State-assisted suicide
Encyclopedia
State-assisted suicide is the use of government to commit suicide. It is usually committed by committing a capital crime and receiving a capital punishment
.
State-assisted suicide was a popular method in Medieval and Enlightenment Era Scandinavia, where religion forbade suicide and suicidees were prohibited from religious burial. The usual method was to kill an infant - infanticide was a capital crime; and infants, once baptized, were considered to be pure and sinless and therefore certain to receive salvation
. The death penalty, usually by beheading
, gave the condemned a chance to atone his or her sins before death.
Timothy McVeigh
, who had contemplated suicide in the past, notably called his execution "state-assisted suicide." Zacarias Moussaoui
also sought to kill himself through the justice system. A typical strategy for this purpose is to commit a capital offense and then refuse to plea bargain
in the face of overwhelming evidence, all the while showing no remorse and making statements calculated to cause grave offense.
Amnesty International
said "While "volunteer" executions are sometimes referred to as a form of state-assisted suicide, prisoner-assisted homicide would be a more accurate label."
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
.
State-assisted suicide was a popular method in Medieval and Enlightenment Era Scandinavia, where religion forbade suicide and suicidees were prohibited from religious burial. The usual method was to kill an infant - infanticide was a capital crime; and infants, once baptized, were considered to be pure and sinless and therefore certain to receive salvation
Salvation
Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...
. The death penalty, usually by beheading
Decapitation
Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...
, gave the condemned a chance to atone his or her sins before death.
Timothy McVeigh
Timothy McVeigh
Timothy James McVeigh was a United States Army veteran and security guard who detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995...
, who had contemplated suicide in the past, notably called his execution "state-assisted suicide." Zacarias Moussaoui
Zacarias Moussaoui
Zacarias Moussaoui is a French citizen who was convicted of conspiring to kill citizens of the US as part of the September 11 attacks...
also sought to kill himself through the justice system. A typical strategy for this purpose is to commit a capital offense and then refuse to plea bargain
Plea bargain
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...
in the face of overwhelming evidence, all the while showing no remorse and making statements calculated to cause grave offense.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
said "While "volunteer" executions are sometimes referred to as a form of state-assisted suicide, prisoner-assisted homicide would be a more accurate label."