Suicide

Suicide is the act of deliberately taking one's own life. Throughout the known galaxy, individuals have attempted or committed suicide for a variety of reasons. These reasons ranged from mental distress to cultural reasons to external factors, such as telepathic influence.

The soldiers and agents of some races and organisations, such as the Xindi Reptilians, the Vorta and operatives of Section 31, could be implanted or engineered with suicide implants, which they could use if captured by their enemies.

Cultural Reasons

In some societies, an individual's culture will dictate that a person commit suicide at a certain point. Examples of cultural reasons for committing suicide include the following:

• For five hundred years, the citizens of the planets Eminiar VII and Vendikar fought each other in a war. This war eventually developed to the point where it was fought entirely with simulated weapons by computers. Citizens who had been designated as fatalites would voluntarily enter disintegration stations and be vaporized. (TOS episode: "A Taste of Armageddon")
• In Klingon culture, warriors who had either been badly injured, become seriously ill, or lost honor could have a friend or family member assist them to perform the Hegh'bat or the Mauk-to'Vor, two forms of ritual suicide. (TNG episode: "Ethics", DS9 episode: "Sons of Mogh") It was also believed that a suicide that resulted in the death of an enemy was an honorable way to die. (TNG episode: "Reunion") However, suicide for other reasons, without the ritual or the death of an enemy, was considered dishonorable. (DS9 episode: "Sons of Mogh")
• Capellans could perform a ritual suicide called the w'lash'nogot when a person believed that their death would ensure another's survival. (TTN novel: The Red King)
• Members of terrorist organizations sometimes set off explosives that not only resulted in their own deaths, but also caused death and injuries to others, as well as property damage. In the 23rd century, there were a number of suicide bombings on Lorina. (TOS novel: Ex Machina)
• All members of the Kaelon race were required to perform suicide at the age of sixty. The Kaelons believed that if they did not do so, they would become a burden to their families and to society at large. (TNG episode: "Half a Life")
• Some Vulcans have been known to perform ritual suicide if their health deteriorated to the point where they could not function. (VOY episode: "Death Wish")
• During the Bolian middle ages, a philosophy was developed called the "double effect" principle. A form of euthanasia, this stated that the relief of suffering was acceptable even if it caused death to the sufferer. (VOY episode: "Death Wish")
• Xindi-Reptilian soldiers were implanted with a suicide gland that they could use when captured. (ENT episode: "Rajiin")
• All Vortas have a termination implant. They are expected to activate it to avoid capture, or when ordered to do so by a superior, such as a Founder. While the Vorta were assured that this implant was painless, Vorta who activated theirs stated that this was not the case. Likewise, Dominion forces were trained to do this whether the odds were in favor or not, to express the seriousness of their cause to their enemies. (DS9 episode: "Treachery, Faith, and the Great River", DS9 episode: "The Jem'Hadar")
• Section 31 operatives also had a suicide implant, which they could activate when captured and facing interrogation. (DS9 episode: "Extreme Measures")
• Inhabitants of Gideon viewed suicide and death by "natural" causes as a divine blessing and as a release from their overpopulated planet. (ST reference: The Worlds of the Federation, TOS episode: "The Mark of Gideon")
• When a Deltan unexpectedly died, their loved ones were sometimes unable to continue living and could mentally induce death. For example, Zinaida Chitirih-Ra-Payjh telepathically killed herself after her mate, Jedda Adzhin-Dall, died from a phaser shot. (TOS novel: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
• Romulans have practiced suicide since the founding of their empire. When there is no other option but surrender, a Romulan commander (or Centurion) must carry out the final duty. (TOS episode: "Balance of Terror")
• Orions had a long history of committing suicide, either by doing it themselves or by provoking others into killing them. Their reasons could be to uphold their causes, to preserve the secrecy of their missions and their neutrality, to get revenge on their foes and to save themselves from being captured, and even at the order of a much-loved captain. Well-known examples of Orion suicide ranged from the legend of Lady Katam to the martyrdom of Julin Hyrax the Brave to the Laxala Incident, and the common practice of destroying one's own ship and any nearby enemies, used by the Orion Space Navy, pirates and desperate merchants alike. (FASA RPG module: The Orions: Book of Deep Knowledge, TOS episode: "Journey to Babel", TAS episode: "The Pirates of Orion", TOS comic: "All of Me") One particular form of suicide was Vyun-pashan. (TAS novelization: The Pirates of Orion)

