Forced suicide

Forced suicide is a method of execution where the victim is coerced into committing suicide to avoid facing an alternative option they perceive as much worse, such as suffering torture or having friends or family members imprisoned, tortured, or killed. Another common form historically has been deliberately providing a condemned individual with a weapon and a brief period in which to commit honourable suicide if he or she chooses before being executed.

In ancient Greece and Rome

Forced suicide was a common means of execution in ancient Greece and Rome. As a mark of respect it was generally reserved for aristocrats sentenced to death; the victims would either drink hemlock or fall on their swords. Economic motivations prompted some suicides in ancient Rome. A person who was condemned to death would forfeit property to the government. People could evade that provision and let the property pass to their heirs by committing suicide prior to arrest.

The most well-known forced suicide is that of the philosopher Socrates, who drank hemlock after his trial for allegedly corrupting the youth of Athens. The Stoic philosopher Seneca also killed himself in response to an order by his pupil, the Roman Emperor Nero, who himself was forced to commit suicide at a later date. Other famous forced suicides include those of Brutus, Mark Antony, Emperor Otho, and the Roman General Corbulo.

In Asia

The Hindu practice of sati, in which a recently widowed woman would immolate herself on her husband's funeral pyre,[1][2][3] is not generally considered a type of honor killing.[4][5] However, the extent up to which Sati was a purely voluntary act or one that was coerced is actively debated. There have been some incidents in recent times, such as the Roop Kanwar case, in which forced sati was suspected.[6] Additional cases are under investigation,[7] though no evidence of forced suicide has yet been found.[8][9][10]

Japanese seppuku falls into this category. The culture practiced by the samurai expected them to ritually kill themselves if found disloyal, sparing a daimyō or shōgun the indignity of executing a follower. This was especially the case in the Edo period, and Asano Naganori was a clear example.

As a substitute for honor killings

A forced suicide may be a substitute for an honour killing when a woman violates the namus in conservative Middle Eastern societies. In 2006, the United Nations investigated reports of forced suicides of women in southeastern Turkey.[11]

References

1. Hawley, John C. (1994). Sati, the blessing and the curse: the burning of wives in India. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. pp. 102, 166. ISBN 0-19-507774-1.
2. Smith, Bonnie G. (2004). Women's history in global perspective. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. p. 103. ISBN 0-252-02997-6.
3. Jörg Fisch (2005). Immolating Women: A Global History from Ancient Times to the Present. Orient Longman. p. 320. ISBN 81-7824-134-X.
4. Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, Real and Imagined Women, Routledge, 1993.
5. Lata Mani: Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India. Berkeley & Los Angeles, 1998
6. Douglas James Davies and Lewis H. Mates (eds.), Encyclopedia of Cremation, p371, Ashgate Publishing, 2005.
7. Mani, Lata (2003). Kim, Seung-Kyung; McCann, Carole R. (eds.). "Multiple Mediations" in Feminist theory reader: local and global perspectives. New York: Routledge. pp. 373–4. ISBN 0-415-93152-5.
8. "Woman commits Sati in Uttar Pradesh". rediff.com. Retrieved 2008-02-08.
9. "Woman dies after jumping into husband's funeral pyre". rediff.com. Retrieved 2006-08-22.
10. "Visitors flock to 'sati' village". bbc.co.uk. 2006-08-23. Retrieved 2008-02-08.
11. "UN probes Turkey 'forced suicide", BBC News, 2006-05-24.