“Felo de se” was a Latin phrase used to describe suicide as a crime against oneself. In some historical legal systems, the government would forfeit the property of those ruled as felo de se. Today, suicide is not criminalized in most countries, but assisted suicide is illegal in many.
The Latin phrase “felo de se” translates as “criminal of himself” and was once used to refer to someone who had committed suicide. Suicide was considered a crime under the legal system in some countries, and therefore someone who committed suicide was committing a crime against himself. This term is no longer in common use in the legal community today, although people can sometimes locate it in archaic texts, including works of fiction in which a felo de se is a plot point.
In some historical legal systems, if someone was ruled as a felo de se in an inquest after death, their property was forfeited by the government. For the government, this could work quite advantageously in the case of wealthy people who have committed suicide. For family members of people who committed suicide, of course, this punishment has had the opposite effect and could lead to a family becoming destitute. Indeed, it could be argued that it was the felo de se’s family member, not the actual criminal, who was punished for the suicide.
Forfeiture of property was not the only punishment for suicide. The deceased could also be refused burial in consecrated ground, especially if at the time of death he was deemed sane. Sometimes a felo de se was buried at a crossroads due to superstition and some other superstitious traditions were also observed in various cultures at the burial of someone who had committed suicide. In other cases, if family members could prove that someone was not sane and committed suicide out of anguish or despair, the deceased might be buried in consecrated ground.
Some more progressive lawmakers eventually ruled that forfeiture of the property of someone posthumously convicted of being a felo de se only punished surviving family members and did not necessarily serve as a deterrent to suicide. As a result, it was determined that the property could be passed on to surviving family members.
Today the criminalization of suicide is rare. Most countries provide measures to intervene in suicide attempts with the goal of preventing suicide, but someone who attempts or completes a suicide is not considered a felo de se. However, assisted suicide is illegal in many countries because there are concerns about differentiating between assisted suicide and homicide. In regions where assisted suicide is not criminalized, people usually have to carefully document the process, including meticulous documentation of the deceased’s wishes.
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