The General Assembly,

Noting that modern psychiatry has come to recognize suicidal tendencies as a common response to depression or a symptom of mental illness,

Believing that the religious or moral prohibitions of “self-murder” are not strong enough to justify the sentencing and incarceration of those who attempt and fail to commit suicide, since this punishment may only further damage the subject’s mental state,

Hereby:

1. Affirms that the act of intentionally ending one’s own life, hereby defined as “suicide”, shall not be a criminal offense or breach of law in any member-nation;

   a. Additionally, the act of attempting to commit suicide shall not be a criminal offense or breach of law in any member-nation;

   b. Member-states shall not impose taxation on suicide or attempted suicide (see cl.3);

   c. Member-states shall not withhold inheritance, tax credit or other benefits on the basis that one died specifically by suicide. However, if a member-state is an insurer it may withhold life insurance to beneficiaries if the insured died by suicide;

   d. Any ongoing punishment for breaching laws that do not comply with this resolution shall cease immediately;

2. Requests that member-states and their respective legal systems take care in distinguishing between activities of a potentially careless and/or life-threatening nature (e.g., recreational substance use, failure to use safety equipment) and specific acts that are intended by one to end one's own life;

3. Demands a state shall not respond to someone who has attempted suicide as it would respond to a criminal offender simply because they acted to end their own life;

   a. If a subject committed criminal offenses in the course of an attempted suicide, the subject could be convicted for those offenses but the actual act of attempted suicide would not be a criminal offense;

   b. If a subject's suicide attempt directly affects the health and safety of others (e.g., suicide bombing), the subject may be convicted for posing a harm to others but the actual act of attempted suicide would not be a criminal offense;

   c. If a suicidal person has not breached the law but is to be institutionalized, this institution must be a dedicated mental health facility, separate from the criminal justice system or penitentiaries;

4. Recognizes a desire to attempt suicide motivated by many of the common underlying motivations behind suicide (e.g., despair, depression, substance abuse) is a medical emergency which demands therapy and treatment;

5. Clarifies that nothing in this act shall impact whether member-nations can criminalize the forcing, assistance, aid or abetment of suicide.

General Assembly Resolution #74 “Medical Blockade Restriction” (Category: Free Trade; Strength: Strong) shall be struck out and rendered null and void.

The General Assembly,

LAUDING the intent of GAR#74 - that being, to allow medical supplies and personnel to freely pass through blockades in order to ensure that individuals are not harmed as a result of political conflict,

WHOLLY AGREEING with the assertion that "[L]ife is fundamentally more important than political or international affairs,"

YET ASTUTELY AWARE that no amount of meritorious intent can compensate for the flaws of any text,

ACKNOWLEDGING that GAR#74 stated, in relevant part:

"REQUIRES any blocking force or forces to grant vessels carrying medical supplies and personnel passage."

APPALLED that such a provision effectively negates the purpose of a blockade, in the sense that any vessel, regardless of its intended content, can be granted free passage through a blockade, so long as it contains medical supplies and personnel.

PERPLEXED by how a World Assembly Statue can be used to guide the searching of delivery vessels, and further contending that such searches are ineffective given that passage cannot be prevented as long as the vessel contains medical supplies and/or personnel, regardless of its other contents.

DESIROUS of a resolution that effectively ensures the transportation of necessities of sapient life, such as medical supplies, while simultaneously allowing nations to enforce their blockades.

Due to these enumerated reasons,

THE WORLD ASSEMBLY THEREFORE REPEALS GAR#74.