Assisted Suicide and Unassisted Suicide: What's the Difference?

Introduction Discussions about whether or not to legalize assisted suicide often fail to take into account the fact that unassisted suicide [1] is already legal.[2] Failure to consider this fact means that unless there is a significant difference between assisted suicide and unassisted suicide that justifies prohibiting the former while permitting the latter, one must either accept inconsistency or reconsider.[3] There are six reasons typically given for prohibiting assisted suicide: the tragic death; preferred alternatives; the social good; upstaging God; the slippery slope; the possibility of abuse. I argue that these reasons are equally applicable to unassisted suicide; therefore, again, one must either accept inconsistency or argue on the same grounds for prohibiting unassisted suicide.