On The Criminal Law Regulation Of Abetting And Assisting Suicide Behavior

There are many theoretical disputes on the evaluation of criminal law for abetting and aiding suicide,among which the focus is whether to punish and how to punish abetting and aiding suicide.No matter what viewpoint people hold,their analysis approach is much the same,that is,from the qualitative suicide behavior to the qualitative abetting,helping suicide behavior.This paper argues that we should start from the definition of abetting and aiding suicide,clarify its conceptual scope,and then examine the disputes in the theory,so as to see more clearly what is being argued and choose an appropriate regulatory path.In the first part,combining with the definition of suicidal behavior,this paper firstly defines the concept of abetting and assisting suicidal behavior,and holds that only when the victim carries out the suicidal behavior and controls the death process by himself,the actor’s behavior can establish the abetting and assisting suicidal behavior.At the same time,with the concept of "controlling the process of death" as the core,this paper proposes a solution to the difficult problems in the identification of abetting and aiding suicide.The distinction between abetting and aiding suicide was also discussed.In the second part,after defining the concept of abetting and aiding suicide,this paper begins to analyze the criminal law evaluation of abetting and aiding suicide.In a word,there are four opinions on this issue in the theoretical field: innocence,principal punishment,accomplice punishment and separate legislation.Among them,the premise of the theory of innocence has a big defect and conflicts with the current judicial practice,so the theory of innocence is not an appropriate evaluation method.The theory of principal punishment is easy to be questioned because it is not enough to explain the key problems of this regulation method.The core argument of the theory of accomplice punishment is that paternalism intervention and suicide behavior are not punishable.Although separate legislation is a relatively ideal solution,and the space outside the law is the most appropriate to evaluate suicide behavior,it cannot realistically solve the problem of punishment basis for abetting and assisting suicide behavior in current practice.In the third part,this paper analyzes the reason why the current regulation theory enters the dilemma,that is,the act of abetting and assisting suicide will be equated with the act of abetting and assisting in the theory of accomplice at the very beginning.That left them with the extremely difficult task of proving that suicide is illegal without punishment,or abetting itif it is not.Assisted suicide is punishable.The theory of innocence,the theory of punishment for accomplice and the theory of separate legislation are all affected by this.On the one hand,the concept of abetting and assisting suicide is collectively referred to as participating in suicide,which can avoid such semantic ambiguity.On the other hand,the regulation of abetting and aiding suicide should return to the theory of principal punishment.As long as we can explain the pattern of intentional homicide and the causal relationship in the theory of principal punishment,the theory of principal punishment is a relatively more reasonable way to regulate.Therefore,this paper demonstrates that participation in suicide can be interpreted as intentional homicide,where the causal relationship can be proved,and the scope of punishment will not be expanded accordingly.In the fourth part,after determining the regulation path of the punishment theory of principal offender,the discussion of how to punish the behavior of participating in suicide is another focus.First of all,as for the problem of participation in suicide attempt,this paper thinks that it is more appropriate to deal with the problem of participation in suicide attempt with the standard of "present and imminent danger".Secondly,as for the judgment of the responsibility of participating in suicide,this paper holds that the crime of causing death by negligence should not be punished for participating in suicide.Finally,on the issue of sentencing standards for participating in suicide,this paper concludes that criminal responsibility should be determined according to the size of the role of participating in suicide through summing up and analyzing the practical sentencing situation,and that the criminal responsibility for abetting suicide can be appropriately higher than that for assisting suicide under normal circumstances.