Starvation
A hunger strike may ultimately lead to death. Starvation has been used by Hindu and Jain monks as a ritual method of penance (known as Prayopavesa and Santhara respectively), and Albigensians or Cathars also fasted after receiving the 'consolamentum' sacrament, in order to die while in a morally perfect state.
This method of death is often associated with political protest, such as the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike during which 7 IRA and 3 INLA POWs died in H-Blocks of Long Kesh prison. The explorer Thor Heyerdahl refused to eat or take medication for the last month of his life, after he was diagnosed with cancer.
Read more about this topic: Suicide Methods
Famous quotes containing the word starvation:
“If in this wide world, teeming with abundant supplies for human want, to thousands of wretched creatures no choice is open, save between starvation and sin, may we not justly say that there is something utterly wrong in the system that permits such things to be?”
—Tennessee Claflin (1846–1923)