EDITORIAL: Attempted suicide should be treated as a medical issue, not a crime

The judiciary is one state institution that is continuously evolving to fit in with the changing times. Laws become obsolete or new crimes emerge and have to be catered for. Most are economic in nature with the advent of cyber crimes causing headaches on the globe. Billions are lost annually and the sophistication means law enforcers are always a step behind cyber criminals, and when they do catch up with them the laws are weak or non-existent. Terrorism, human trafficking and drug trafficking have also seen a steep hike in the last decade and robust answers are needed to counter them. It is in that light that the government is in the process of revising the Penal Code to plug all the loopholes. But in doing so, it also has to weigh in on the logical basis of what constitutes a crime. Among the revisions of the Penal Code is a proposal to drop “attempted suicide” as crime. This is long overdue. Suicide is a medical condition and those who survive or attempt to take their own lives should be helped, not charged in court. This argument came to the fore in 2011 when the code was last revised, but despite some lawmakers pointing out that it was more of a mental imbalance; it fell on deaf ears to those who equated it to attempted murder. As long as the reasons that push someone to attempt suicide are not addressed, there is no guarantee they will not attempt it again, even behind bars. What they need is therapy to bring them back to the real world.

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EDITORIAL: Attempted suicide should be treated as a medical issue, not a crime