Pitfalls of decriminalising attempted suicide

As someone who overcame suicide and is now a passionate advocate for the sanctity of life, I am sad to see suicide being decriminalised in our nation (Do more to help those at risk of suicide, Feb 13).

Suicide is truly a multifaceted and complex issue, and the law should not be excluded from having a deterrent effect on people who see death as the only option in their difficult circumstances.

I gave up the idea of further suicide attempts after police officers gently reminded me that attempting suicide was an offence.

There was no need for the authorities to restrain or prosecute me, for I was cooperative and clearly in distress.

In recent years, I managed to persuade a young foreigner from killing herself just by informing her the offensive nature of suicide in our nation.

Human life is sacred and should not be violated, not even by ourselves.

As someone who once suffered greatly from depression, I found that self-destruction was a way of exerting the last control over my messy life.

My mental illness was a deviant state that nearly robbed me of the abundant life that I am leading now.

However, the strong negative social stigma associated with mental illness and suicide compelled me to seek out alternatives other than death.

The decriminalisation of suicide perpetuates the erroneous message of "my body, my choice".

When it is no longer mandatory to report a suicide attempt, people will stop reporting it as it is not a crime.

https://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-in-print/pitfalls-of-decriminalising-attempted-suicide

Here is the Government's unconvincing reply letter.

The rightful role of parents in sex education

As a private educator for 18 years, I have encountered an increasing number of children, especially boys, who asked me questions on sex, the youngest at eight years old. Thus, it is heartening to know that parents are taking up their rightful role of imparting sex education to their children (“When my nine-year-old son asks about the birds and the bees”; Feb 8).

As a child growing up, I acquired my sex education through romance novels introduced by peers. Indeed, sex education comes with the teachings on intimacy, love, responsibility and even marriage. Sexual education must include the emotional part of a sexual intercourse. Romance novels are very graphic and skewed in their depiction on sex. I could have experimented with pre-marital sex if not for my parents’ strict upbringing.

A large-scale survey was conducted here by not-for-profit charity organisation Touch Cyber Wellness in 2014, to examine children's exposure to pornography. It polled 836 students aged 13 to 15. It revealed that one in two teenagers here has watched or read sexually explicit materials, with some as young as seven when they were first exposed to it.

Truly, it is the duty of every parent to educate their child before he or she is exposed to the wrong source or bad peer or adult influence.

It is common to hear lower primary school students exchanging vulgar jokes about their private parts.

They have not been taught that their bodies have inherent worth and are not instruments of pleasure at all costs.

It is critical that we teach our children that sex is not a recreational activity to be indulged in before marriage.

The logical consequences of sex without the stability of marriage are children born out-of-wedlock, abortion and sexually transmitted diseases. The youngest age to undergo abortion here was 13 years old. No parental consent is required. Parents may not even know that their child has depression due to such an invasive procedure like abortion.

A child is a gift of life. Parents are granted stewardship of these precious gifts. It is the responsibility of parents to work with trusted adults and institutions to build a hedge around our kids who are increasingly vulnerable to child molestation or sexual abuse.

Every parent, well-educated or not, can be equipped to teach and impart sound values to his child. Together, we build a safe environment for our children such that they gain a heart of wisdom at every stage of their lives.

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/rightful-role-parents-sex-education?fbclid=IwAR0T31J79dXBMx1L3WB7UYaBFulUSivOzjNgxSBDKzRT9EEOxSEF

Feedback to REACH on the proposed move to decriminalize suicide attempts

We are a group of citizens deeply concerned with the proposed move towards decriminalization of suicide attempts. Among us are attempted suicide survivors, a suicide counsellor, people who have suffered from severe clinical depression, people who have friends and family suffering from several clinical depression, people who have had friends and family committed suicide, people who occasionally struggle with suicidal thoughts, people who frequently struggle with suicidal thoughts. Basically, normal Singaporeans.

