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Currently, euthanasia is illegal in Massachusetts. According to Ch. 201D §12 Massachusetts states that "Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to constitute, condone, authorize, or approve suicide or mercy killing or to permit any affirmative or deliberate act to end one's own life other than to permit the natural process of dying". [15]
West's Encyclopedia of American Law states that "a 'mercy killing' or euthanasia is generally considered to be a criminal homicide" and is normally used as a synonym of homicide committed at a request made by the patient. [64] [65]
The first significant drive to legalize assisted suicide in the United States arose in the early twentieth century. In a 2004 article in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Brown University historian Jacob M. Appel documented extensive political debate over legislation to legalize physician-assisted death in Iowa and Ohio in 1906.
The Law n.º 22/2023, of 22 May, [21] legalized physician-assisted death, which can be done by physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. Physician-assisted death can only be permitted to adults, by their own decision, who are experiencing suffering of great intensity and who have a permanent injury of extreme severity or a serious and ...
Parricide or parenticide – the killing of one's mother, father, or other close relative. Patricide – the act of killing of one's father. (Latin: pater "father"). Senicide – the killing of one's elderly family members. (Latin: senex "old man"). Siblicide – the killing of an infant individual by their close relatives (full or half siblings).
Killing somebody in accordance with their demands is always illegal under the German criminal code (Paragraph 216, "Killing at the request of the victim"). [142] That said, assisting suicide is now generally legal as the Federal Constitutional Court has ruled in 2020 that it is generally protected under the Basic Law.
In 1937, doctor-assisted euthanasia was declared legal in Switzerland as long as the doctor ending the life had nothing to gain. [15] [23] During this same era, US courts tackled cases involving critically ill people who requested physician assistance in dying as well as "mercy killings", such as by parents of their severely disabled children.
Involuntary euthanasia is widely opposed and is regarded as a crime in all legal jurisdictions, although it has been legal in the past in some jurisdictions, notably Nazi Germany. Reference to it or fear of it is sometimes used as a reason for not changing laws relating to voluntary euthanasia. [2] [3]