The editorial “A malady, not a crime” (Sept.27) is a sober plea for doing away with a 150-year-old penal provision that has no relevance to the present day milieu. A person does not opt for suicide but it is his last resort when existence becomes too unendurable. Though, as pointed out, a complex matrix of factors may be at work, in a country like India, abject poverty, and not affluence with its attendant ills, often drives many to the irreversible alternative.
C. Divakaran,
Thiruvananthapuram
Advocacy of decriminalisation of suicide attempts is not asking for “the right to die.” It is an inhumane law that treats a person attempting self-destruction as a criminal rather than a victim. Self-annihilation is an extreme measure that should be discouraged but not punished. Setting the law upon the fortunate survivors of failed attempts is a predatory practice. The editorial has rightly stated that the focus should be on stopping suicides, many of which are preventable with active and robust social and medical support systems. What is so “politically inconvenient” about this barbaric law that the government has not acted upon the Law Commission's first recommendation which was made about four decades ago?
V.N. Mukundarajan,
Thiruvananthapuram