Contemplated / Attempted Suicides

• After the successful suicide of her first officer, Erika Hernandez sought to end her life amongst the Caeliar by throwing her frail body down a flight of stairs; the Caeliar Inyx found her and pleaded that she not die. (ST - Destiny novel: Mere Mortals)
• Malcolm Reed attempted to cut off his oxygen supply when his leg was pinned to the hull of the Enterprise by a Romulan mine, so that Jonathan Archer would abandon his efforts to free him and leave before the mine exploded. (ENT episode: "Minefield")
• In an alternate timeline, USS Enterprise crew member Jenniver Aristeides contemplated suicide after the death of Captain James T. Kirk. (TOS novel: The Entropy Effect)
• After escaping to the surface of Talos IV, Number One set her phaser to overload when the Talosians refused to let Captain Pike leave, intending to enslave him, stating that it was wrong to create a race of humans to live as slaves. When other Talosians arrived, Pike asked her to wait, and Number One stopped the overload. (TOS episode: "The Cage")
• Both Captain James T. Kirk and Ensign Garrovick attempted to use themselves as bait in a trap for the dikironium cloud creature on Tycho IV, and fought over which would be the one to stay. Both remained as bait, and were successful in slaying the cloud. (TOS episode: "Obsession")
• An Orion captain was prevented from taking a poison pill after he was taken into custody by the Enterprise crew. He'd previously attempted to destroy both his ship and the Enterprise to maintain . (TAS episode: "The Pirates of Orion")
• In 2269, Captain Kirk set the USS Enterprise on a direct course for the dead star Questar M-17, apparently intending to destroy both his ship and the magnetic lifeform possessing it. Faced with destruction, the entity left the ship, while the Enterprise escaped on the gravitational slingshot effect that Kirk had intended. (TAS episode & Star Trek Log One novelization: Beyond the Farthest Star)
• Former Klingon Defense Force officer Maltz contemplated suicide after Admiral Kirk captured but refused to execute him. (TOS novelizations: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
• Once they discovered his (brief) mortality, Q fled from his Calamarain enemies and took refuge on the USS Enterprise D. But to protect the ship from their efforts to get at him, he stole the shuttlecraft Sakharov and waited at a safe distance for the Calamarain to destroy him. He regained his Q powers in time to save himself however. (TNG episode: "Deja Q")
• After being subjected to a simulation of prison life by the Argrathi, Miles O'Brien was traumatized by the experience, and had extreme difficulties readjusting to life on the station. When in a fit of anger he nearly struck his daughter Molly, he fled to a cargo bay and nearly committed suicide with a phaser set on maximum. Fortunately, Doctor Bashir was able to prevent O'Brien from committing suicide. (DS9 episode: "Hard Time")
• In 2349, Capellan Starfleet Captain Leonard James Akaar attempted to perform the w'lash'nogot ritual in order to conserve supplies and increase the odds of survival for his companion and long-time friend Ensign Tuvok. Tuvok refused to allow his friend and captain to die, and revived him. (TTN novel: The Red King)
• As Data's positronic brain evolved, the number of neural pathways increased exponentially, becoming very disorienting for Data. At one point, he seriously considered having his neural network wiped clean and starting over again, in effect committing a suicide of sorts. He later decided against this, and looked instead upon his problems as challenges to overcome. (TNG episode: "Eye of the Beholder")
• During the climax of the Battle of Wolf 359 in 2367, acting Captain Riker ordered a ramming attack on the Borg cube. This was belayed when both Deanna Troi and Data established contact with Picard and managed to shut down the Borg. (TNG episode: "The Best of Both Worlds")
• Again in 2367, the USS Enterprise-D became trapped in a Tyken's Rift. Due to an alien presence also trapped in the rift, many of the crew were unable to achieve REM sleep and thus unable to dream, causing them to become mentally unstable. When an attempt to escape failed, Worf attempted to commit suicide using his D'k tahg. (TNG episode: "Night Terrors")
• After his spine was crushed in a cargo bay accident, Worf asked Commander Riker to assist him to perform the Hegh'bat, a form of ritual suicide. (TNG episode: "Ethics")
• In 2373, during the Battle of Sector 001, Worf rekindled death-wish, contemplating a glorious, last resort by ramming a Borg cube with the USS Defiant. Jean-Luc Picard's personal take-over of the fleet aborted this plan. (TNG movie: Star Trek: First Contact)
• Again in 2373, Keiko O'Brien (while possessed by an evil Bajoran Pah-wraith) threw herself over a rail at Deep Space 9's Promenade, in response to Chief O'Brien's disobedience at their forced agreement. (DS9 episode: "The Assignment")
• Despondent over his loss of status within the Klingon Empire, Kurn contemplated suicide with a disruptor, despite the fact that suicide under these conditions would be considered dishonorable. However, Kurn was too drunk to carry out the suicide, and lost consciousness. Worf arranged for Doctor Julian Bashir to completely wipe Kurn's memory and to perform cosmetic surgery to alter Kurn's appearance. Mogh's friend Noggra agreed to take Kurn into his family and care for Kurn as his son. Kurn woke up with no memory of his past life, and began a new one as Rodek, Son of Noggra. (DS9 episode: "Sons of Mogh")
• In an accident in a nebula involving protomatter, Neelix was killed and later revived by Seven of Nine using nanoprobes. The experience traumatized Neelix, who very nearly committed suicide by beaming himself back into the nebula. (VOY episode: "Mortal Coil")

