Suicide or attempting it is not a crime under any U.S. state statute. In 22 states & 3 U.S. territories, assisting suicide is a crime. Part 1 surveys the origin of legal sanctions against suicide assistance & current state treatment. Part 2 sets forth a framework for analyzing assisstance statutes, demonstrates their inflexibility & suggests that infrequent enforcement creates inconsistent outcomes. Part 3 proposes a more tightly drawn statutory response & presents a model statute.(KM)