17. Since suicide isn’t against the law, why should it be illegal to help someone commit suicide?

Neither suicide nor attempted suicide is criminalized anywhere in the United States or in many other countries. This is not because of any “right” to suicide. When penalties against attempted suicide were removed, legal scholars made it clear that this was not done for the purpose of permitting suicide. Instead it was intended to prevent suicide. Penalties were removed so people could seek help in dealing with the problems they’re facing without risk of being prosecuted if it were discovered that they had attempted suicide.

Just as current public policy does not grant a “right” to be killed to a person who is suicidal because of a lost business, neither should it permit people to be killed because they are in despair over their physical or emotional condition. With legalized euthanasia or assisted suicide, condemned killers would have more rights to have their lives protected than would vulnerable people who could be pressured and exploited into what amounts to capital punishment for the “crime” of being sick, old, disabled or dependent.