Johan Robeck

Johan Robeck (1672–1735) (Robeck's date of death is variously reported as 1729, and Voltaire, especially after he himself committed suicide by drowning in the river Weser near Bremen, Germany.)

According to Robeck's argument, anyone may destroy a gift, the giver having given up any rights in it; therefore, as life is a gift from God, suicide cannot offend against God.

In Voltaire's Candide Robeck's suicide is referenced in the old woman's story at the end of chapter XII in Voltaire's 1759 novel Candide: "...I have met only twelve who have voluntarily put an end to their misery — three negroes, four Englishmen, four Swiss, and a German professor called Robeck."