We are of the view that section 309 of the Penal Code (“s 309 PC”) should be retained but amended. We submitted our written submissions on 30 September 2018.

Below are the extracts of the reasons for the retention of section 309 of the Penal Code.

1. The true spirit of s 309 PC lies in the communitarian values of compassion and resilience

S 309 PC is the plea of a caring society that is vested in the welfare of the individual. The message that it stands for is that, “we as a society value the life of the individual, so much so that it must be an offence even when it is done by one’s own hand”.

We value every individual for their inherent worth as fellow human beings. This is a recognition of our common humanity - regardless of nationality, race, religion, gender, social economic status or professed sexual orientation.

2. S 309 PC as a legal signpost is effective in deterring suicides

We have heard of at least one account of how someone close to flinging himself from his HDB flat decided against it due to its criminal effect. Even if not prosecuted, the administration of a stern warning sends the message that “society cares about your life”. 

In addition, we believe that the investigation process which includes statement recording and therefore “truth-telling” may have a cathartic and healing function which is a manifestation of restorative justice.

3. Not every attempted suicide is caused by a treatable mental disorder

It is suggested that empowering police officers to place suicidal persons under medical care, rather than criminalization is the way to go in dealing with attempted suicides. This is the thinking behind the proposal to strengthen section 7 of MHCTA. This appears to overlook the fact that causes of attempted suicides are more varied than a treatable mental illness. Domestic quarrels, loss of jobs, academic failure, the pangs of adolescence and relationship issues, are fertile ground for suicide attempts. An irreversible act may be committed in the heat of the moment. Against such acts of rashness, s 309 PC is an effective deterrent.

4. S 309 PC is needed for successful intervention of suicide attempts

It is proposed that there be no legal obligation to report suicide attempts. When it is no longer mandatory to call the Police to report suicide attempts, people will stop reporting suicide attempts especially when it is not a crime. It takes moral courage to call the Police. Calling the Police invites the perception that one is a busybody. Calling the Police invites the inconvenience of being a potential witness and investigations. Calling the Police costs money. The legal obligation to alert the authorities effectively overcomes this inertia.

5. S 309 PC needed for this day and age

We have observed that it is the old, vulnerable, poor, sick, disabled, destitute, mentally ill and disabled that will have to grapple with thoughts of giving up on life on a more frequent basis. This is especially so when there is a lack of social support in terms of family, friends and community. The self-perceived notion that they have emerged as “losers” and are “useless”. From the perspective of an attempted suicide survivor, an attempt at suicide is frequently a plea for attention. It is a cry of bewilderment - “Does society care about one less life? If society doesn’t care, then perhaps, there is no reason for me to care either”.

6. There is scope for Prosecution of s 309 PC

There is scope for prosecution under s 309 PC. For instance, in the case of an attempted culpable homicide-attempted murder case. Alternatively, the throwing of oneself down the MRT tracks causing a complete standstill to the MRT system. The public interest in prosecuting such cases is to send a signal that one cannot be extremely selfish and ignore the lives and interest of the public even if there is a desire to die.

7. Utilitarian calculus of a person’s life and legalized assisted euthanasia as a natural consequence

The abolition of s 309 PC will leave a very weak philosophical basis for criminalizing the abetment of suicide. After all, how does one abet a non-offence? In Scotland, the debate has shifted such that it is argued that assisted suicide must be legalized so that the frail would not take their lives even earlier.

8. S 309 PC deters rash acts that endangers the safety of others
As it stands, throwing objects from high rise buildings constitutes an offence of rash act endangering the lives of others under s 336(a) of the Penal Code. Although s 309 PC does not directly target this behaviour, s 309 PC is a deterrent against people flinging themselves from high rise buildings. We have heard of at least one account of how someone had a narrow miss while walking beneath a HDB void deck. The point is that someone who has one less reason to have any regard for his/her life, will have one less reason to have any regard for the lives of others.

