Why is suicide frowned upon in the western society, while it is considered honor

Question: Why is suicide frowned upon in the western society, while it is considered honorable in some eastern cultures!?
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

The west is Christian oriented!. That teaches that man is made in the likeness of God!. The body is merely a 'temple' in which the 'soul' resides!. To destroy that 'temple' by an act of suicide, is hubris indeed!. Of course, you can go round killing other people as much as you like, in war and in state sponsored 'executions' Such double standards really beggar belief!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Different cultures within East or West can develop their own attitudues towards suicide!.
The Samurai considered s an honorable death under certain circumstances!.
A Ten Commandment is Thou Shalt Not Kill!. This commandment is adhered to by Jews and Christians!. Self-killing violates the commandment!.
Top Nazis had suicide tablets worked into their dentistry!. They were indeed a part of "western society," as you put it, yet believed their crimes were so heinous to others that suicide was preferable to capture!.
Switzerland today allows suicide for elderly who suffer from terminal, hopeless illnesses!.
And Oregon allows for assisted suicide!.
Thus the concept of the acceptability of suicide can't be divided into east or west factions!.
There are also gray areas!. Alcoholism can be a slow form of suicide, a choice to poison oneself verses seeking treatment!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Because Westerners don't believe in reincarnation!.

For wESTerners, if you kill yourself, you have committed a mortal sin - damned yourself to eternity in Hades!.

For Easterners, the consequences of suicide are not as bad!.
You have destroyed your best vehicle for moving towards enlightenment!. But, you can continue this quest for enlightenment when you are reincarnated!.!.!.

So for them, suicide doesn't mean damning yourself forever, it's just a setback!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

in both parts of the world it is often the result of mental illness, therefore, it is a cause of greif to the relitives of the person who committed suiside and this is the reason it is frowned upon, (religious people also say it is a sin)!. In the Eastern countries it is also a way to "save face" and in this case it is considered honorable!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

More than anything I believe it is the Christen beliefs that govern this attitude here!. In general though you are taking your own life in an act of selfishness!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

because alot of those eastern cultures are insane, inhumain, and barbaic and should be destroyed!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

That's not true!. Suicide is looked upon as a bad act in eastern cultures!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Seppuku (切腹, Seppuku!? "stomach-cutting") is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment!. Seppuku was originally reserved only for samurai!. Part of the samurai honor code, seppuku has been used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies, as a form of capital punishment for samurai who have committed serious offenses, and for reasons that shamed them!. Seppuku is performed by plunging a sword into the abdomen and moving the sword left to right in a slicing motion!. The practice of committing seppuku at the death of one's master, known as oibara (追腹 or 追い腹, the kun'yomi or Japanese reading) or tsuifuku (追腹, the on'yomi or Chinese reading), follows a similar ritual!.

The most famous form of seppuku is also known as hara-kiri (腹切り, "cutting the belly") and is written with the same kanji as seppuku but in reverse order with an okurigana!. In Japanese, hara-kiri is a colloquialism, seppuku being the more formal term!. Samurai (and modern adherents of bushido) would use seppuku, whereas ordinary Japanese (who in feudal times as well as today looked askance at the practice) would use hara-kiri!. Hara-kiri is the more common term in English, where it is often mistakenly rendered "hari-kari"!.

Seppuku was a key part of bushido, the code of the samurai warriors; it was used by warriors to avoid falling into enemy hands, and to attenuate shame!. Samurai could also be ordered by their daimyo (feudal lords) to commit seppuku!. Later, disgraced warriors were sometimes allowed to commit seppuku rather than be executed in the normal manner!. The most common form of seppuku for men was composed of the cutting of the abdomen, and when the samurai was finished, he stretched out his neck for an assistant to decapitate him!. Since the main point of the act was to restore or protect one's honor as a warrior, those who did not belong to the samurai caste were never ordered or expected to commit seppuku!. Samurai generally could only commit the act with permission!.

Seppuku was commonly performed using a tantō!. It could take place with preparation and ritual in the privacy of one's home, or speedily in a quiet corner of a battlefield while one’s comrades kept the enemy at bay!.

In the world of the warrior, seppuku was a deed of bravery that was admirable in a samurai who knew he was defeated, disgraced, or mortally wounded!. It meant that he could end his days with his transgressions wiped away and with his reputation not merely intact but actually enhanced!. The cutting of the abdomen released the samurai’s spirit in the most dramatic fashion, but it is an extremely painful and unpleasant way to die, and sometimes the samurai who was performing the act asked a loyal comrade to cut off his head at the moment of agony!.

Sometimes a daimyo was called upon to perform seppuku as the basis of a peace agreement!. This would weaken the defeated clan so that resistance would effectively cease!. Toyotomi Hideyoshi used an enemy's suicide in this way on several occasions, the most dramatic of which effectively ended a dynasty of daimyo forever, when the Hōjō were defeated at Odawara in 1590!. Hideyoshi insisted on the suicide of the retired daimyo Hōjō Ujimasa, and the exile of his son Ujinao!. With one sweep of a sword, the most powerful daimyo family in eastern Japan was put to an end!.

