Death Wish

But it's not against the law to kill oneself.

So, how can someone who goes along with another person's suicide be convicted of manslaughter by "aiding" an act that's not a crime?

Colby Katz

Landon Armstrong

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More About

• Frank Langsner
• Final Exit Network
• Viki Thomas
• Suicide
• Mental Health

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(Prosecutors in Arkansas last year did charge a man with assisted-suicide manslaughter after he allegedly helped a pal hang himself. In that pending case, the defendant physically assisted with the hanging, which is somewhat different than just standing around and watching as someone self-asphyxiates.)

Viki and Tom Thomas say they'd never given much thought to the ins and outs of assisted suicide before Jana died.

Now, the couple say they aren't against the concept under certain circumstances, such as when someone really is dying and is in great pain and wants to speed up the inevitable.

But Jana's case, they say, feels different to them, and not just because she was family and now she's gone.

"If the Final Exit Network had gotten ahold of me, I would have called Jana and gotten right over there," Viki Thomas says. "Sure, she had problems. But she was alive, and now she's not."