Nairobi Recent reports indicate that controversial Catholic priest Fr John Kaiser, who was found dead on the Naivasha-Nairobi Road last August 24 may have committed suicide. Justice Philip K. Tunoi of the Court of Appeal responds. As a judge of the Court of Appeal and a postgraduate student of Philosophy at the University of Nairobi, I read with keen interest your editorial concerning why the Catholic Church should not prejudge issues and express with some finality the possible cause of the tragic death of its beloved prelate. My article examines the philosophical dilemma of killing oneself and why the Catholic Church, particularly, abhors the suggestion that Fr Kaiser might have committed suicide. Our right to life is based on the fact that each one of us must achieve their goal and fulfilment as a person by morally good acts, and to do so each must live.
Suicide is the direct killing of oneself on one's own authority.
Theistic arguments against suicide are that God gives us only indirect dominion over ourselves and that man has no right to destroy that person, for this is so exclusively God's. He cannot delegate away this dominion. By committing suicide, we arrogate this privilege to ourselves and invade God's exclusive right. My research reveals that non-theists have no serious nor attractive arguments against suicide. Traditionally, Buddhism does not view death as a bad thing or even as an ending.