 ‘Suicide’ may well turn out to be a value-laden concept, one that cannot be defined in a morally neutral way. Nevertheless, it would be desirable to identify a defensible conception of suicide that is not value-laden (Stern-Gillett 1987, Kupfer 1990) For those debating the morality of ‘suicide’ are likely to be at cross purposes if some define ‘suicide’ as wrongful self-killing (in the way that ‘murder’ can be defined as wrongful killing of another) while others operate with a definition that does not entail that all acts of suicide are wrongful. The former rules out the prospect of morally defensible ‘suicide’ while the latter allows for it. A more fruitful debate is likely to result if such debates are organized around a shared descriptive definition of suicide that does not beg the question about the possibility of its being justified.