Halakhah su Ezechiele 18:78

Certainly one has a right to dignity both in life and in death. But is death, properly speaking, a right? Suicide is forbidden both by religious and temporal law. It is proscribed because Western culture has long recognized that man's life is not his own to dispose of at will. This fundamental concept is expressed most cogently by Plato in his Phaedo. Socrates, in a farewell conversation with his students prior to his execution, speaks of the afterlife with eager anticipation. Thereupon one of his disciples queries, if death is so much preferable to life, why did not Socrates long ago take his own life? In a very apt simile, Socrates responds that an ox does not have the right to take its own life because it thereby deprives its master of the enjoyment of his property.²⁹In halakhic literature this concept is developed by Radbaz in his commentary on Rambam, Hilkhot Sanhedrin 18:6. It is a basic halakhic principle that, while a defendant’s testimony is accorded absolute credibility with regard to establishing financial liability, a confession of guilt is never accepted as evidence of criminal culpability. Citing the verse “Behold, all souls are Mine” (Ezek. 18:4), Radbaz explains that while material goods belong to man and may be disposed of at will, the human body is the possession of God and may be punished only by Him. See also Rambam, Hilkhot Roẓeaḥ 1:4 and Shulḥan Arukh ha-Rav, VI, Hilkhot Nizkei Guf 4. Man is the chattel of the gods, says Socrates. Just as "bovicide" on the part of the ox is a violation of the proprietor-property relationship, so suicide on the part of man constitutes a violation of the Creator-creature relationship.