He speculates about a "great king' who carried poison that he intended to take in case of capture so that he could not be coerced into acts that would harm his country," but fails to make a final judgment on such a hypothetical situation (Timmons, 283). This is a significant example because we should assume that this king would be facing certain death regardless of his actions, and that his reason for killing himself would not be to minimize personal pain, but to maximize overall happiness. This is a hazy situation for Kant because although the king would be using himself as a means to overall happiness, knowledge of his imminent death would almost demand that he take the poison so that others might not use him as a means to overall depravity.
A second objection to Kant's stance on suicide is even more powerful; it debases the very foundation of his ethics. A situation could be imagined where an individual with a terminal illness might want to commit suicide "not simply to avoid pain, but also to avoid the certain deterioration of his mental...
This is similar to the situation of the king, but more significant because this person would be seeking to avoid becoming a non-rational being. As such, he or she could no longer function as moral being or trust their own subsequent actions. Doubtlessly, such a situation could case harm to the individual or to others, and may even violate the categorical imperative.
Overall, although Kant himself made a brief argument against suicide, it is not apparent that Kantian ethics forbids it in all circumstances. Two main problems are associated with the hard stance against suicide: inevitability and certainty of death, and instances where rational decisions cannot be made. Suicide may be permissible if death is certain and moral ills may result from prolonged life.
Works Cited
Timmons, Mark. Kant's Metaphysics of Morals. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Steinbock, Bonnie. "Kantian Ethics." Introduction / Moral Reasoning in the Medical Context. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005.
