mjc@cad.cs.cmu.edu (Monica Cellio) (10/22/85)
Someone recently asked on one of our local bboards about laws concerning suicide, and since the topic came up here I'm forwarding the answer that was posted (with the author's permission). -Dragon 21-Oct-85 00:45 Michael Shamos@A.CS.CMU.EDU Suicide law A great deal has been written and said on the subject of law and suicide. Here is a hopelessly incomplete introduction to the topic. Under the Common Law of England, suicide by a sane person was a felony (a crime for which the punishment was death). The suicide was buried in the public highway with a stake through his body and without the Christian right of sepulchre. The person's goods were forfeited to the Crown. It was not a picnic to live or die in medieval England. An unsuccessful attempt at suicide was a misdemeanor. One who encouraged or aided the suicide was treated as a principal or accessory as appropriate and could himself be prosecuted for a felony. The survivor of a mutual suicide pact was a murderer. Putting aside for now the issue of whether a person has a moral right to end his life, it is clear that he does not have a legal right to do so. "The life of every human being is under the protection of the law, and cannot lawfully be taken by himself, or by another with his consent, except by legal authority." Commonwealth v. Mink, 123 Mass. 422 (1877). [One of the leading U.S. cases on suicide, dealing affirmatively with the issue of whether it is manslaughter to kill someone else unintentionally while attempting to kill oneself.] There are some important public interests beside mere paternalism that suggest why suicide and aiding it have been made criminal offenses. One, as Comm. v. Mink shows, killing oneself involves acts that can be harmful or fatal to others. Dangerous weapons, poisons, damage to property, and uncharitable thoughts play a part. Counseling a suicide may be a way of causing an unstable relative to die and leave an inheritance to the abbettor or of eliminating an enemy or business competitor. I am unfamiliar with any motivation that suicide is criminal to render contracts to commit suicide unenforceable. They would be anyway on public policy grounds. No court would ever issue an injunction ordering A to kill himself because he promised he would in a contract with B. Laymen are frequently troubled by the apparent logical impossibility of having suicide, especially a successful one, be criminal and even punishable by death. But the Court in Comm. v. Mink recognized this difficulty and said, "It is true, undoubtedly, that suicide cannot be punished by any proceeding of the courts, for the reason that the person who kills himself has placed himself beyond the reach of justice, and nothing can be done." But we have seen that there are other reasons for the act to be criminal beyond simply punishing the perpetrator. The modern treatment of acts of suicide varies by state and country. In most US jurisdictions, attempting one's own suicide is not a crime. (It is a crime in North Carolina, though.) The Pennsylvania statute is typical: (Pennsylvania Crimes Code, Sec. 2505, Causing or Aiding Suicide) "(a) Causing suicide as criminal homicide. - A person may be convicted of criminal homicide for causing another to commit suicide only if he intentionally causes such suicide by force, duress or deception. (b) Aiding or soliciting suicide as an independent offense. - A person who intentionally aids or solicits another to commit suicide is guilty of a felony of the second degree if his conduct causes such suicide or an attempted suicide, and otherwise of a misdemeanor of the second degree." Second-degree misdemeanors in Pennsylvania carry a maximum fine of $5000 and term of two years. This statute means you can go to jail here for soliciting somebody to commit suicide even if he never attempts it. Remember that my role in writing this piece and risking placing it on the Opinion BBOARD is to convey information. I am not taking an advocacy position. Please do not write me about euthanasia, God, or Betty Rollins (who waited, I understand, until the statute of limitations expired before writing her book on how she helped her mother commit suicide). -- UUCP: ...ucbvax!dual!lll-crg!dragon ARPA: monica.cellio@cmu-cs-cad or dragon@lll-crg