Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Humanities, Shahed University, Iran, Tehran
2
Master of Islamic Studies, University of Qom
10.22091/dclic.2025.13287.1094
Abstract
Although suicide has not been criminalized in the Islamic Penal Code, the seriousness of the behavior has forced the Iranian legislator to criminalize assistance in suicide for the first time in the Computer Crimes Law, not as an accessory to a crime, but as an independent criminal offense. In the same vein, with the advancement of supportive victimology and attention to the category of "potential victims", the legislator has once again considered this behavior punishable in the real space beyond cyberspace or, in other words, computer, telecommunication systems, and data carriers, in the Law on the Protection of Children and Adolescents. The importance of this issue is also clear in the Afghan Penal Code; where the Afghan legislator, as a general rule, and without distinguishing between the real and virtual space on the one hand; and children and adolescents of other age groups on the other hand, has anticipated graduated punishments according to the degree of harm caused to the person being assisted.
For this reason, the present article, relying on the descriptive-analytical method, seeks to compare the similarities and differences between these laws by comparing the criminalization of assisted suicide in the Iranian criminal laws and the Afghan penal code; and in the event of legislative errors, to present corrective suggestions; suggestions such as criminalizing assisted suicide of young people and older people in the real space in the Iranian criminal laws, which currently lack a criminal title.
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