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Essay on Suicide
People harm themselves for a variety of reasons and in a variety of ways and sometimes their self harm results in death. Of course not all of the harm that people cause themselves is deliberate. For example, the harm a person causes himself by overeating or by smoking tobacco, is unlikely to be wished for and aimed at. Nevertheless intentional self harm is very common. Some is aimed at achieving the death of the self harmer and some that is not, may look as if it was.
So some intentional self harm that could end in death, does not have death as its aim. In spite of this, when the protagonist ends up dead, it is most often referred to as suicide, the act of intentional and intended, wished-for self destruction. Or at least this is the tendency if the circumstances suggest that the person may have been attempting to kill himself. When a person ends up alive, after acting in a similar way, it is common to talk in terms of attempted suicide, even when there is little evidence that death was his intention.
The job of deciding what kind of act an apparent 'suicide' represents, such as is carried out in a legal setting by coroners, and in situations of practical care by professionals such as doctors, nurses and social workers, involves detective work of a complex kind, drawing together information from the individual's past, from his friends, relatives and associates, witnesses to his last actions ifthere are any, and any empirical evidence from the scene that might be available.
Suicide, the act of deliberate, intentional and wished-for self destruction, may be performed via a wide range of self harming actions including overdosing on drugs, cutting one's throat or wrists, putting one's head in a gas oven, leaping from a building or running in front of a fast moving train or car.....
