Assisted Suicide and the Right to Die
Legal Status and Constitutional IssuesLegal Status and Constitutional Issues
Although suicide is not a crime in this country, assisting another person to commit suicide may, in many States, result in criminal penalties being imposed. Legal scholars have argued that it is logically inconsistent to punish a person who is "aiding and abetting" the principal actor, here the person committing suicide, when the latter is not punished. Such laws, however, roughly parallel laws that protect minors and incompetent persons from exploitation, such as laws against statutory rape. Thus, while a State may decide that treatment would be more effective than punishment for a suicidal person, the State might also reason…
