ABSTRACT
In the US Supreme Court decision of Washington v Glucksberg (1997) 117 S Ct 2258; (1997) 138 L Ed 2d (discussed below, p 615), Rehnquist CJ examined the history, legal tradition and practices relating to assisted suicide in the AngloAmerican common law tradition. In his judgment, he stressed that, for over 700 years, this tradition has punished or otherwise disapproved of both suicide and assisting suicide. In Chapter 9, we looked at the history of English law on this area, which basically regarded suicide as one of the most serious crimes. For the most part, American colonies adopted the English common law approach, in places like Rhode Island and Virginia, but gradually, over time, the American colonies abolished the harsh common law penalties. States like Pennsylvania, in 1701, abandoned the criminal sanction and other colonies followed suit; but the State’s movement away from the common law’s harsh treatment did not signify an acceptance of suicide, but only a growing groundswell of opinion that it was unfair to penalise the suicide’s family for his actions. However, the American courts continued to express their grave disapproval of suicide as a serious public wrong. The first American statute expressly to criminalise assisting suicide was enacted in New York in 1828 (see Act of 10 December 1828, ch 20, s 4, 1828 NY Laws 19) and many of the new States and Territories followed New York’s example. By the time the 14th Amendment was ratified, it was a crime in most States to assist a suicide. In the 20th century, the Model Penal Code also prohibited ‘aiding’ suicide, which encouraged other States to enact or revise their assisted suicide prohibitions. In more recent times, the States’ prohibitions on such assisted deaths have been re-appraised, but generally re-affirmed. The Model Penal Code states that ‘A person who purposely aids or solicits another to commit suicide, is guilty of a felony in the second degree if his conduct causes such suicide or an attempted suicide, and otherwise of a misdemeanour’.
