept the individual's right to birth control, so too must we accept his right to death control before we can call our society humane or free.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published November 30, 1998
About the author
Thomas Szasz
99 books329 followersThomas Stephen Szasz (pronounced /sas/; born April 15, 1920 in Budapest, Hungary) was a psychiatrist and academic. He was Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York. He was a prominent figure in the antipsychiatry movement, a well-known social critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry, and of the social control aims of medicine in modern society, as well as of scientism. He is well known for his books, The Myth of Mental Illness (1960) and The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement which set out some of the arguments with which he is most associated.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 24, 2012
If Dr. Szasz is extreme in some of his views -- a point upon which I am still undecided -- he certainly logically consistent, looks at empirical facts and does not engage either in either wishful thinking or euphemism. I unfortunately do not have time to give this work the in-depth review it deserves, but hope to do so when I re-read this in a few months.
I would have liked to have given this book a five star rating, but the one thing about Szasz that rather sticks in my craw is one source of his funds: the Church of Scientology. Not that I think the Xenu-heads exert any influence over him -- he is far too much the iconoclast. But, to take money from them is to take tainted dollars, from a criminal enterprise masquerading as a religion. Szasz should know better.
I would have liked to have given this book a five star rating, but the one thing about Szasz that rather sticks in my craw is one source of his funds: the Church of Scientology. Not that I think the Xenu-heads exert any influence over him -- he is far too much the iconoclast. But, to take money from them is to take tainted dollars, from a criminal enterprise masquerading as a religion. Szasz should know better.
August 31, 2024
Trigger Warning: suicide, personal experiences of suicide, suicidal thoughts.
Suicide: once a sin, then a crime, and now a mental illness. In Fatal Freedom, American psychiatrist Thomas Szasz defends the right to choose voluntary death against coercive elements of the psychiatric establishment, namely civil commitment and involuntary treatment. In his view, just as we have a right to birth control, so too must we have a right to death control.
I found this book edifying. Szasz's exploration of the historical and legal treatment of voluntary death was fascinating. Historically, it was legally prohibited, and the state would confiscate the suicide's property. Starting in the 19th century, lawyers started to use the insanity defense, contending that suicides were ipso facto insane and thus absolved of criminal responsibility. Religious authorities adopted similar rationales.
Like a lot of libertarian arguments, I can only meet it halfway. I too am weary of psychiatry's history of unwarrantedly treating certain practices and identities as a medical problem (e.g., medicalizing homosexuality). I respect Szasz's concern for patients' rights and autonomy. I also do not think that suicidality is always a sign of insanity, mental illness, or dysfunction (and thus justify placing people in a hospital against their will).
But, for many, including me, suicidal desires waver. In part, I read this book because I have attempted suicide before. At times I want to die, and at other times I do not. So, which desire should I act on? And how do you tell when someone is in their right mind? How do you identify a mental disease? I don't think Szasz has satisfactory answers to these questions.
Suicide: once a sin, then a crime, and now a mental illness. In Fatal Freedom, American psychiatrist Thomas Szasz defends the right to choose voluntary death against coercive elements of the psychiatric establishment, namely civil commitment and involuntary treatment. In his view, just as we have a right to birth control, so too must we have a right to death control.
I found this book edifying. Szasz's exploration of the historical and legal treatment of voluntary death was fascinating. Historically, it was legally prohibited, and the state would confiscate the suicide's property. Starting in the 19th century, lawyers started to use the insanity defense, contending that suicides were ipso facto insane and thus absolved of criminal responsibility. Religious authorities adopted similar rationales.
Like a lot of libertarian arguments, I can only meet it halfway. I too am weary of psychiatry's history of unwarrantedly treating certain practices and identities as a medical problem (e.g., medicalizing homosexuality). I respect Szasz's concern for patients' rights and autonomy. I also do not think that suicidality is always a sign of insanity, mental illness, or dysfunction (and thus justify placing people in a hospital against their will).
But, for many, including me, suicidal desires waver. In part, I read this book because I have attempted suicide before. At times I want to die, and at other times I do not. So, which desire should I act on? And how do you tell when someone is in their right mind? How do you identify a mental disease? I don't think Szasz has satisfactory answers to these questions.
November 28, 2024
Wow! Short and sweet, this book packs a punch. If you're interested in suicide, I'd encourage you to read this. Doesn't go into the anthropological history of suicide, but rather focuses on it in the here and now. It's makes a compelling argument - that we as individuals should have the autonomy to commit suicide if we decide to. The abuse by psychiatric, medical, and legal institutions in violating ones right to die on their own terms is shocking. Even if you don't ultimately view the choice of someone to kill themselves as a civil liberty, this book makes a fascinating case in support of it, at the very least.
January 22, 2020
Started this book without knowing what it actually contains. I thought it will offer a balanced view in a narrative style - on the ethics and politics of suicide - yet the author pushes for the agenda for legalising suicide. It is mind-opening, allowing me to put myself in others' shoes. Perhaps some criticisms on coercive suicide prevention programmes in this book ought to be reflected by policy makers. The definition on the term "suicide" itself should be revisited as well, since it is often stigmatised.
September 25, 2015
Revelatory, as so many of Szasz's books are. A clearer or more courageous thinker is hard to come by.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews