SUICIDE INDUCEMENT
The crime of inducing suicide is regulated in art. 143 of the Penal Code, which punishes anyone who induces the suicide of another. The penalty to be imposed varies according to the intervention of the perpetrator in the death of the victim:
- If you cooperate with acts necessary to the suicide of a person, penalty of 2 to 5 years imprisonment.
- If you cooperate to the point of death, imprisonment for 6 to 10 years.
An attenuated subtype is foreseen for those persons who cause or actively cooperate in the death of a person suffering from a serious, chronic and incapacitating illness or a serious and incurable disease, with constant and unbearable suffering, at the express request of the victim. In this case, the penalty to be imposed is reduced by 1 or 2 degrees.
In addition, the behavior is not criminal if it is carried out in compliance with the provisions of the Organic Law regulating euthanasia, which came into force on June 25, 2021, which allows people suffering from serious and incurable diseases or serious, chronic and disabling conditions to request the provision of assistance in dying.
Finally, the reform introduced by Organic Law 8/2021, of June 4, 2021, which came into force on June 5, 2021, has introduced a new criminal conduct. Specifically, art. 143 bis of the Penal Code punishes the dissemination through any information technology of contents that promote or incite the suicide of minors or persons with disabilities, a conduct that carries a prison sentence of 1 to 4 years.