united-states suicide
To what extent is suicide legal in the U.S. and in individual states?
<p>At one point, legal scholars referred to suicide as a form of self-murder (for example, see Coke or Hale).</p>
<p>Are those who take their own lives guilty of some crime, or have some forms of the act been decriminalized?  What about those who willingly assist?</p>
<p><sub><em><strong>Note</strong>:
If you've been contemplating things, the people at the
<a href="http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">National Suicide Prevention Lifeline</a> are great.  They speak Spanish and English, and their number is 1-800-273-8255.</em></sub></p>

<p>This is interesting because things get extremely different on state and federal levels.</p>
<p>Quoting <a href="http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Suicide" rel="noreferrer">this</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Under modern U.S. law, suicide is no longer a crime. Some states, however, classify attempted suicide as a criminal act, but prosecutions are rare, especially when the offender is terminally ill.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The &quot;some states&quot; part is much more important than was emphasized there, however.</p>
<p>A case that reached the Virginia Supreme Court, <a href="http://law.justia.com/cases/virginia/supreme-court/1992/911384-1.html" rel="noreferrer"><em>Wackwitz v. Roy</em></a> (referred to in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_legislation#United_States" rel="noreferrer">Wikipedia</a>) pivoted about the legality of suicide. From the decision:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are aware of only one legislative enactment that addresses suicide as a crime. Code § 55-4 provides that &quot;[n]o suicide ... shall work a corruption of blood or forfeiture of estate.&quot; Thus, although the General Assembly has rescinded the punishment for suicide, it has not decriminalized the act. Suicide, therefore, remains a common law crime in Virginia as it does in a number of other common-law states. See, e.g., Southern Life &amp; Health Ins. Co. v. Wynn, 29 Ala.App. 207, 194 So. 421 (1940); Commonwealth v. Mink, 123 Mass. 422 (1877); State v. Willis, 255 N.C. 473, 121 S.E.2d 854 (1961); State v. Carney, 69 N.J.L. 478, 55 A. 44 (1903); State v. Levelle, 34 S.C. 120, 13 S.E. 319 (1891), overruled on other grounds by State v. Torrence, 406 S.E.2d 315 (S.C.1991).</p>
<p>To constitute suicide at common law, however, a person who takes his own life &quot;must be of years of discretion, and in his *865 senses.&quot; 5 William Blackstone, Commentaries *189; accord Plunkett v. Supreme Conclave, 105 Va. 643, 646, 55 S.E. 9, 10 (1906) (&quot;`To constitute suicide at common law the person must be of years of discretion and of sound mind.'&quot;). This common law rule comports with a contemporary definition of suicide. Suicide is defined as &quot;the deliberate and intentional destruction of his own life by a person of years of discretion and of sound mind.&quot; Webster's Third New International Dictionary 2286 (1981).</p>
</blockquote>
<p><sup>I believe that the &quot;only one legislative enactment&quot; refers merely to Virginia state law, not nation-wide law.</sup></p>
<p>Thus, in Virginia, and other states, suicide <em>could</em> be treated as a common-law crime. <em>However</em>, in <a href="http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/11/32/case.html" rel="noreferrer"><em>United States v. Hudson</em></a>, it was ruled that such common-law convictions are not allowed at the federal level. I'm not always a fan of Google Answers, but the last one <a href="http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/287230.html" rel="noreferrer">here</a> provides a fairly well-documented section on common-law rulings about suicide. Note that in many states, this is not enforced, as common-law rulings are increasingly rare.</p>
