Bourdeaux and Humain, who had planned their deaths with methodical precision, had no chance of getting a Christian burial. Their ashes were scattered on a trash heap. The history of suicide, as one might expect, isn't pretty. After reading the deranged details that Minois so carefully documents, it's tempting to see our own customs as enlightened compared to those of our ancestors. Among Minois' most compelling ideas is that power will try to stop suicide in any context.
Desertion is out of the question.
The social contract requires everyone's participation in maintaining the state, which, in exchange, watches over everyone's well-being. It's an idea alive today through crisis-intervention centers, suicide hot lines and the analyst'scouch. But its roots, as Minois shows, go back to medieval Judeo-Christian ethics and European folklore. At least as far back as the Middle Ages, those who tried suicide and failed could expect prison terms or death sentences. Those who succeeded faced eternal damnation.