ABA Family Legal Guide

Health-Care Law

Specific Issues in Health Care

Assisted Suicide

Is it against the law to help someone else commit suicide?

It is against the law in most states to aid or assist someone else in committing suicide. For instance, in Illinois and Ohio, it is considered homicide to help someone else commit suicide. This is where physician-assisted suicide comes in. Physician-assisted suicide is legal in only one state—Oregon. In 1997, Oregon enacted the Death with Dignity Act. This law allows—but does not require—doctors to prescribe medication to competent, terminally ill patients, knowing that the medication is going to be used by the patient to end his life. The law is highly controversial.

During Oregon's first year of legalized assisted suicide, a study of all the patients who choose physician-assisted suicide showed that they based their decisions to commit suicide on the loss of autonomy and control of bodily functions. They were less concerned with the fear of uncontrollable pain or putting a financial burden on their families. This may be in part due to the progress medicine has made in dealing with pain.