I was thinking about offering prisoners a suicide option to life imprisonment as a viable alternative to the death penalty. I don’t know how many would take it, but some would.
But WTF? Why not with any crime? Or at least, for anyone sentenced to life without possibility of parole.
It seems to me, unfortunately, that the MOST likely candidates would be those actually innocent of the crime, out of appeals, and unable to face a grim future. But, maybe we’d be doing them a favor. And I’m just guessing.
When the state takes a person into custody certain rights are removed, but in turn responsibility for the welfare of that prisoner is also assumed.
That welfare includes all aspects of the prisoners well-being (note this does not mean make the prisoner happy) and that includes psychological well-being.
The current debate about euthanasia in Europe centres upon those who have terminal illnesses and whose mental competance is such that the personal issues surrounding assisted suicide are understood clearly.Prisoners do not fall into this category.
The idea that the state can be directly involved in assisting the suicides of those from whom it has removed certain rights, no matter what the reason, would be interpreted by some as having the death penalty in all but name, and under current European legislation, namely The Europen Convention on Human Rights, the death penalty is illegal.
I also happen to think that a lifetime of incarceration serves as a very good example to other prisoners who see these little old grey men withering away.
Most prisoners I meet look upon such a fate as being far worse than the instant solution of ‘ending it all’.
I think everybody - whether they are in prison or not - should have the option of suicide. ESPECIALLY terminally ill (or permanently-suffering) people.
Frankly I think there should be public suicide booths on every street corner. If someone wants to die, they should be allowed to do so. No questions asked. And they should be provided with the most painless methods possible.
You think that’s crazy? What’s crazy is putting a prisoner on death row on suicide watch to make sure he/she doesn’t kill him/herself before the execution.
So, yes, there should be suicide pills in every cell in every prison. Not only is it merciful and humane, but it would keep prison costs down as well. I don’t see why dogs deserve more mercy and humanity than humans - even humans in prison for life.
Like Futurama?! The only problem with that might be mistakes. Such as some poor old lady putting her coin in thinking it was a phone box…
But seriously, I am pro-choice for suicide, but I am much happier with the idea of it under proper medical supervision. Which would allow people to die more humanely, without tragic mistakes leaving them paralysed, for example, and also enable call-for-helpers to get proper psychiatric attention.
We should take Holland’d lead in euthansia , but Holland also has excellent prisons much more so than those in the US , Beer at weekends , congigal visits porn channel on their TVs in their rooms , porn mags and a spanky education system.
I like how the topic line asks whether suicide in prison is legal as well as moral. If suicide is illegal, and you kill yourself anyway, are they going to put your corpse in jail?
Well, there’s gotta be more control than that. One man’s suicide pill is another man’s murder weapon. Scattering thousands of lethal pills among thousands of convicted murderers seems like not to great an idea to me.
I put “legal” in the topic because I assume their would need to be some form of official assistance to carry it out “safely”.
Also, CASDAVE, this is NOT the death penalty. It is a sentence of life imprisonment, which I don’t think anyone has a problem with. Suicide is now a rather difficult option a prisoner can try today if they choose, with or without a law. As far as providing warning examples to others, wasn’t the death penalty supposed to do that?
I know this much:
The prisoners do not have free access to stuff to kill themeselves with. In fact they are only issued X amount of toilent paper each week. Hey look at it this way if its federal prison your going to you can be happy in them. I am not kidding when I say there is a federal prison with a golf course.
I never said that it WAS a death penalty, just that it would likely be interpreted that way, assisting a life-term inmate in commiting suicide is always going to raise questions about states of mind, about prison regimes, about persuasive coercion etc.
I have no doubt that such a thing would be popular in the general population of a country, just as there are many who would like to see public floggings, hangings etc.
If assisted suicide for a person who deems that their life is effectively over for one reason, ie incarceration, then why should the same thing not be available to those blameless folk who see , for arguments sake, a lifetime of worthless unemployment having been made redundant at too late an age for them to start over or any other reason, why pick on prisoners, except that is appears to be a nice neat and clean way of brushing a problem out of sight.
I agree w/the poster who pointed out that specifically generating ‘ways to kill’ inside a prison could easily be seen as a ‘not good idea’ [sup]TM[/sup]
And I also agree w/casdave points too (about the other prisoners watching the lifers).
I can’t imagine a court seeing this as the equivalent of the death penalty. I’d like some other opinions on this.
As to your second point, well, why not? I wouldn’t mind eventually checking out in a kind of beautiful “Soylent Green-ish” suicide someday (without the cannibalism).
I suppose we can argue where the line of “acceptable” suicide ends, if in your opinion it ever starts. Are there any circumstances where you would find suicide or assisted suicide acceptable? Terminal illness, quadriplegia(sp?), wounded in the middle of combat, you name it. Clearly “I wanna” is not sufficient for you.
The trouble with suicide in police custody is that it is difficult to tell the difference between suicide and “suicide”. Hey, we had him in the cell and he committed suicide. Yep, he beat himself to death with a nightstick we had lying around, stabbed himself, tied himself to a chair and threw himself out a window. Open and shut case.
The police have to prevent suicide attempts to protect themselves.
Futurama has those? I’ve only seen that show once (and I’m sure I would have remembered that). Oh well, great minds think alike I guess
Surely there could be enough warnings on the booth… if the old lady can’t read them and can’t function well enough to avoid putting her “coin” (it should probably be $100 bill or something more than a coin) then I think it’s time for her to go, anyway.
But when I say “suicide booths” i am being somewhat facetious. It should be suicide clinics on every street corner. Where there would be a medical professional trained to be compassionate and give the person who wishes to die (for whatever reason) the upmost respect and dignity.
yojimboguy - good point. So, just let the warden have the suicide pills, and any prisoner (regardless of the length of their sentence) who wants to take one just has to ask the warden. Obviously, he has to take it in a confined place… so he can’t get the pill and then bring it back to the general community to slip into Doyle’s coke to kill him.
The problem is that prisoners who the prison guard didnt happen to like will shortly commit “suicide”. Same with the booths, you get a dodgy operator and you can dispose of a lot of corpses legally.
That would be murder. It’s already illegal, and I’m not saying we change that. If a prison guard doesn’t like a prisoner, then:
he could go home and get some poison and do it right now.
he could just beat the crap out of the prisoner with his big black stick.
he could come up with 10,000 other ways of making that prisoner’s confined-life a living hell.
(most importantly) he can take the gun he has and shoot the prisoner dead, saying the prisoner was trying to escape.
So… that’s a non-issue. As for suicide clinics, i don’t see how anyone could be made to go to one under duress. Obviously there would be confidential competency and free-will determinations made by the trained professionals before the suicide takes place.
Well, what if B tells A “go to the suicide clinic on East Main street and have yourself killed, because if you don’t do it by 3pm tomorrow, I’ll kill your wife (whom I have hostage).” Well, A can either call the cops, try to find B himself, fake a suicide (with the help of the suicide clinic and the cops), or just go ahead and kill himself. If he kills himself, it’s not like he’ll have any assurances that his wife will actually be set free, so he probably wouldn’t do it.
And if things go bad, and his wife ends up dead… and he decides he just can’t live without his wife… then he can go to the suicide clinic and end his life to “be with his wife.”
The problem is that making suicide common in prisons would lead to shady conspiracies, on both sides.
The guards could esily arrange a “suicide” and be able to cover up their crime with far more ease than if they were technically responsible for keeping the man alive.
The prisoner, and his friends and family, could set up the prison system by legitimately committing suicide and then claiming the above occurred.
Besides, prison is for punisment (or to provide an example) and a free ticket out is defeating the point. Besides, there’s always hope, even in prison.
The guards can already arrange a ‘suicide’ if they want. they can use bedsheets for a noose… or… jeez, i can think of 10000 different ways they could fake a suicide of a prisoner. And, that’s still called murder. Killing someone without their consent, that is (at least, that’s what I think the definition should be - you should be allowed to consent to your own death).
Prison is for punishment. I don’t see how letting someone kill themselves in prison would interfere with that. I take it you are against the death penalty (e.g. an easy way out)?
