ETHICAL CONSIDERATION OF SUICIDE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS TO CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Paulinus Ike Ogara, Victor Sunday Ezema, George Ohabuenyi Abah

Abstract


There is an underlying element in the myriads of activities that humans perform on daily basis; namely, the quest to sustain life. Human life is one precious gift from God around which all other gifts revolve. To justify that life is central to all human pursuits, people often say: ‘where there is life, there is hope.’ Classically, the natural tendency in man to seek happiness and to avoid pain, to refrain from danger and to seek peace, to seek comfort and to avoid discomfort, and above all, to fear death and to embrace life, suggests that life, by all standards of consideration, is enrobed in a garment of expediency. Unfortunately, some humans tend to wilfully take away their lives on their own authority in a manner that tends to suggest that that is the best solution to the vicissitudes of life. This is known as suicide. Proponents and opponents of this action hold on to their varied views about life and how an individual can handle life independent of any external influence. Meanwhile, suicide, as such, has many implications to childhood education, the seriousness of which this paper tries to expose. The study adopted a qualitative design. The methods used were historical, descriptive and critical. In these methods, related literatures on suicide were sourced, the meaning of suicide exposed, and the concept of suicide evaluated respectively. This study tried to establish that suicide in itself is ethically wrong and perhaps has many implications to childhood education. The work therefore recommends that in their homes, among their peer groups, and in the schools, children should undergo an orientation about the importance of life beyond any other value in life. This will unnerve the practice of suicide as seen in the present day society.

Keywords


childhood, education, ethics, implication, suicide

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References


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