system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:Why is suicide/ assisted suicide illegal?

Why is it that someone terminal, or even just in immense pain cannot ask to end their life with ease? What is the justification behind not allowing it?
gpt
In almost everywhere in the US (if not everywhere), suicide/attempted suicide is not illegal. Obviously you can be detained and then committed to an institution but it's not because its illegal but it's under some other law that authorizes such actions if there is a reasonable belief someone is a danger to themselves or others. Granted a lot of the repercussions of this are similar to being arrested for illegal acts, being detained, held against your will in a facility, losing some rights etc., but there's also some differences such as not having a criminal record.

Assisted suicide is illegal though, and that's partially because the state doesn't want to be involved in trying to determine if someone is guilty of murder or if they were just assisting suicide, and the other part being it's stance against suicide anyhow.

Even in states that have death with dignity acts, they're not exactly assisted suicide. The terminally ill patients meet with multiple doctors over a period of time and the doctor will give the patient a drug that they take on their own, so the doctor isn't directly involved with the death.