Completed Suicides

• After being thrown back in time aboard the Caeliar city-ship Mantilis and distraught over the hopelessness of the situation, MACO Private Thom Steinhauer put the muzzle of his phaser rifle into his mouth and pulled the trigger, killing himself. (ST - Destiny novel: Lost Souls)
• In 1573, Johanna Metzger had also grown increasingly bitter about living in Caeliar captivity. She committed suicide by allowing herself to fall from one of Axion's high towers. (ST - Destiny novel: Mere Mortals)
• In the mirror universe, the entire population of Romulus committed suicide to avoid the fate suffered by the destroyed Remans, 24 hours before. (TNG novel: Dark Mirror)
• In 2153, the cloned symbiont, "Sim", of Trip Tucker willingly surrendered his brain tissue to aid the critically wounded engineer. The procedure was fatal, but the 15-day-old organism (with 32 years of memories) accepted it based on the that not only his "parent", but all aboard Enterprise, and on Earth, would die in the forthcoming Xindi war. (ENT episode: "Similitude")
• After his role as a Terra Prime operative was revealed, Enterprise (NX-01) crewman Ensign Masaro confronted Captain Archer in a corridor. He apologized to Archer and asked Archer to tell his parents he was sorry before committing suicide with a phase pistol. (ENT episode: "Terra Prime")
• In 2259, in an alternate reality, Thomas Harewood, a Starfleet officer employed at the Kelvin Memorial Archive in London, carried out a suicide bombing of the facility in exchange for his daughter being cured of a terminal illness by John Harrison. (TOS movie: Star Trek Into Darkness)
• Joe Tormolen stabbed himself with a table knife while under the effects of the Psi 2000 virus. Though he had non-life-threatening wounds, Dr. McCoy pronounced him dead after he lost the desire to live. (TOS episode: "The Naked Time")
• A mutated strain of the Psi 2000 virus was also responsible for the mass suicide by the crew of the SS Tsiolkovsky. An emergency hatch on the bridge was falsely deployed while other decks' environmental controls were disabled. A similar fate befell researchers first infected in the 23rd century. (TNG episode: "The Naked Now")
• Roger Korby killed himself and Andrea with a phaser on full setting, after facing the reality of his misguided intentions, while his humanity resurfaced in his android body. (TOS episode: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?")
• An Orion operative, disguised as an Andorian aide, Thelev, poisoned himself after being captured following his failed sabotage of the Babel conference in 2267. An Orion ship also blew itself up following their failed assault on the USS Enterprise. (TOS episode: "Journey to Babel")
• When the Elasian Kryton was discovered to be a Klingon agent after sabotaging the Enterprise's engines, he grabbed a phaser from a nearby guard and committed suicide with the weapon - which had been set to disintegrate. (TOS episode: "Elaan of Troyius")
• Commodore Matthew Decker flew the shuttlecraft Einstein into the Planet Killer after being unable to defeat the device with the Enterprise, feeling that he should have died with his crew. The shuttlecraft exploded inside the Planet Killer, causing a slight energy loss, and demonstrating to Captain James T. Kirk and Commander Spock how to defeat the Planet Killer. (TOS episode: "The Doomsday Machine")
• Doctor Rota Sevrin, upon learning that the planet he had sought out was not Eden, but instead a world where all the plant life was highly acidic and poisonous, committed suicide by biting into a piece of fruit. (TOS episode: "The Way to Eden")
• In 2266, after his true identity was revealed and learning that his daughter Lenore Karidian was responsible for the murders of those who could have exposed him, Kodos stood in front of the phaser blast she intended for James T. Kirk and was killed. (TOS episode: "The Conscience of the King")
• In 2267, a Denevan pilot flew his ship directly into sun to free himself from the parasites infesting his world. (TOS episode: "Operation -- Annihilate!")
• Former Starfleet historian Marla McGivers mortally stabbed herself rather than assassinate her husband, Khan Noonien Singh, while under the mental control of the indigenous ceti eels, in late 2267, on Ceti Alpha V. (TOS novelization: To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh)
