Assistance in Suicide in Iranian and Afghan Criminal Law

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 from the Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, University of Qom, Iran, Qom

10.22091/dclic.2025.13287.1094

Abstract

Although suicide has not been changed from tabooing into criminalization in the Islamic Penal Code, but the seriousness of the aforementioned behavior has forced the Iranian legislator to criminalize assistance in suicide for the first time in the Computer Crimes Act, not as an accessariness, but as an independent criminal title. In this regard, with the advancement of protective 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 Protection of Children and Adolescents Act. 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 cyberspace 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. Accordingly, the present article, relying on the descriptive-analytical method, by comparing the criminalization of assistance in suicide in the Iranian criminal laws and the Afghan penal code, seeks to compare the similarities and differences between these laws, and in the event of legislative errors, to present corrective suggestions, such as criminalizing assistance in 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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References

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Criminal Law Doctrines of Islamic Countries
Volume 3, Issue 1 - Serial Number 9
Spring 2026
March 2026
Pages 123-146

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