Q. An anorexic person committed suicide by hanging herself from a tree. Is her mental condition such that she is treated as if she died from natural causes, or as a suicide?
A. See questions above. As mentioned before, Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is similar to other Poskim, that when there is doubt if the individual who committed suicide was in a psychologically stable state of mind, we treat the case as one who died by natural causes.
Some Poskim maintain that one is treated as a meaved atzmo lodaas or "self-murderer," only when he was given proper warning or hassroa, and after being informed and cautioned of the great sin he is about to commit, and what it entails, he willingly and with a clear mind accepts verbally the consequences. (Divrei Sholom Y.D. 175 quoting Sdei Chemed and others).
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a
Important Numbers
