Should Suicide Be Illegal?

[loseyourname]

Sure it's sadistic to keep open the opportunity to jail someone who tried (and failed) to kill himself, and that's precisely the type of opportunity which illegality of suicide opens up for. It is irrelevant whether jailing actually happens or not, one should not go about branding deeply unhappy people who have screwed up for themselves as criminals.

As for mental competence issues, that is a completely different way of looking at the problem than the punishment idea inherent in concepts of illegality.

Attempting, but failing to commit suicide is not illegal as far as I know. Punishment doesn't seem the idea as you cannot punish a dead person. The only real 'punishment' is that life insurance policies will not pay out, so the family may be punished. Even though that is unfortunate, I can understand why insurance companies would have such a policy.

My ex-wife attempted suicide several times, and what happens if you are caught is that you are committed to a psychiatric ward until a doctor concludes that you are no longer a danger to yourself. After that, you may be forced to undergo therapy. There is no jailing. I cannot myself understand why suicide is illegal. The only decent argument anyone has presented here is that it helps to insure that all cases of death are properly investigated as crimes. Other than that, I cannot see any reason.

 

[arildno]

Attempting, but failing to commit suicide is not illegal as far as I know. Punishment doesn't seem the idea as you cannot punish a dead person. The only real 'punishment' is that life insurance policies will not pay out, so the family may be punished. Even though that is unfortunate, I can understand why insurance companies would have such a policy.

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As long as we accept, in principle, the legality of private insurance companies as such, there aren't any valid arguments, IMO, for denying them to set up clauses like that.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Again, at least as far as California is concerned, I have no idea where the notion that suicide is illegal comes from.
If you attempt suicide you are considered 5150...
http://www.fresnohumanservices.org/ManagedCare/ConsumerAccess/5150FAQ.htm
Here is the definition of 5150 and what happens if you are considered such.
I'd imagine that most other states and countries probably have a similar policy.

 

[0TheSwerve0]

It would appear that we may all be wrong, as Ape says. Apparenly England and France used to have stringent suicide laws that would include foreiture of estate and public humiliation of a person's corpse, but there has never been a US law against suicide. There are six states that have a law against attempted suicide (the Dakotas, Washington, Nevada, Oklahoma, and New Jersey), but the law doesn't seem to ever be enforced. In fact, I know someone who attempted suicide in New Jersey, and she was simply assigned a psychiatrist and a licensed counselor.

I found this information in a Q&A column. Perhaps later I will look for a more official source.

 

[megas]

can someone help me? maybe pm me, i know someone that honestly wants to kill herself... what should i do??

 

[honestrosewater]

You should be able to find assistance from people who know how to handle this at http://www.suicide-helplines.org/
Being there as a friend would also help.

 

[Smurf]

@brewnog: I think the reason life insurance companies don't pay for suicide is they would feel like they had a hand in it. If a person was having severe financial problems and knew he could get $500,000 for his family by committing suicide, he would be more likely to try it.

Yeah. That's why they don't pay for suicide. They don't want to feel guilty.
it has absolutely nothing to do with losing 500,000 dollars afterwards.