Assisted suicide is not legal in Pennsylvania. Intentionally helping or encouraging another person to end their own life is a crime under state law, and depending on what happens, it can be charged as a second-degree misdemeanor, a second-degree felony, or even criminal homicide. Pennsylvania has no medical aid-in-dying law, so the prohibition applies to doctors, family members, and everyone else without exception.
What the Statute Prohibits
Pennsylvania’s ban lives in 18 Pa.C.S. 2505, and it has two parts that work very differently.1Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 18 Pa.C.S. 2505 – Causing or Aiding Suicide
The first part covers someone who intentionally causes another person to die by suicide through force, threats, or deception. That conduct is treated as criminal homicide, the same statutory category as murder and manslaughter.
The second part covers someone who intentionally aids or encourages another person to attempt suicide. This is a standalone offense, and its grading depends entirely on the outcome. If the person actually dies by suicide or makes an attempt, the offense is a second-degree felony. If nothing happens, the same conduct is a second-degree misdemeanor. The statute makes no exception for medical professionals, close family, or terminal illness.
Criminal Penalties
The exposure falls into three tiers based on involvement and result:
- Aiding or encouraging where no suicide or attempt follows: a second-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.
- Aiding or encouraging where a suicide or attempt does follow: a second-degree felony, punishable by up to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000.
- Causing suicide through force, threats, or deception: criminal homicide, which can carry penalties up to life imprisonment depending on how the homicide is graded.1Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 18 Pa.C.S. 2505 – Causing or Aiding Suicide
The distance between the misdemeanor and the felony is dramatic. The same words or actions that produce a two-year maximum become a ten-year exposure the moment an attempt occurs. Prosecutors do not have to prove the defendant’s role was the sole cause of the attempt; contributing to it is enough.
Civil Lawsuits by the Family
Criminal charges are not the only risk. Pennsylvania’s wrongful death statute lets a decedent’s spouse, children, or parents sue anyone whose wrongful act or negligence caused the death.2General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Code 42 Pa.C.S. 8301 – Death Action The estate can also bring a survival action for claims the deceased could have brought while alive.3Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42 Pa.C.S. 8302 – Survival Action Both can be filed against the same defendant at the same time.
The proof standard in civil court is lower than in a criminal case. The family only has to show that the defendant more likely than not contributed to the death. Courts may also award punitive damages where the conduct was especially reckless. That means a person acquitted at a criminal trial, or never charged, can still lose a civil judgment.
Effect on Life Insurance and Survivor Benefits
A suicide can also cut off benefits that families expect to receive. Most life insurance policies include a suicide exclusion for the first one to two years after the policy takes effect; after that contestability period, the benefit is generally paid regardless of cause.
Social Security survivor benefits use a different rule. If the marriage lasted fewer than nine months before the death, a surviving spouse qualifies only if the death was “accidental,” and federal regulations do not treat an intentional, voluntary suicide as accidental.4Social Security Administration. How Do I Become Entitled to Widow’s or Widower’s Benefits? If the marriage lasted nine months or longer, that restriction does not apply, and survivors can still qualify.
End-of-Life Choices That Are Legal in Pennsylvania
Refusing or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment is legally distinct from assisted suicide, and Pennsylvania protects it. Declining treatment lets an illness take its course; assisted suicide requires an affirmative act to end life. A patient who wants control over the care they receive has several tools available.
An advance health care directive lets you name someone to make medical decisions if you cannot speak for yourself and lets you record which treatments you want and which you refuse. A properly executed directive is legally binding on health care providers. Without one, providers and family members can disagree about your wishes, and a court may have to step in.
A Pennsylvania Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form is different. A POLST is a physician’s medical order that turns a seriously ill patient’s preferences into instructions emergency responders and hospital staff can act on immediately. An advance directive plans for the future; a POLST applies now and follows the patient between care settings.
Hospice and palliative care are fully legal as well. Palliative care manages pain and symptoms at any stage of a serious illness. Hospice is for patients with a terminal prognosis who have chosen comfort over curative treatment. Neither hastens death.
Pending Legislation
Legislators introduced the Compassionate Aid in Dying Act in April 2025 as House Bill 1109 and Senate Bill 570. The bills would let terminally ill adults request life-ending medication under specified safeguards. As of 2026, both remain in the Judiciary Committees of their respective chambers and have not reached a floor vote. Until one of them passes and is signed into law, assisted suicide stays a crime in Pennsylvania, and a felony wherever an attempt or death results.