Withdrawn or introspective criminal law ?
In 1892, when the first Canadian Criminal Code was created, attempting suicide was a crime. It remained one until 1972, when it was decriminalized and the link between suicide and mental health and changes in social response toward suicide attempts were somewhat “officialised”. This article shows, however, that suicide attempts were not initially dealt with only through criminal law, to be handled next solely through a medical framework. At the beginning of the 20th century, the idea of suicide as a crime co-existed with the idea that it should be dealt with by psychiatry. Analysis of 163 complaints of attempted suicide in Montreal between 1908 and 1919 shows that it was not always easy to determine which approach would be followed – a verdict of mental illness or placing an individual with suicidal tendencies in a medical institution did not necessarily mean that the case would not lead to criminal prosecution. Reshaping, even a partial recreation, of this type of right was necessary to change the way suicide attempts were treated.