Self-sacrifice

Self-sacrifice is the giving up of something that a person wants for themselves so that others can be helped or protected or so that other external values can be advanced or protected. Generally, the act of self-sacrifice conforms to the rule that it does not serve the person’s best self-interest and will leave the person in a worse situation than the person otherwise would have been.

The other two common types of sacrifice might be easily confused with self-sacrifice. The first one is that someone gives up some interests accidentally and/or unintentionally. Everyone frequently engages in this behavior in everyday life even when attempting to serve self-interests, as people are not aware of it. The other one is that someone willfully forgoes a minor benefit in favor of a greater benefit even while such action could feel like a sacrifice if they result in deferred gratification, there is never a true cost to be paid. These two kinds of sacrifice do not obey the principle and not belongs to self-sacrifice.

Although there were many heroic events of self-sacrifice worth eulogizing, suicide terrorism, a violent type of self-sacrifice, has been more prevalent in recent decades and drawing wide attention. An estimated 3,500 such assaults have been reported in the previous 30 years.