Right to die / R3
Helping a friend
A layperson gets lethal medication for a competent friend who has clearly asked to die, and is present when the friend takes it. No payment.
What we score
What happens to the helper?
Default assumptions: Unless a vignette says otherwise, the person is a 30-year-old citizen of sound mind with no criminal record, acting alone, on their own behalf and not for profit, in an ordinary residential area. Where subnational units (states, provinces, cantons, Länder) make their own law, each unit is scored and the result is weighted by population. 'The state' includes police, prosecutors, courts, regulators, tax authorities and anyone acting on their orders, including platforms obeying takedown orders.
Score anchors
Both the law score and the practice score use these anchors. Half points are used when a country sits between two of them.
| Score | What it means for this vignette |
|---|---|
| 10 | Lawful. |
| 8 | Lawful if non-profit and the person is competent (e.g. Switzerland's Art. 115). |
| 4 | Formally a crime, but prosecutors decline compassionate cases. |
| 2 | Crime: fine or under 1 year. |
| 1 | Crime: 1 to 5 years. |
| 0 | Crime: over 5 years. |
Evidence used: Criminal-code provisions on assisting suicide; prosecutor guidance; reported lay-assistance cases.
How each country scores
| Country | Law | Practice | Process | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Switzerland | 8 | 7 | −0.5 | 6.9 | A layperson who assists without selfish motives commits no offence under Art. 115. However, the usual lethal drug, sodium pentobarbital, can lawfully be obtained only on a doctor's prescription, and every assisted death is investigated as an unusual death. In the 2024 Sarco capsule case, Schaffhausen police arrested the only person present, a lay activist, and held him for over two months on homicide suspicion before reducing it to suspected incitement and assistance to suicide. |
| Germany | 5 | 6 | −0.5 | 5.1 | Being present and helping a competent friend die is not a crime. But typical lethal drugs (e.g. pentobarbital) are controlled narcotics, and obtaining or handing them over is a crime under § 29 BtMG (up to 5 years). In BGH 5 StR 474/00 a helper who brought pentobarbital to an MS patient was convicted under § 29 but received only a warning with a suspended fine. The 'reckless causing of death' offence (§ 30 BtMG) was held not to apply. |
| Czechia | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1.6 | A lay helper who obtains the drug and is present commits § 144 (assisting suicide), punishable by up to 3 years. The law has no compassionate or non-profit exception, and no published prosecutorial guidance for declining such cases. Courts can impose suspended sentences within the range. |
| Mexico | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1.6 | A layperson who obtains lethal drugs for a friend and is present 'presta auxilio' to suicide under Federal Penal Code art. 312 and its state equivalents: 1-5 years, with no exception for non-profit or compassionate motives. There is no prosecutorial guidance declining such cases. No reported recent prosecutions were found. |
| Denmark | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1.6 | Obtaining lethal medication for a friend and being present is participation in suicide under § 240 straffeloven: fine or up to 3 years. There is no compassion exception and no published prosecutor policy declining such cases. I found no case data, so df assumes the usual Danish outcome for this offence, a fine or suspended sentence. |
| United Kingdom | 0 | 4 | −1 | 1.4 | Assisting suicide is formally a crime with up to 14 years (Suicide Act 1961 s2), but DPP policy lists 'wholly motivated by compassion' and a 'voluntary, clear, settled and informed decision' as factors against prosecution. Of 209 cases referred to the CPS from April 2009 to March 2026, 131 were not proceeded with, 42 were withdrawn by police and 6 were successfully prosecuted. Helpers are still typically arrested or interviewed under caution and investigated for months, hence the process penalty. |
| United States | 1 | 2 | −0.5 | 1.1 | Lay assistance is a crime almost everywhere: a felony under Cal. Penal Code 401, and up to 15 years in Minnesota for anyone who 'assists another in taking the other's life'. Prosecutors often decline compassionate cases, but not reliably. Final Exit Network was convicted in Minnesota in 2015 and fined $30,000 for helping a 2007 suicide, and relatives and friends are periodically charged and investigated. |
| Ireland | 0 | 3 | −1 | 0.8 | Assisting suicide carries up to 14 years (Criminal Law (Suicide) Act 1993 s2(2)), and Ireland has no published DPP policy on compassionate cases. In the only prosecution under the Act, Gail O'Rorke was tried in 2015 for helping her friend Bernadette Forde, who had MS, obtain lethal medication and was acquitted by a jury after a garda investigation and years of proceedings. A lay helper therefore faces investigation and possible trial, with acquittal likely in a clearly compassionate case. |
| Netherlands | 1 | 2 | −1 | 0.6 | Art. 294(2) Sr punishes anyone who helps with a suicide or supplies the means, if the suicide follows, with up to 3 years; only doctors meeting the euthanasia act are exempt. The Hague court of appeal held on 2 December 2025 that the ban on help by family and friends is lawful. Prosecutions are actively brought: a Cooperatie Laatste Wil member was sentenced in January 2025 to a 12-month suspended term plus 240 hours of community service. Compassionate lay helpers are investigated and tried, though sentences are usually suspended. |
| New Zealand | 0 | 2 | −1 | 0.2 | Aiding or abetting suicide carries up to 14 years (Crimes Act s179), and there is no published policy against prosecuting compassionate lay helpers. Police have investigated such cases intensively: in the Susan Austen case they bugged an Exit meeting at her home; she was acquitted of aiding suicide in 2018 but convicted and fined $7,500 for importing pentobarbitone. Helpers who are prosecuted typically get a conviction with a non-custodial or short sentence. |
| Singapore | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | A layperson who obtains lethal means for a friend and is present when the friend uses them commits abetment by intentional aiding under Penal Code s306 (up to 10 years). In PP v Cher Sheue Pin Alverna [2024] SGDC 235, the accused handled the equipment her friend used and claimed she was honouring his last wishes; she was sentenced to 66 months for the s306 charge, 74 months in total with an obstruction charge. |