• In 2268, the M-5 multitronic unit deactivated itself, after learning the err of its logic. With human engrams, it developed a heightened ethics program no regular artificial intelligence could. And morally came to senses its "targets" were innocent sentients. Proving to be flawed, and realizing that death is the only suitable punishment, it goes offline. (TOS episode: "The Ultimate Computer")
• Apollo called upon his kind and committed some form of self-immolation on Pollux IV after accepting that the human need for "gods" had passed. (TOS episode: "Who Mourns for Adonais?")
• The semi-self-aware Slaver Weapon deduced that it was in the hands of an enemy and blew itself up, along with the Kziniti with their Chuft Captain and the stasis box it was inside. Both Hikaru Sulu and Spock reasoned this failsafe was programmed into all Slaver Empire devices to prevent them being used by their foes. (TAS episode: "The Slaver Weapon")
• The adult colonists of Triacus took to killing themselves in 2268 following insurmountable panic brought on by the Gorgan entity, which fed off anxiety. (TOS episode: "And the Children Shall Lead")
• In 2269, an Ardanan Troglyte technician jumped off Stratos City to his death, rather than be arrested and interrogated by Plasus' guards for his tampering. (TOS episode: "The Cloud Minders")
• In 2369, one of Doctor Farallon's exocomps demonstrated first self-preservation and then self-sacrifice by allowing itself to be subjected to the lethal particle fountain's containment breach while two other exocpomps were successfully transported to safety. (TNG episode: "The Quality of Life")
• Rather than give up, Yuta was shot and disintegrated by Riker's phaser, while attempting to assassinate Chorgan, her final target. TNG episode: "The Vengeance Factor")
• In 2367, former Borg drone Reannon Bonaventure terminated herself with a sickbay scalpel while detained in the Enterprise-D brig, despite the efforts of Dr. Beverly Crusher and Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge to re-immerse her back into human civilization. Her long-subdued emotions could not cope with being separated from the Collective after 13 years. (TNG novel: Vendetta)
• On the planet Midgwis, Yarblis Geshkerroth sought forgiveness from Doctor Gordon for having harmed her, and then committed suicide by throwing himself into a nearby river. (TOS novel: Ghost-Walker)
• In 2270, Vice Admiral Vaughan Rittenhouse committed suicide by activating the self destruct of his ship, the USS Pompeii, after his plot to overthrow the civilian government of the Federation was exposed and he was defeated in battle by the Enterprise and the USS Star Empire. (TOS novel: Dreadnought!)
• In 2273, Commander Willard Decker sacrificed his mortal body in order for the V'Ger entity to fulfill its newly programmed purpose. Both he and the android incarnation of Ilia willingly donated themselves for it to evolve to a higher form of existence. Like his father before him, Decker died for the USS Enterprise to survive. (TOS movie: Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
• Clark Terrell, under the effect of the Ceti eel and commanded by Khan Noonien Singh, turned his phaser on himself rather than kill Admiral Kirk, while resisting their influence.
• A short time later, Spock willingly suffered radiation poisoning while repairing the warp core of the USS Enterprise, and died a short time later. (TOS movie & novelization: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
• Romulan Admiral Alidar Jarok committed suicide by swallowing a felodesine chip after learning that the new campaign of aggression planned by the Romulan military was nothing more than a ruse designed to expose him as a traitor. (TNG episode: "The Defector")
• In 2367, Doctor Timicin left the Enterprise-D to perform the Resolution oath, the Kaelon custom for commit ritual suicide at age 60. Though Lwaxana Troi urged him to continue his important work, he eventually chose to go through with it, for his obligations and the shame it would bring to his family. (TNG episode: "Half a Life")
