What does it mean to make suicide illegal, anyway? You can’t punish the perpetrator, they’re dead. You can punish their relatives by e.g. taking away their inheritance, but someone who plans their suicide in advance can circumvent that by transferring ownership of the important things before killing themselves.
Punish attempts. Punish in ways that are avoidable (e.g. inheritance) but work for insufficiently planned suicides. If there’s a state religion, predict punishment in the afterlife. Punish relatives directly (North Korea does that).
Is there good data on whether this is effective as deterrence? I don’t expect it could be effective as punishment: I would expect it to increase despair and poverty, and so to increase chances of recurrent attempts.
What does it mean to make suicide illegal, anyway? You can’t punish the perpetrator, they’re dead. You can punish their relatives by e.g. taking away their inheritance, but someone who plans their suicide in advance can circumvent that by transferring ownership of the important things before killing themselves.
Punish attempts. Punish in ways that are avoidable (e.g. inheritance) but work for insufficiently planned suicides. If there’s a state religion, predict punishment in the afterlife. Punish relatives directly (North Korea does that).
It means that you prosecute failed suicides as crimes.
Is there good data on whether this is effective as deterrence? I don’t expect it could be effective as punishment: I would expect it to increase despair and poverty, and so to increase chances of recurrent attempts.