The interface of the civil and criminal law of suicide at common law (1194–1845)

e, … has a capacity to beget paradox in the ethical and legal systems that attempt to house it. ay, Suicide in the Middle Ages, 2000, p153. en, God made, and all for that! verence struck me; oʹer each head ously was hung its hat, oat dripped by the ownerʹs bed, from touch: each had his berth, unds, his proper place of rest, st night tenanted on earth rch, where twelve such slept abreast, – the plain asphalte seemed best. Browning (1812–1889), ‘The Morgue’. ys, suicide is considered essentially a private act, although what constitutes suicide for epidemiological and even clinical purposes in not wholly resolved. Historically, however, at common law, the act of self-killing was a felony with significant religious and legal consequences that impacted upon the deceased person as well as upon his or her whole family. This article identifies the influence of Christian theology, legal theory, and social and medical developments upon attitudes to the felony of self-murder and its definition. It focuses upon the start of more psychologically informed attitudes manifested in landmark court judgments involving exclusion clauses in English mid-nineteenth century insurance contracts. The article illustrates that the law in respect of socially controversial matters does not necessarily develops in a linear progression, nor does it accurately reflect public sentiments. More specifically, the article describes an ongoing definitional conundrum with suicide — whether it should be designated as committed by persons of significantly impaired mental state. The authors observe that in spite of reform to the criminal law of suicide, the civil law relating to suicide has continued to be characterised by ambivalence, ambiguity and significant vestiges of counter-therapeutic moralising.