[Avodah] assisted suicide

[Michael Makovi]

> Perhaps King Shaul's fear was not the pain of dying at their hands
> (i.e. he killed himself to avoid the torture), but rather the
> desecration of his body and the chillul hashem of it being davka the
> king (i.e. he killed himself to avoid not the pain itself, but the
> humiliation after his death)?
> Mikha'el Makovi

Indeed, Rabbi Akiva refused to hasten his death and avoid the pain of
being burnt alive. Apparently pain is not enough?

Whereas on Masada and during the Crusades and pogroms, Jews committed
suicide rather than be faced with conversion and such, because dying
at their hands en masse would be chillul hashem. Likewise when they'll
desecrate your body.

But when you're being killed as an individual (eg. burning, without
desecration of the body, i.e. keep it hanging for a while), or of a
disease, there's no chillul hashem or whatnot to justify suicide.

Mikha'el Makovi