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In most western countries, suicide is legal, yet assisted suicide is a crime, attracting harsh legal penalties. While a person who takes their own life commits no crime, a person found guilty of assisting another can face a long jail term.
Think about it. The law makes it a crime for a person to assist another person to do something that is lawful. There is no other example of this in modern western legal systems. This is why any person who chooses to be involved in the death of another - however tangentially and for whatever reasons – needs to be very careful indeed. This is especially true when friends and family are involved and emotions may cloud one’s judgement.
Legal Definitions & Penalties
Technically speaking Voluntary Euthanasia is the term used to describe the situation when a medical professional might administer to a patient a lethal injection. Voluntary euthanasia is legal in countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium.