Dave Long <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > The "attempted" part certainly boggles, but my impression of the > rationale for successful suicide is rather more prosaic than > elsewhere on this thread: it's criminal not so much because we are > concerned with any possible moral failing on the part of the dear > departed, but because we wish to have a legal basis for criminal > investigations in each instance to determine that they were in fact > sui- and not homicides.
There isn't any real need for that -- suspicion of a homicide would permit investigation. I'm not sure about other countries, but, the reason for suicide being a criminal offense under English law was simple, and rather base. The assets of a criminal could be seized by the crown, and for centuries such forfeitures were a major source of revenue. There was thus an incentive to make all sorts of things that had once been torts or ignored entirely by the law into crimes. Perry
