(Created page with "{{SocPsy}} '''Altruistic suicide''' is suicide committed for the benefit of others. Falling on a grenade is one such example.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Death by hand gre...")
'''Altruistic suicide''' is [[suicide]] committed for the benefit of others. [[Falling on a grenade]] is one such example.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Death by hand grenade: altruistic suicide in combat |first=JA |last=Blake |journal=Suicide & life-threatening behavior |year=1978 |month=Spring |volume=1 |issue=8 |pages=46–59 |pmid=675772}}</ref> [[Émile Durkheim]] notes that tribal people sometimes see it as their duty to commit suicide, as when a wife kills herself after her husband dies, or a man kills himself in old age; but Durkheim also observes that altruistic suicide is unlikely to occur much in modern western society where “individual personality is increasingly freed from the collective personality.”<ref>{{citation|title=Lecture on Emile Durkheim|url=http://home.ku.edu.tr/~dyukseker/lecture-durkheim2-05.doc|author=Deniz Yükseker}}</ref> Altruistic suicide has been described as an [[evolutionarily stable strategy]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Suicide as an evolutionarily stable strategy|first=Steven |last=Mascaro |coauthors=Kevin B. Korb, Ann E. Nicholson |journal=Lecture Notes in Computer Science |volume=2159 |year=2001|url=http://www.springerlink.com/index/dq0nchqjf0n2n2q7.pdf |pages=120–132 |doi=10.1007/3-540-44811-X_12}}</ref> Altruistic suicide has a long history in India, even being noted in the [[Dharmashastras]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Altruistic suicide in India|first= Lakshmi |last=Vijayakumar|journal=Archives of Suicide Research |year=2004 |month=January |issue=8| volume=1 |pages=73–80 |url=http://www.informaworld.com/index/714860330.pdf |doi=10.1080/13811110490243804 }}</ref> Some perceive [[self-immolation]] as an altruistic or "worthy" suicide.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Loren |last=Coleman |title=The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=3B4lTTZE58oC&pg=PA48 |location=New York |publisher=Paraview Pocket-Simon and Schuster |year=2004 |page=48 |isbn=0-7434-8223-9}}</ref>
'''Altruistic suicide''' is [[suicide]] committed for the benefit of others. [[Falling on a grenade]] is one such example.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Death by hand grenade: altruistic suicide in combat |first=JA |last=Blake |journal=Suicide & life-threatening behavior |year=1978 |month=Spring |volume=1 |issue=8 |pages=46–59 |pmid=675772}}</ref> [[Émile Durkheim]] notes that tribal people sometimes see it as their duty to commit suicide, as when a wife kills herself after her husband dies, or a man kills himself in old age; but Durkheim also observes that altruistic suicide is unlikely to occur much in modern western society where “individual personality is increasingly freed from the collective personality.”<ref>{{citation|title=Lecture on Emile Durkheim|url=http://home.ku.edu.tr/~dyukseker/lecture-durkheim2-05.doc|author=Deniz Yükseker}}</ref> Altruistic suicide has been described as an [[evolutionarily stable strategy]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Suicide as an evolutionarily stable strategy|first=Steven |last=Mascaro |coauthors=Kevin B. Korb, Ann E. Nicholson |journal=Lecture Notes in Computer Science |volume=2159 |year=2001|url=http://www.springerlink.com/index/dq0nchqjf0n2n2q7.pdf |pages=120–132 |doi=10.1007/3-540-44811-X_12}}</ref> Altruistic suicide has a long history in India, even being noted in the [[Dharmashastras]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Altruistic suicide in India|first= Lakshmi |last=Vijayakumar|journal=Archives of Suicide Research |year=2004 |month=January |issue=8| volume=1 |pages=73–80 |url=http://www.informaworld.com/index/714860330.pdf |doi=10.1080/13811110490243804 }}</ref> Some perceive [[self-immolation]] as an altruistic or "worthy" suicide.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Loren |last=Coleman |title=The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=3B4lTTZE58oC&pg=PA48 |location=New York |publisher=Paraview Pocket-Simon and Schuster |year=2004 |page=48 |isbn=0-7434-8223-9}}</ref>
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==Culturalreferences==
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==Seealso==
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In the 1982 film ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan]]'', the character [[Spock]] commits an altruistic suicide when he takes a lethal dose of [[radiation poisoning]] in order to make repairs so that the [[starship]] ''[[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|USS Enterprise]]'' can escape destruction.<ref>{{cite web|author=|url=http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/MOV/002/synopsis/82.html|title='Wrath of Khan' Plot summary|work=StarTrek.com|publisher=[[Viacom]]|accessdate=20 April 2011}}</ref>
Altruistic suicide is suicide committed for the benefit of others. Falling on a grenade is one such example.[1]Émile Durkheim notes that tribal people sometimes see it as their duty to commit suicide, as when a wife kills herself after her husband dies, or a man kills himself in old age; but Durkheim also observes that altruistic suicide is unlikely to occur much in modern western society where “individual personality is increasingly freed from the collective personality.”[2] Altruistic suicide has been described as an evolutionarily stable strategy.[3] Altruistic suicide has a long history in India, even being noted in the Dharmashastras.[4] Some perceive self-immolation as an altruistic or "worthy" suicide.[5]
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