At common law, suicide was a crime. The punishment was forfeiture of the lands owned by the deceased. In modern times, most states do not criminalize suicide. However, almost all jurisdictions make it a crime to assista suicide, and the US Supreme Court has held these statutes constitutional. 1Several states have special statutes that specifically punish assisted suicide less severely than their first- or second-degree murder statutes. 2 A minority of states allow terminally ill patients to end their lives with the assistance of a physician. 3 The Model Penal Code provides that “[a] person who purposely aids or solicits another to commit suicide is guilty of a felony of the second degree if his conduct causes such suicide or an attempted suicide” (Model Penal Code § 210.5(2)).
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Homicide is the killing of one human being by another.
- Homicide is not always criminal. For example, a lawful execution pursuant to the death penalty is homicide, but it is not criminal homicide.
- The corpus delicti components in a criminal homicide are the death of the victim, caused by the defendant, in an unlawful manner.
- States that criminalize feticide consider an embryo a fetus at the moment of conception, when it quickens in the womb, or when it is viable and can survive outside the womb.
- In modern times, in many jurisdictions feticide is a crime (excepting abortion), and suicide is not. At common law, the following applied:
- Feticide was not a crime; only a person “born alive” could be the victim of criminal homicide.
- Suicide was a crime; the punishment was forfeiture of the deceased’s lands.
- The US Supreme Court has held that it is constitutional to criminalize assisted suicide, and most states do. A minority of states allow a physician to legally end the life of a terminally ill patient.
EXERCISES
Answer the following questions. Check your answers using the answer key at the end of the chapter.
- What is the fundamental difference between homicide and suicide?
- Read Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702 (1997). Which part of the Constitution did the US Supreme Court analyze when it held that it is constitutional to criminalize assisted suicide? The case is available at this link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17920279791882194984&q=Washington+v.+Glucksberg&hl=en&as_sdt=2,5
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