Convicted for aiding others to commit suicide from afar: "Soft Knife" Murders Should Be Responsible
Suicide victims are lured to a dead end, and the mastermind behind inciting others to commit suicide is also brought to justice. Previously, Feng from Chengdu, Sichuan posted online articles about suicide, including "Suicide Together" and "Painless Death Methods", and recommended suicide methods to multiple netizens. Ma, a patient from Jinan, Shandong, believed Feng's words and committed suicide under his guidance. In April this year, the court made a first instance judgment on the case and sentenced Feng to 5 years in prison for intentional homicide. Recently, the second instance court made a final ruling: rejecting Feng's appeal and upholding the original verdict.
Suicide victim Ma had a difficult heart to understand, but out of fear of the pain in the process of death, he gave up the idea of self isolation. If it weren't for Feng's invitation to "go together" suicide, and if it weren't for showcasing the suicide method in a vivid way, Ma might not have ended his life so easily.
From the perspective of academic consensus, assisted suicide behavior refers to the act of providing psychological support or encouragement, providing suicide tools or venues, and teaching suicide methods to individuals who have already developed suicidal intentions, in order to help them achieve suicide. Due to the fact that helping behavior is an auxiliary behavior that strengthens the determination of the suicide victim and promotes their desire to actively pursue the outcome of death, it is generally difficult to hold the helper accountable without serious consequences. The reason why this case was sentenced with actual punishment, based on the specific circumstances of the case, is not only because it resulted in serious consequences, but also because Feng's assistance in suicide was targeted at a depression patient who had previously given up suicidal thoughts. The object itself has weak control ability, which reflects the subjective malice of the offender and the serious social harm, and should be held criminally responsible.
Although Feng did not personally intervene at the scene of Ma's suicide, he must bear legal responsibility for the death of innocent people. Due to Feng's suggestive words, Ma's suicidal thoughts became even stronger. In addition, Feng also taught the other party the method of "inhaling nitrogen gas" to commit suicide, and even recommended the same city seller and confirmed whether it was installed correctly through video. Such dirty behavior, although not killing with one's own hands, still meets the constitutive requirements of murder.
Space crime is also a form of crime. For example, many people used to think that "contact" was illegal when it came to forced indecency crimes, but they overlooked that space crime is also a serious crime. Considering that the use of the internet to engage in sexual assault, online contact, and offline assault on minors accounts for 15.8% of sexual assault crimes against minors, and cases of sexual assault against minors are showing a serious trend of high frequency and high incidence, in May this year, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate jointly issued the "Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in Handling Criminal Cases of Rape and Indecent assault on Minors", which clarifies that "sexual assault in the air" will be convicted and punished as the crime of compulsory assault or child molestation. The purpose of such regulation is to prevent socially harmful behaviors from escaping legal sanctions. Similarly, for the crime of "assisting through the air" and killing with a "soft knife", one cannot escape from the legal system.
Helping others commit suicide through space is difficult for criminals to discover, collect evidence, and determine responsibility as they use online platforms to communicate with victims. However, in order for others to be unaware, unless they do nothing else, Feng "assisted" others in committing suicide from afar, leaving indelible traces on the internet. All kinds of evidence also pointed to the violator, forming a closed chain of evidence, and ultimately the "culprit" could not escape. The handling of this case has dealt a blow to those who "assisted" others in committing suicide through isolation, and also released a strong signal to govern "isolation criminal behavior", which has an undeniable warning and educational significance.
