# Death Poll!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [November 19, 2010, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188 "2010-11-19T03:21:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2010, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188/1 "2010-11-19T03:21:28Z")
Scenario: Your best bud has decided to do himself in by ingesting something along the lines of _New And Improved DRAINO-Now With Battery Acid!_, something for which there would be absolutely no chance of surviving. He won’t live, but he is in the worst agony you can possibly imagine…and you have the means to instantly end his long agony via gun, aluminum baseball bat or what have you.
Now, if you so decide to cut his agony short, has he committed suicide? Have you committed murder? Both? Neither?
Not looking for a legal opinion here-just how you see the situation personally.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2010, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188/2 "2010-11-19T03:48:03Z")
I went with _neither_. At best, because the cause of death wasn’t the stuff he ingested, it would be an attempted suicide. The killing would be a mercy killing, imo.
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### Author:  [@Girl\_Hermit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_Hermit)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2010, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188/3 "2010-11-19T04:04:50Z")
I went with suicide but now I wonder if I should have checked the “something else” option. I think it would be more assisted suicide rather than suicide on his part (or murder on mine).
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### Author:  [@gladtobeblazed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gladtobeblazed)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2010, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188/4 "2010-11-19T05:36:43Z")
Since the friend wouldn’t have survived I say he committed suicide and I committed euthanasia.
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### Author:  [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2010, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188/5 "2010-11-19T09:39:35Z")
There’s a legal argument that points to murder. Let’s say a man jumps off the Empire State Building , presumably with the intent to commit suicide. Halfway down during his decent, I shoot him in the head, killing him instantly. I am charged with murder because _I prematurely ended his life._ Jury nullification would probably get me off with a light or no sentence.
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### Author:  [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2010, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188/6 "2010-11-19T11:58:28Z")
Clearly a suicide, in intent and effect. I merely applied some anesthetic (in intent and effect).
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2010, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188/7 "2010-11-19T12:10:12Z")
> [@Dereknocue67](#):
>
> There’s a legal argument that points to murder. Let’s say a man jumps off the Empire State Building , presumably with the intent to commit suicide. Halfway down during his decent, I shoot him in the head, killing him instantly. I am charged with murder because _I prematurely ended his life._ Jury nullification would probably get me off with a light or no sentence.
Again,
[QUOTE=Czarcasm]
Not looking for a legal opinion here-just how you see the situation personally.
[/QUOTE]
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### Author:  [@blue\_infinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blue_infinity)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2010, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188/8 "2010-11-19T12:18:49Z")
Mercy killing.
[This](http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8143865/vic-twins-made-suicide-pact) is an ‘interesting’ thing that happened a few days ago.
I expect that each girl shot herself, but if they had shot the other instead - would one of them be charged with murder?
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### Author:  [@KinkiNipponTourist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KinkiNipponTourist)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2010, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188/9 "2010-11-19T12:40:28Z")
I would see it as murder. As **gladtobeblazed** rightly points out, my bud was going to die anyway, but I dunno, in my mind I’m killing him before the _New and Improved Draino_ kills him.
_New and Improved Draino_? That is just NAST. I’d probably whack him with the bat on principle for choosing such a horrible way to go. WTF man? [You couldn’t just roast some nice charcoal in your car w/ the windows rolled up?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charcoal-burning_suicide)😃
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2010, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188/10 "2010-11-19T13:21:37Z")
I’d say if it wasn’t suicide (on his part), it was by the slimmest technicalities.
For _my_ part in it, I’d call it a “mercy killing,” not “murder.” To paraphrase DC comics, the _Drano_ killed him, _I_ just stopped him from suffering.
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### Author:  [@Clark\_Cello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_Cello)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188/11 "2010-11-19T13:53:11Z")
Suicide IMO. There are many cases of suicide by cop. In those cases, it is clearly a suicide, not murder by the cops.
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### Author:  [@Rala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rala)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2010, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188/12 "2010-11-19T14:55:38Z")
I’d call it murder and attempted suicide.
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### Author:  [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188/13 "2010-11-19T15:11:12Z")
Neither.
Mercy killing for which I’d have to accept the consequences for if I carried out the act.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188/14 "2010-11-19T17:37:16Z")
> [@Clark\_Cello](#):
>
> Suicide IMO. There are many cases of suicide by cop. In those cases, it is clearly a suicide, not murder by the cops.
Except that the cops are usually forced to react as such. In this scenario you, on the other hand, decided on your own to do the deed.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188/15 "2010-11-19T17:51:48Z")
> [@Rala](#):
>
> I’d call it murder and attempted suicide.
I voted for “both” but I like this answer better.
My reasoning was that the death was begun by the ingesting of the poison and would have been the cause had the interloper not stepped in. Stepping in is murder (okay, maybe assisted suicide or mercy killing or euthanasia) in that “I” killed someone else intentionally. A dictionary definition includes “unlawfully” as part of the set of things at work in a murder, per se. Where the killing takes place may figure in to that part of the puzzle. The “with malice aforethought” component may or may not apply, but even if it doesn’t “second degree murder” would still get my vote in the OP’s scenario.
The suicide interruptus idea has some validity.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2010, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188/16 "2010-11-19T19:43:21Z")
I put murder…but that doesn’t mean I think it’s wrong.
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### Author:  [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-poll/561188/17 "2010-11-19T20:52:43Z")
I said neither. It’s clearly a mercy killing. Murder is done out of malice. Mercy killing is done out of compassion.