• In 2370, Enterprise-D Captain Jack Crusher, from the "Track A" alternate universe, decapitated himself with his phaser after accidentally killing his estranged ex-wife Beverly Crusher-Howard in a jealous rage over her relationship with Jean-Luc Picard. (TNG novel: Q-Squared)
• Due to a chemical imbalance caused by a lack of certain elements from their systems, members of the Jaradan Zel hive began to go insane. A number of Jaradan pilots engaged in Kamikaze attacks against the Enterprise. While some of the pilots were beamed off their ships at the last moment, a number of other pilots could not be saved, and died when their ships crashed into the Enterprise's shields. (TNG novel: Imbalance)
• A guard in service to the House of Duras had an explosive device implanted in his arm. Hoping to commit an honorable suicide and kill Gowron in the process he detonated the device. However, Gowron survived and the crew of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) learned that it was a Romulan explosive device. (TNG episode: "Reunion")
• After learning his wife Nidell/(Fenna) was unhappy with him and dying because of it, Professor Gideon Seyetik crashed his type-15 shuttlepod into Epsilon 119, in the process re-igniting the dead star for another 10 billion years. (DS9 episode: "Second Sight")
• Ensign Daniel Kwan, suffering from telepathic residue of an earlier murder, was influenced to throw himself into the Enterprise-D's plasma stream, before Commander Riker could talk him out of it, in 2370. (TNG episode: "Eye of the Beholder")
• In 2372, Tuvix, a transporter-spliced version of Tuvok and Neelix, surrendered to Captain Kathryn Janeway's efforts to reverse the accident and restore the originals. (VOY episode: "Tuvix")
• Jake Sisko – from an alternate timeline of the 25th century – poisoned his blood stream in order to sever the perpetual subspace link between himself and his father and free him. (DS9 episode: "The Visitor")
• In 2374, an older, temporally shifted Molly O'Brien chose to erase her own existence in order to continue that of her younger self, by sending her younger self back through time. (DS9 episode: "Time's Orphan")
• In 2375, the Delta Quadrant-born, advanced Borg known as One (drone), destroy the cube that had homed in on his evolved technology. He survived, albeit badly damaged, but he rejected repairs and treatment to prevent the Seven of Nine and USS Voyager from further Borg attacks. VOY episode: "Drone")
• Towards the end of 2375, Emissary Benjamin Sisko fulfilled his destiny by hurling himself at Gul Dukat, who was possessed by a pah-wraith. The two fell into the Bajoran Fire Caves, in the process destroying the Book of the Kosst Amojan that could release the pah-wraiths into the universe. (DS9 episode: "What You Leave Behind")
• The Cardassian High Gul committed suicide with a phaser upon realizing that his return to his people would be disastrous for his people. (DS9 novel: Station Rage)
• The Bajoran Vedek Yassim hung herself in front of a large crowd on Deep Space Nine's Promenade in protest against the Dominion's occupation of the station and its dealings with Bajor. (DS9 episode: "Rocks and Shoals")
• Luther Sloan activated his suicide implant in order to keep Dr. Bashir and Miles O'Brien from discovering the cure to the disease Section 31 had infected the Founders with. However, the two were able to retrieve the information from Sloan's mind before he died. (DS9 episode: "Extreme Measures")
• After convincing Captain Janeway to rule in his favor, the Q who would later become known as Quinn was granted mortality by the Q Continuum. Soon afterwards, Q provided a toxic substance, which Quinn ingested to commit suicide. (VOY episode: "Death Wish")
• Lieutenant Commander Data sacrificed himself to save Jean-Luc Picard and destroy the thalaron generator of the Scimitar, thereby destroying the prototype Reman warbird, saving the USS Enterprise-E from destruction and preventing the Remans from attacking Earth and triggering war between the Federation and the Romulan Empire, in 2379. (TNG movie: Star Trek Nemesis)
• Hugh sacrificed himself by beaming over to the assimilated Einstein to deliver the Multi-Vector Agent to the Borg. (TNG novel: Greater Than the Sum)

External links

• Suicide article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
• Suicide article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.