Convicted Montana rapist charged with aiding or soliciting suicide.

By Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Montana Billings Gazette reported on September 18 that a convicted rapist from Roundup Montana was charged with aiding or soliciting suicide. This is an important story since the assisted suicide lobby claims that assisted suicide is legal in Montana.

This is a very disturbing story.

The Billings Gazette reported:

A Roundup man in Montana State Prison for having sex with an underage girl is facing a new charge alleging he pressured the girl to kill herself during a live video chat in September 2013. 

Last week, the Musselshell County Attorney’s Office charged Michael John Morlan, 21, with aiding or soliciting suicide, and two other felonies — intimidation and tampering with witnesses and informants. 

...Charging documents say Morlan contacted the girl, who is now 16 years old, via Skype, an online video-chatting service, on Sept. 1, 2013, and told her to kill herself while he watched.

To summarize the story, Morlan, who was convicted of rape, contacted the underage girl he raped from the Montana State Prison, by Skype, to pressure and encourage her to kill herself.

The creep allegedly aided, encouraged and counseled the girl to commit suicide.


This will be a precedent setting case for two reasons.

1. The assisted suicide lobby claims that the Montana Supreme Court Baxter decision legalized assisted suicide.
2. The Minnesota Supreme Court, in March 2014, upheld the assisted suicide laws while also deciding that "advising" and "encouraging" suicide were protected by "free speech." In his re-trial, former Minnesota nurse, William Melchert-Dinkel was convicted of assisting a suicide.

Assisted suicide laws are protective in nature. This is another case that proves that assisted suicide must remain prohibited.