CONSENSUAL HOMICIDE

(Redirected from Assisted suicide)

'Consensual homicide', also called 'assisted suicide', refers to a killing in which the victim wants to die.
The more common form is physician-assisted suicide, in which terminally ill people seek assistance from their doctors (or family members) to alleviate their suffering by ending their lives. This practice is legal in some jurisdictions, but remains controversial because of the legal, ethical and practical issues it raises. Dr. Jack Kevorkian is the most well-known advocate of this practice. Another notable case is suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams, who claimed that patient Edith Alice Morrell - for whose murder he was tried in 1957 - had wanted to die. He was controversially found not guilty but later suspected of murdering up to 163 of his patients^[1].
In 1996 a Maryland entrepreneur named Sharon Lopatka arranged for her own torture and strangulation over the Internet, and in 2001 German Armin Meiwes was found to have murdered and cannibalized a willing victim he found over the internet. These two cases attracted considerable media attention. Both victims appear to have fully consented to their killings. Beyond their lurid sexual details, both cases introduce paradoxes about the respective responsibility of the parties, the legal differences between consensual homicide and suicide.
Attempts to legalize assisted suicide in various states have failed in recent years. Notably, California has rejected this practice in 1992, 1999, 2005, 2006 and 2007. Opposition to assisted suicide legalization came from a wide range of organizations including the California Medical Association, dozens of disability rights organizations, faith-based organizations, and Latino and civil rights groups.

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See also

See also

★ euthanasia, or "mercy killing"

★ "suicide by cop" or "victim-precipitated homicide", in which victims deliberately provoke a lethal response from law enforcement agents

★ suicide