B. Positive and Indirect Suicide
Positive but indirect suicide committed without Divine
consent is also unlawful unless, everything considered, there is sufficient reason for doing what will cause death to follow. Thus, it is not a
sin, but an act of exalted
virtue, to go into savage lands to preach the Gospel, or to the bedside of the plague stricken, to
minister to them, although they who do so have before them the prospect of inevitable and speedy death; nor is it a
sin for workmen in the discharge of
duties to climb on roofs and buildings, thus exposing themselves to danger of death, etc. All this is lawful precisely because the act itself is good and upright, for in theory the
persons in question have not in view either as end or means the
evil result, that is, death, that will follow, and, moreover, if there be an
evil result it is largely
compensated for by the good and useful result which they seek. On the other hand there is
sin in exposing oneself to danger of death to display
courage, to win a wager, etc., because in all these cases the end does not in any way
compensate for the danger of death that is run. To judge whether or not there is sufficient reason for an act which will apparently be followed by death, all the circumstances must be weighed, namely, the importance of the good result, the greater or less
certainty of its being attained, the greater or less danger of death, etc., all questions which may in a specific case be very difficult to solve.
