Читать книгу Criminology For Dummies - Steven Briggs - Страница 91

Technically, suicide isn’t a homicide because it doesn’t involve the killing of another human being. However, in many countries (such as India), attempted suicide is a crime. (I’m not aware of any states in the United States that punish attempted suicide.)

In the United States, helping another person commit suicide — an act known as euthanasia — can be punished as homicide. Most famously, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who claimed to have assisted 130 people in committing suicide, was convicted of second-degree murder in Michigan and served eight years in prison before being paroled in 2007.

As of this writing, nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized physician-assisted suicide. Oregon was the first state, passing its law in 1997, allowing Oregon citizens with terminal medical conditions to get prescriptions from their doctors for self-administered, lethal doses of “medication.”