Counterpoints and Intersections between Suicide and Self-Sacrifice

Abstract

In this article, I seek, at first, to examine several common-sense distinctions between suicide and self-sacrifice, adopting that around the intended destination of the act (for the agent himself or for others, respectively). In the second step, I try to defend this criterion of distinction against some central objections. Though defending this criterion of distinction against such objections, I intend, finally, to establish questions on the intersections between suicide and self-sacrifice, caused by extreme situations. In order to discuss these overlaps, I make a brief analysis, above all, of Sophocles’ Antigone.

Keywords: Suicide, self-sacrifice, double effect, Antigone.