Crime or cry for help?

Dr Khalid Mufti/ Dr Afzal Javed WHEN a person reaches a point where death seems easier than life, the essential question is no longer whether the law has been broken. It is what depth of suffering has made life itself appear unbearable. The courtroom examines an offence, religion condemns a sin, but medicine encounters a human being whose hope has all but disappeared. It is at this point that law, morality and science are called upon to engage in a meaningful dialogue. The recent judgment of Pakistan’s Federal Shariah Court has revived a longstanding debate: should a person who attempts suicide be treated as a criminal deserving punishment or as a patient in urgent need of care? While the issue appears legal, it is fundamentally a question of public morality and social responsibility. The law responds to wrongdoing with punishment; medicine responds to suffering with treatment. A suicide attempt is rarely an impulsive act born in isolation. More often, it is the final consequence of prolonged despair. Poverty, unemployment, debt, domestic violence, mental illness, loneliness, social neglect and the loss of hope gradually erode a person’s resilience until death appears to offer the only escape from unbearable pain. According to the World Health Organization, hundreds of thousands of people die by suicide each year, while many more attempt it. Experience across the world shows that criminalizing attempted suicide neither prevents suicide nor saves lives. Instead, it drives vulnerable individuals into silence, discourages them from seeking medical help and leaves families reluctant to disclose the truth for fear of legal consequences. Like many former British colonies, Pakistan inherited colonial legislation that treated attempted suicide as a criminal offence. That provision was repealed four years ago to ensure that survivors were directed to hospitals rather than prisons. The Federal Shariah Court has now restored criminal liability, reasoning that since suicide is