Suicide pact

This article is about a mutual agreement to kill. For JJAMZ album, see Suicide Pact.

A suicide pact is an agreed plan between two or more individuals to commit suicide. The plan may be to die together, or separately and closely timed. Suicide pacts are important concepts in the study of suicide, and have occurred throughout history, as well as in fiction.

Suicide pacts are generally distinct from mass suicide. The latter refers to incidents in which a larger number of people kill themselves together for the same ideological reason, often within a religious, political, military or paramilitary context. Suicide pacts, in contrast, usually involve small groups of people (such as married or romantic partners, family members, friends or criminal partners) whose motivations are typically non-ideological.

A suicide pact negotiated over the internet, often between complete strangers, is an Internet suicide.

In England and Wales, suicide pact is a partial defense, under section 4 of the Homicide Act 1957, which reduces murder to manslaughter. In Northern Ireland, this defense is created by section 14 of the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1966 (c. 20) (N.I.).

See also

• Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
• Kumatarō Kido and Yagorō Tani
• Suicide prevention contract, the opposite of a suicide pact.
• "The Constitution is not a suicide pact," a recurring concept in American jurisprudence
• The Virgin Suicides

References

• "UK records first online suicide pact", The Age, September 30, 2005
• "Brad Delp: Details Emerge About His Tragic Suicide", Guitar World, April 27, 2007