After many years of operation, the Parliament of Ghana has amended portions of the Criminal Offenses Act of 1960 which criminalized attempted suicide.

The amendment means that persons who attempt suicide will no longer be made to face the law as was done in times past.

Rather than prosecution, such persons will be considered as having mental health issues that require medical assistance and not imprisonment.

Despite the calls for the decriminalization of attempted suicide, some legislators had earlier kicked against calls.

One of such legislators is the former Minority Leader and Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Haruna Iddrisu. According to the MP, calls to decriminalize the act should not be heeded adding that suicide is unacceptable behaviour.

He added that the culprits of the act should be punished to deter others, especially the youth from engaging in the act.

“You do not want to think that when you have depression and distress, the ultimate thing is that you go and take your life since you cannot recover your life back,” he stated on the floor of parliament during a debate.

Reacting to the amendment, Chief Executive Officer of the Mental Health Authority Ghana, Dr. Akwasi Osei said it was humiliating that Ghana had a law criminalizing attempted suicide decades after the law had been repealed in other countries, especially from the colonial masters that passed it down to Ghana.

He said the Mental Health Authority was “very elated because this is something we have really been considering, and it feels like a long battle that has finally been won.”