Survivors of suicide attempts call for decriminalisation of act

Some survivors of attempted suicide have called on the government to decriminalize the law on suicide attempts and instead channel resources towards its prevention.

Their calls come as the world marks World Suicide Prevention Day observed on 10th September every year, to provide worldwide commitment and action to prevent suicides.

In Ghana, suicide rates in the country have decreased from 7.80 in 2010 to 6.60 in 2019, with 1500 reported cases of suicide nationwide yearly and over 700,000 global suicide deaths annually. Also, in Ghana, in each reported case of suicide are four unreported cases, summing the number of unreported cases to almost 6000 yearly.

The 1960 Criminal Code Act 29, Section 57 states: "Whoever attempts to commit suicide shall be guilty of a misdemeanour."

But describing the law as senseless and meaningless, Mr. Edmond Tetteh Padi, a 48-year-old survivor of three suicide attempts and a resident of Somanya in the Eastern Region, argued that victims of suicide attempts need to be counselled and not prosecuted.

"I don't think that law is meaningful and sensible enough… it's like something is urging you, something is pushing you to do it, either psychological or whatever, so at the end of the day, the person rather needs to be counselled than rather you prosecuting the person and putting the person in jail," he reasoned.

Proposing how such survivors should rather be used in sensitizing members of the public against the act, he said, "I think that they have to give us counselling and then maybe gather people that have made an attempt and survived to come out and talk to people that are thinking or want to do a similar thing that all hope is not lost yet."

Mr. Edmond Tetteh Padi is one of several thousands of Ghanaians who have survived attempts to take their life, his case on three occasions – and all three had a common underlining cause – frustrations due to what he described as life's failures.

Speaking about his experiences for the very first time to GhanaWeb's Eastern Regional Correspondent, Michael Oberteye in Somanya, the divorcee and father of one attributing his actions to dejection following failures in his life and hardships especially considering his age, Mr. Padi intimated, "It is like out of perplex and frustration simply because what I was expecting in life, I was not getting it and I thought that if such situations should continue then the best way is to end my life."

Adding that he carefully thought over his intended actions before proceeding, the businessman and commercial farmer recalling the last incident in 2019 disclosed, "I sat down, and I thought of it for three days, and I took action. I bought chemicals that I thought that if I take it, I'll surely die, so I mixed the DDT with water, and then I took it."

The suicide survivor who said the chemical didn't take his life attempted the act again three days later, this time with rat poison but added that just before he could drink the toxic substance, he received a call from someone he described as God-sent who counselled him.

Describing his survival as miraculous, he said, "I'll say all the occasions of attempting, I took the drugs, but they didn't work…after taking the medicines, I went to bed expecting to die, but I didn't, so I'll say survival is a miracle and the work of God."

Asked if he had finally gotten over his troubles and was not likely to attempt the act again, Mr. Padi answered in the affirmative, adding that he was ever ready to serve as an advocate against the act.

Madam Tettey Kenie, a 51-year-old food seller at Asitey in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality, attempted suicide on two occasions, the second only three weeks ago.

Also attributing her actions to financial challenges and abandonment by her estranged husband, the mother of seven (one deceased) sharing her story, narrated that being abandoned by her former husband more than ten years ago after realizing their daughter whom she had delivered couldn't speak and being pursued by her debtors whom she had credited food items from convinced her that death was the only way out.

"I had a daughter with my husband, but he abandoned us due to the child's inability to speak. My debtors and the police were also coming after me, and I ran away. When I returned home, I realized I had no money, so I decided to end it all.

"I mixed DDT with salt and drank the contents. I realized the walls of my stomach had shed," she narrated, adding that it took her landlord to rush her to the hospital after she disclosed her actions to him.

Three weeks ago, Madam Kenie repeated her suicide attempt by mixing powerzone bleach with alcohol and akesha (a local chemical used to scrub floors and other surfaces), once more attributing her actions to financial difficulties. Again, she survived after being rushed to the hospital.

Asked if she could be tempted to attempt taking her life if her predicaments persisted, she answered: "While my debtors come after me and I have the money? For that, I can't stand it."

She called for the repeal of the act criminalizing attempted suicide in Ghana, arguing that such persons need support and not be prosecuted and possibly jailed.

Madam Kenie's brother, 40-year-old Mr. Stephen Odei Kwabla confirmed his elder sister's actions, adding that he personally counsels his sister against her suicidal habits.

He also condemned the law criminalizing attempted suicide and called for its immediate repeal.

Mr. Eric Narh, a medical statistician, however, maintained that the law must be maintained to serve as a deterrent to persons who may want to take their lives.

"The law should be maintained because once there's a law, it means that once you want to commit any crime, you should look at the magnitude of the crime because once it involves a penalty for you to be sentenced or jailed or to be fined, you know that once what you're going to do [can land you in prison, you avoid it]," said the statistician.

He further called on the government to resource and empower the state agencies and service providers, particularly the Mental Health Authority of Ghana, Ghana Health Service, and the Department of Social Welfare, among others, to sensitize and make comprehensive psychological support available at all levels of the health system and in educational institutions for people who might have the tendency to attempt suicide.