Is suicide a crime?

BigEasy

Techinically Suicide is a crime but no one is prosecuted for it. If they commit suicide, of course, they are dead. If they attempt it, then normally they are transported to the hospital and are commited for a few days to see if they need additional mental health.

d_rock

I suppose you could punish someone for an attempt. Though I'm not sure what the societal goal of punishing them would be?

Dr. Deth

if you fail - you go to jail

crimeskid

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.[citation needed] 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still considered attempted suicide a crime (North and South Dakota, Washington, New Jersey, Nevada, and Oklahoma that repealed its law in 1976).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.

slipknot fan

Sucide is not a crime but the punishment is being dead. ironic isnt it?

Star!

i think it's more of a desperate cry for help. i dont understand how it is a crime.
and you can't punish a dead person...

choco bean

You can't, but god can.

Digging for answers

The ability, or lack there of, to apply accountability to ones actions does not cease if the perpetrator is deceased.

crazymental

technically it is illegal. euthanasia for example is a form of suicide and illegal, just no one is prosecuted as they are in a bad mental state of mind when they try and commit suicide. its not a victimless crime. not for the one's left behind anyway.

rod d

Ask the family of the deceased. Kids etc

fdj1

I committed suicide last week, and I had to resurrect just to go to court,,,,
to deal with that silly citation I received..

Chuck T

Who would you charge ? , assisted is ...

babey

The laws that the US live by can not punish a dead person cuz if you actually go threw with it than you would be deae and than the only person that can judge the actions you have taken is God

aunt_webby

suicide is a crime and if you will notice, the dead man is always taken away in handcuffs ....

Nicki

Ask the last person what they did to himself after he committed suicide , if you see him and tries to tell you, run like hell.

bdowaydarie

good question, but I don't think the police would bother to leave a dead body to rot in a cell!

Sway_27

I actually think it is, but how do you punish someone who is already dead.

my1girlontheway

its a crime to do that to your family !!!

Marc X

No, there is NO law that says, "Don't kill."

There are laws defining murder, as well as manslaughter, and those laws are written in very specific language. I'd very much like to see someone referenced a state statute in which suicide is defined as a criminal offense.

I've noticed that Attempted Murder is a criminal offense, punishable by prison time.

Yet I don't recall any laws governing Attempted Suicide. There are provisions in the health code that allows an individual proven to be a harm to himself to be restricted for his own safety. Such restriction is not a punishment by simple loss of freedom, but only permissible under medical guidelines until the person has demonstrated that he's no longer a danger to himself, which must be ascertained at the earliest possibility.

No, suicide is NOT a crime. Someone will have to show me the statute to refute my argument.

k6192

you don't give their family their inheritance
it doesn't actually affect the person but it makes it
so maybe they'll think of their family
who has to pay for funeral, wake, caskett, ect.

sexijlp

i don't think it's a crime but how do you charge a person with suicide, if there dead. I think they'll get you mental evaluation if you fail. but it's a sin to commit suicide anyway and god is the speaker of that

britsorsticks

You can't punish the dead. God will handle those kind of things.

Franchise

casper told me the punishment is immortality

the princess!!!

you cant. and if you are thinkin bout suicide you should go to a docror or something

love_in_him

the law can't punish you for suicied its not a smart thing to do but once your dead and the fault is to yourself then i dont think it matters what the law has to say anymore.
but the real question is the bible says suicide is wrong. your destroying the teple god built for you and when you get to heaven you will have to answer to him as to why you did that..
life is nevr bad enough to want to kill yourself it may seem like it but its not!

Joe R

more or less you cant...so not really its consider a suicide now if some one else did it it would be a Homocide ...so no not really...but really sad when someone does commit suicide ....

they were really in that much pain and agony ....
that they would do whatever they had to ....for it to stop...

petruvsky

If it is a crime does it matter at that point. Suicide really only hurts the people left behind. Life Insurance companies don't compensate for suicides...at least to my knowledge.

AmsterF

One can get arristed for attempting suicide and failing.

nicki

suicide is illegal and if you attempt to commit suicide and fail you go to jail.

mon amour

well i am not sure but i don't think they pay the insurance for the family of the suicider

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