I personally think we should avoid being too paranoid.
Serial killers already kill sans assisted suicide being legal. Think of the nurses and doctors who abuse their position. Some of the most famous serial killers exploited the tendency of
older,
prematurely born, and sick people to die, in order to cover up their murders. But those are in the minority, even if their counts are horrifically high. And assisted suicide is unlikely to make those rates jump up much. Around 5-6,000 people die by suicide each year in the U.K alone - or that's the estimate. We cannot even 100% assume that none of these "suicides" involved foul play. People potentially are already abusing the "suicide" card to kill off other people. This only allows for the murderers out there to cover their steps differently. It won't necessarily cover their steps
better or increase the number of people who attempt such things, as of all the folk with antisocial personalities, only a small portion of them will become killers and get their power-trip from killing. Understand that where cold rationale can give you an edge - being a surgeon, lawyer, or CEO -, it is not strictly necessary for a person who gets off on the power to kill someone. There is power, after all in being a politician, lawyer, CEO, or even surgeon. Assisted suicide is unlikely to increase the proportion of people with ASPD who choose murder over more legal alternatives that are more sure to keep them out of prison.
Also, I think you're failing to understand how assisted suicide works in places where it is legal. It demands that the assistance in the suicide of another person
isn't selfishly motivated. This renders serial killers attempting to mask their murders as assisting suicide as illegal. Not to mention, if they were to perform it on high numbers of people, it'd get suspicious. If suicide rates jumped too high, it would no doubt be suspicious.
It's also very unlikely to be legalised in many countries. I mean, there are still over twenty countries completely against abortion in all
circumstances. UK and US are also both vehemently against suicide in general, and heck, I'd say they're not even that accepting of abortion.
And yet, you can already pull the plug on someone in a vegetative state... we're hardly that far from legalized assisted suicide. This is still ending a life. But it's not the same thing, admittedly, as killing off a person who has reasonably good enough brain function, even if their brain has suffered some or even extensive damage. I guess as long as they can communicate, they're not allowed to die, but if they can't, well, screw that, we don't care. Oh, and, you believe that an entire group of doctors could come together to plot the diabolical snuffing out of life pretending it's assisted suicide, I'm surprised you're not questioning whether or not doctors who insist a person is a vegetable are also not pretending so they can pull the plug on someone without it being deemed illegal.
Assisted dying tends to be merciful. If someone suspects something is wrong, and an autopsy reveals that the killing was somehow done more sadistically than it is meant to in such cases - chemicals and wounds (
gun shot or otherwise) will leave a mark, generally - that person will be more likely to be caught eventually than get away with it forever.
Not just anyone would be able to perform this "assisted dying", as it is known in Switzerland (euthanasia is illegal). It would often take a doctor, possibly a
team of medical folk, a couple of consultants, signatures or video evidence, and it would take time - and also cost something if you need to travel to get where it's offered. It'd be a lot of effort for a murderer to get the right tools, and right documents and be able to stage things perfectly. I would assume that's one of the reasons why more murderers don't attempt to conceal their killings as a suicide. (Even out of those who kill more coldly and "rationally".) Plus, as Rain and Sadness mentioned, you're not gonna make much money from assisting suicide, if that's what you are after. Someone's account suddenly gets drained of money before/after their death, that'll probably get treated as suspicious.
Could it happen? Absolutely. There are many ways to conceal a murder.
Would it happen? In a minority of cases, the longer it goes on, probably. That's the risk with just about everything. And it's about as impactful as wearing a short skirt, walking outside in the night, or talking to strangers in terms of how much it ups your chances. Murderers will murder, regardless of what methods are or aren't available to them. In most cases, that'll still be a way for suicidal folk to die with dignity, on their own terms without having to hide it.
When we legalize anything, there is always the risk of someone abusing the system. Keep guns legal, someone will shoot up a school. Make them illegal, they'll use a knife and go on a stabbing spree instead. Legalise drugs with potential medicinal properties, someone's gonna abuse it, but someone else might find a useful treatment in it they wouldn't have gotten elsewhere. Does this mean I'm pro or anti any of these things? Not necessarily, I just want to point out that it doesn't create that much of a dent. I'm more than happy that where I live guns aren't legal. At the same time, if an asshole wants to commit a crime, the materials available and the laws put in place won't matter much.
But that's just my admittedly quite convoluted and in places probably contradictory thoughts on this.
