Little Help from My Friends: The Legal Status of Assisted Suicide, A

Abstract

INTRODUCTION|Suicide is an ancient sorrow that has continued through the ages, from Seneca to Sylvia Plath. More currently, some highly publicized cases and the recent best-seller, Final Exit, have re-ignited the never-fully-extinguished debate about the legal status of suicide and assisted suicide. This Comment surveys the foundations for current sanctions against assisted suicide.|As a foundational survey, this Comment must necessarily be limited in a number of ways. First, this Comment concerns only competent suicidants. Second, this Comment does not address withdrawal of medical treatment or refusal of medical treatment as a form of suicide. In so doing, the Comment largely accepts, without arguing for, the distinction between "killing" and "letting die" that is prevalent in ethics literature. Finally, this Comment does not consider the special role of medical professionals, who naturally find themselves confronted with issues of suicide and assisted suicide on a regular basis...