GEN692 No one has the right to volunteer his life. In Jewish law the right to expose oneself to voluntary martyrdom is strictly limited to cases involving either resistance to the three cardinal sins (idolatry, murder and immorality (adultery and incest)) or "the sanctification of God's Name," i.e. to die for one's religious faith. To lay down one's life in any but these rigidly defined cases is regarded as a mortal offense, (Maimonides, Hil. Yesodei ha-Torah, 5:4), certainly when there are no religious considerations involved (See Jakobovits, Jewish Medical Ethics (1962), p. 53). The jurisdiction over life is not man's (except where such a right is expressly conferred by the Creator), and killing oneself by suicide, or allowing oneself to be killed by unauthorized martyrdom, is as much a crime as killing someone else (based on [this verse] and commentaries).