9. Suicide as an alternative to facing the death penalty diminishes the retributive effect of death penalty

Singapore retains the death penalty for murder, drug trafficking, kidnapping and other offences. When attempted suicide is legalized, the question is whether someone who has committed a capital crime may be allowed to commit suicide.

There is a school of thought that the State must be seen to take away the life of a criminal convicted of a capital offence. This is because, such a person cannot pick and choose the time and manner of his demise. The family of a murdered victim may not be able to receive the proper closure if justice is not seen to be done. Evidently, the retributive effect of the death penalty would be considerably reduced if attempted suicide would be allowed. The convicted person would not be seen as receiving his or her just deserts. 

Hard to convince the public of the legitimacy of the landmark ruling

This letter was sent to Voices@TODAY but was not published.

It is bewildering that the judges found a lack of evidence to show that the applicant had set out to deliberately go against the Government’s policy against forming same-sex family units (“After landmark judgment, gay couples seeking adoption may find it harder to convince the courts: Desmond Lee; Dec 19).

The applicant and his partner first approached the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) to ask about adopting a child, but were told it was unlikely to recommend adoption to a homosexual couple.

The applicant then flew to the US where, through in-vitro fertilisation procedures, he paid US$200,000 (S$275,000) for the child to be artificially created (“Government policy review will be a mammoth task after gay man’s legal win, experts say”; Dec 19).

The intent of the applicant to circumvent the laws of our land to form a same-sex family unit is not incomprehensible to the general public.

It is unfortunate that it takes this case to unravel the fact that the MSF had backed 10 of 14 adoption bids that involved surrogacy procedures performed overseas between 2008 and 2018, although the provision of such services is illegal here.

If surrogacy is “the commodification of a woman as effectively a baby machine” and a child is robbed of his need and right to know both his father and his mother, it is wrong. If surrogacy is wrong, no regulation can make it right. It is wrong in all context. Every legislation involves morality.

Why would the High Court give a hypothetical example of a set of five parents in a polyamorous relationship when this is more of a comparison of parenting by persons in same-sex relations versus parenting by dual-sex couples? The idea of immorality of certain acts — which appears to be a possible ground of the criminalisation of male homosexual acts in Section 377A — should translate to a legal effect on persons in same-sex relations who want to adopt a child, especially those who use illegitimate ways to mock our laws.

Public confidence in our authorities has been shaken. Power and wealth have eroded the morality of our land.

The immeasurable price of Motherhood

This letter was sent to The Straits Times Forum but was not published.

Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) have replaced fertility and procreation with reproduction in a sterile lab. Such technologies made us forget that a child is begotten, not to be artificially created at a price of S$275,000 (“LandmarkHigh Court allows Singaporean Gay dad to adopt surrogate son”; Dec 17).

A child is a gift. No one demands a gift. We buy expensive toys for our children but now, children have become toys for us.  

If biological connection does not matter, this father would not be able to circumvent the laws of our land to start a family unit. He would not have gone to great lengths to reproduce a child with half his genetic traits by making use of the egg of one woman and the body of another for nine months of his child’s life.

No man, not even a single woman like me, can understand how a mother’s body undergo dramatic changes to give a life. Parenthood is sacrificial giving, not the taking away of a child’s need and right to his mother. The surrogate mother can relinquish her parental rights but it does not mean that the child does not need or yearn for his mother.

It is of paramount importance that a clear stance on all forms of surrogacy be made (“Clear stanceon all forms of surrogacy needed”; Dec 20) and that a policy review be made on singles being allowed to adopt children (“Ban surrogacy to protect theinterests of children and women”; Jan 5). No matter how much I as a single adoptive mother love my child, I cannot be the father that he needs. It is not about me, but all about what my child needs in a dual sex union.

Public confidence in our authorities has been shaken in this landmark ruling. A just society protects and safeguards the interests of the most vulnerable members of our society ; children. Children are priceless. The rich and powerful do not own them.