"A Peculiar Species of Felony": Suicide, Medicine, and the Law in Victorian B…

This paper examines the relationship between suicide and insanity in the eyes of both legal and medical professionals in nineteenth century Britain and Ireland. Both jurisdictions had a similar historical legacy in relation to the treatment of suicide, punishing sane suicides, those found felo de se, by ignominious burial and forfeiture. Legal changes between ¡823 and ¡882 negated the need fo…