ABSTRACT
Hume’s essay engages with the main Thomistic arguments for the moral impermissibility of suicide. Against the argument that suicide is impermissible because it is contrary to the natural order created by God, Hume reasons that God allows us to violate the natural order in the pursuit of our own good. Hume rejects the argument that suicide violates our duties to others in the moral community because those who seek suicide have reached a point of being burdensome to others. To the argument that suicide violates our duties to ourselves, Hume replies that suicide is reasonable when a person’s continued existence would be worse than death.
