Suicide Prohibition: The Shame of Medicine

by Thomas Szasz

In Western thought, suicide has evolved from sin to sin-and-crime, to crime, to mental illness, and to semilegal act. A legal act is one we are free to think and speak about and plan and perform, without penalty by agents of the state.

While dying voluntarily is ostensibly legal, suicide attempts and even suicidal thoughts are routinely punished by incarceration in a psychiatric institution. Although many people believe the prevention of...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0815609906
• ISBN13: 9780815609902
• Release Date: October 2011
• Publisher: Syracuse University Press
• Length: 148 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.8" x 8.9"