22 Apr 2012 - QA 21

Is refusing medication considered as suicide?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: No! If someone wants to refuse medication and wants the body to take its natural course then it is not suicide. It is okay.
But if someone out of anguish tries to strangle themselves and end their life then that is suicide; as far as I am concerned. I would call that suicide.
Sometimes people who are in coma they are force fed or they are kept on a machine for a long time. What I would say for them is let them go naturally, don’t force feed them. This is my personal opinion, but there are different opinions on this issue.
When you know that someone cannot survive and cannot come back to being normal then there is no point in keeping them alive like a vegetable. I would say remove all the tubes and let nature take its course.