Ritual
In time, committing seppuku came to involve a detailed ritual!. This was usually performed in front of spectators if it was a planned seppuku, not one performed on a battlefield!. A samurai was bathed, dressed in white robes, fed his favorite meal, and when he was finished, his instrument was placed on his plate!. Dressed ceremonially, with his sword placed in front of him and sometimes seated on special cloths, the warrior would prepare for death by writing a death poem!. With his selected attendant (kaishakunin, his second) standing by, he would open his kimono (robe), take up his tantō (knife) and plunge it into his abdomen, making a left-to-right cut!. The kaishakunin would then perform daki-kubi, a cut in which the warrior was all but decapitated (a slight band of flesh is left attaching the head to the body)!. Because of the precision necessary for such a maneuver, the second was often a skilled swordsman!. The principal agreed in advance when the kaishakunin was to make his cut, usually as soon as the dagger was plunged into the abdomen!.

This elaborate ritual evolved after seppuku had ceased being mainly a battlefield or wartime practice and become a para judicial institution (see next section)!.

The second was usually, but not always, a friend!. If a defeated warrior had fought honorably and well, an opponent who wanted to salute his bravery would volunteer to act as his second!.

In the Hagakure, Yamamoto Tsunetomo wrote:

From ages past it has been considered ill-omened by samurai to be requested as kaishaku!. The reason for this is that one gains no fame even if the job is well done!. And if by chance one should blunder, it becomes a lifetime disgrace!.

In the practice of past times, there were instances when the head flew off!. It was said that it was best to cut leaving a little skin remaining so that it did not fly off in the direction of the verifying officials!. However, at present it is best to cut clean through!.

A specialized form of seppuku in feudal times was known as kanshi (諌死, "death of understanding"), in which a retainer would commit suicide in protest of a lord's decision!. The retainer would make one deep, horizontal cut into his stomach, then quickly bandage the wound!. After this, the person would then appear before his lord, give a speech in which he announced the protest of the lord's action, then reveal his mortal wound!. This is not to be confused with funshi (憤死, indignation death), which is any suicide made to state dissatisfaction or protest!. A fictional variation of kanshi was the act of kagebara (陰腹, "shadow stomach") in Japanese theater, in which the protagonist, at the end of the play, would announce to the audience that he had committed an act similar to kanshi, a predetermined slash to the stomach followed by a tight field dressing, and then perish, bringing about a dramatic end!.

General Akashi Gidayu preparing to commit Seppuku after losing a battle for his master in 1582!. He had just written his death poem, which is also visible in the upper right corner!.Some samurai chose to perform a considerably more taxing form of seppuku known as jūmonji-giri (十文字切り, "cross-shaped cut"), in which there is no kaishakunin to put a quick end to the samurai's suffering!. It involves a second and more painful vertical cut across the belly!. A samurai performing jumonji-giri was expected to bear his suffering quietly until perishing from loss of blood, passing away with his hands over his face!.

[edit] Seppuku as capital punishment
While the voluntary seppuku described above is the best known form, in practice the most common form of seppuku was obligatory seppuku, used as a form of capital punishment for disgraced samurai, especially for those who committed a serious offense such as unprovoked murder, robbery, corruption, or treason!. The samurai were generally told of their offense in full and given a set time to commit seppuku, usually before sunset on a given day!. If the sentenced was uncooperative, it was not unheard of for them to be restrained, or for the actual execution to be carried out by decapitation while retaining only the trappings of seppuku; even the short sword laid out in front of the victim could be replaced with a fan!. Unlike voluntary seppuku, seppuku carried out as capital punishment did not necessarily absolve the victim's family of the crime!. Depending on the severity of the crime, half or all of the deceased's property could be confiscated, and the family stripped of rank!.

Western experience
The first recorded time a Westerner saw formal seppuku was the "Sakai Incident" of 1868!. On February 15, eleven French sailors of the Dupleix entered a Japanese town called Sakai without official permission!. Their presence caused panic among the residents!. Security forces were dispatched to turn the sailors back to their ship, but a fight broke out and the sailors were shot dead!. Upon the protest of the French representative, financial compensation was paid and those responsible were sentenced to death!. The French captain was present to observe the execution!. As each samurai committed ritual disembowelment, the gruesome nature of the act shocked the captain, and he requested a pardon, due to which nine of the samurai were spared!. This incident was dramatized in a famous short story, Sakai Jiken, by Mori ōgai

In the 1860s, The British Ambassador to Japan, Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford (Lord Redesdale) lived within sight of Sengaku-ji where the Forty-seven Ronin are buried!. In his book Tales of Old Japan, he describes a man who had come to the graves to kill himself:

I will add one anecdote to show the sanctity which is attached to the graves of the Forty-seven!. In the month of September 1868, a certain man came to pray before the grave of Oishi Chikara!. Having finished his prayers, he deliberately performed hara-kiri, and, the belly wound not being mortal, dispatched himself by cutting his throat!. Upon his person were found papers setting forth that, being a Ronin and without means of earning a living, he had petitioned to be allowed to enter the clan of the Prince of Choshiu, which he looked upon as the noblest clan in the realm; his petition having been refused, nothing remained for him but to die, for to be a Ronin was hateful to him, and he would serve no other master than the Prince of Choshiu: what more fitting place could he find in which to put an end to his life than tWww@QuestionHome@Com