Legal views of suicide

Committing Suicide
Suicide has historically been treated as a criminal matter in many parts of the world. Ironically, the punishment for attempted suicide in some jurisdictions has been death. Although a person who has successfully committed suicide might be thought to be beyond the reach of the law, there could still be legal consequences.

In ancient Athens, for example, a person who had committed suicide (without the approval of the state) was denied the honours of a normal burial. The person would be buried alone, on the outskirts of the city, without a headstone or marker. A criminal ordinance issued by Louis XIV in 1670 was far more severe in its punishment: the dead person's body was drawn through the streets, face down, and then hung or thrown on a garbage heap. Additionally, all of the person's property was confiscated.

Even in modern times, legal penalties for committing suicide have not been uncommon. Prior to 1961, for example, suicide in the United Kingdom resulted in forfeiture of estate. The United Kingdom decriminalized suicide and attempted suicide in the Suicide Act 1961. Increasingly, the term commit suicide is being consciously avoided, as it implies that suicide is a crime by equating it with other acts that are committed, such as murder or burglary.

In the United States, suicide has never been punished as a crime nor penalized by property forfeiture or ignominious burial. Historically, various states listed the act as a felony, but all were reluctant to enforce it. By 1963, six states still considered attempted suicide a crime (North and South Dakota, Washington, New Jersey, Nevada, and Oklahoma that repealed its law in 1976). By the early 1990s only two US states still listed suicide as a crime, and these have since removed that classification. In some U.S. states, suicide is still considered an unwritten "common law crime," that is, a crime based on the law of old England as stated in Blackstone's Commentaries. (So held the Virginia Supreme Court in Wackwitz v. Roy in 1992.) As a common law crime, suicide can bar recovery for the family of the suicidal person in a lawsuit unless the suicidal person can be proven to have been "of unsound mind." That is, the suicide must be proven to have been an involuntary, not voluntary, act of the victim in order for the family to be awarded money damages by the court. This can occur when the family of the deceased sues the caregiver (perhaps a jail or hospital) for negligence in failing to provide appropriate care.

In Singapore, a person attempting to commit suicide can be imprisoned by up to one year.

In India, attempted suicide was a punishable crime by up to one year in prison and/or fine until 1994 when the Supreme Court repealed the relevant section, Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code.

In many jurisdictions medical facilities are empowered or required to commit anyone whom they believe to be suicidal for evaluation and treatment. See Code 5150 for example.

Assisting others
In many jurisdictions it is a crime to assist others, directly or indirectly, to take their own life, or, in some jurisdictions, to even encourage them to do so. Sometimes an exception applies for physician assisted suicide (PAS), under strict conditions; see Euthanasia.

In the Australian state of Victoria, while suicide itself is no longer a crime, a survivor of a suicide pact can be charged with manslaughter. Also, it is a crime to counsel, incite, or aid and abet another to attempt or commit suicide, and the law explicitly allows any person to use "such force as may reasonably be necessary" to prevent another from committing suicide.

In the Netherlands, being present and giving moral support during someone's suicide is not a crime; neither is supplying general information on suicide techniques. However, it is a crime to participate in the preparation for or execution of a suicide, including supplying lethal means or instruction in their use. (Euthanasia may be an exception. See Euthanasia in the Netherlands.)