Parliament has amended sections of the criminal Offenses Act of 1960, which makes attempting to take one’s very own life against the law.

Following the change in Parliament on Tuesday, March 28, persons who strive suicide might be considered as having mental health problems requiring help by regulation rather than imprisonment.

Some legislators had in advance kicked against calls to decriminalise tried suicide.
In 2019 at some point of a verbal exchange in Parliament on whether or not to decriminalise the act or now not, former Minority chief Haruna Iddrisu stated that try and dedicate suicide must be taken into consideration a crime and not be pardoned.

The Tamale South MP stated that calls to decriminalise the act need to no longer be heeded and stated suicide is unacceptable behaviour.
He introduced that the culprits of the act should be punished to deter others, particularly the teens from attractive in the act.

“You do now not need to assume that if you have despair and distress, the ultimate aspect is that you pass and take your lifestyles because you can’t get better your existence back,” he stated.

But, the intellectual fitness Authority CEO, Prof Akwesi Osei during the release of a name centre in Accra, disclosed that it has initiated steps to have suicide decriminalised, pronouncing it’s far a medical condition that desires health assist in place of imprisonment.

This follows the “extraordinary wave” of suicide and tried suicide instances, especially the various teens in 2017.
Prof Osei stated that even the choice of words used to explain suicide-associated instances is annoying and said that an attempted suicide need to no longer be criminalised.

“i am trying harder not to say ‘individuals who wanted to dedicate suicide’ – it’s a language we need to move faraway from. So, don’t say ‘any individual who committed suicide’ because that criminalises the offence.

“we’re looking to get us to take into account that attempted suicide is not against the law, despite the fact that we don’t encourage it. It is [rather] a condition that requires help, largely mental contamination.

“So, in all our discourses, allow’s move faraway from ‘devoted suicide’ to mention ‘take his/her life via suicide’ or ‘die with the aid of suicide’,” he said.
To this end, Ghanaian health professionals have given that driven for the regulation to be modified, saying tried suicide is a medical situation that desires health assist in place of imprisonment.

Some survivors of attempted suicide had also referred to as for sources to be spent on prevention.

In the meantime, 1,500 instances of suicide are mentioned national every 12 months.