Suicide and the ‘Impure’ Soul

in CCL, CDL
January 9th, 2014

New research says moral bias against suicide often comes from disgust over a tainted soul.

MATTHEW HUTSON
Around the world, about one million people die of suicide each year, according to the World Health Organization. Each death causes immeasurable harm: Friends, family members, and coworkers suffer loss, guilt, and confusion, and the immediate victim loses a future. Many of those friends and family members consider suicide to be morally wrong. But new evidence shows that people who consider suicide wrong

might have other reasons than the harm it brings. There is a more abstract—and at the same time more visceral—consideration at play.

Click here to read the full article in The Atlantic.