WHEN a person reaches a point where death seems easier than life, the essential question is no longer whether the law has been broken.

It is what depth of suffering has made life itself appear unbearable. The courtroom examines an offence, religion condemns a sin, but medicine encounters a human being whose hope has all but disappeared. It is at this point that law, morality and science are called upon to engage in a meaningful dialogue.

The recent judgment of Pakistan’s Federal Shariah Court has revived a longstanding debate: should a person who attempts suicide be treated as a criminal deserving punishment or as a patient in urgent need of care? While the issue appears legal, it is fundamentally a question of public morality and social responsibility. The law responds to wrongdoing with punishment; medicine responds to suffering with treatment.

A suicide attempt is rarely........

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