Harm Principle

I have learned a little bit about the Harm Principle throughout my philosophical educational journey. I always felt like the Harm Principle was a principle, because we use it “numerous practical conclusions in bioethics” as explained in the chapter of Moral Thoeries, that  needs to be further discussed within communities. One thing that has always puzzled me was the criminalization in voluntary euthanasia. Now bare with me, the only thing I have to really to reference was a Hollywood movie. I understand it doesn’t give me validation but I would love to hear your opinion as well as criticism. In the movie Me Before You (SPOILER ALERT) please don’t read ahead if you are looking forward to watching this movie (although you are pretty late


The main character suffered from a motorcycle accident and is left paralyzed from the neck down. Because of the effect this he has become more vulnerable to other illnesses and to sum it up he lives a very painful life. He has made the decision to participate in voluntary euthanasia however it is illegal here in the US, thus he has to go to a different country in order to go through this medical procedure.

My question here is: why is this illegal? The only reasoning I can think of is some kind of religious morality viewpoint: I find that this happens to be the case in many cases such as the discussion of aboration as well. Whether the fetus is considered a baby or not, whether you are using the principle of autonomy or not.