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A Brief History Of Anglo-Western Suicide: From Legal Wrong To Civil Right, Helen Y. Chang

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This article will examine the history of suicide from antiquity, where certain types of self-killing were socially acceptable, to its evolution as a criminal wrong and its modern reincarnation as a moral and legal right. In the early Common Era, suicide was not a criminal wrong, but with the spread of Christianity, suicide became illegal. In the present day, a growing minority of states have legalized some forms of suicide or self-killing. In 2018, six states and the District of Columbia had legalized some form of physician-assisted suicide: California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Montana, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. Twenty-three states …