Feeling down? Go to the doc for assisted suicide. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5364400.stm Interesting I suppose. I support assisted suicide in a very limited number of cases, but as psychiatric illness can be every bit as debilitating and untreatable as others I suppose this can't be dismissed out of hand. Thoughts?
Re: Feeling down? Go to the doc for assisted suicide. Tell that fucking frosties kid , let the rumours become reality
Re: Feeling down? Go to the doc for assisted suicide. You say it can be every bit debilitatin and untreatable as other illness, but it effects you in a different way. If the chemical balance in your brain isn't correct, and you're not thinking clearly, surely you'd have too diminished capacity to actually authorise your own death. It's a bit different if you've got terminal cancer and decide you'd rather go now than wait a shitty four months with your life fading out of you.
You're absolutely right, the question of informed consent would be a minefield. But a load of terminally ill people are depressed anyway, hardly surprisingly, so it would be difficult to differentiate.
For assisted suicide I think it should be pre-req that your life is expected to end soon anyway. Whether it's through old age and your body's just slowly giving up, or whether it's terminal illness.
Agreed. Mental Illness is often less of an exact science than conventional illness. Admittedly there are some people who are terminally depressed but the nature of the illness means people see no future for themselves, whether they are beyond even partial recovery or not. Recent techniques, such as using art, drama and music as part of a treatment has shown positive influences on some patients. Different patients respond better to different techniques of treatment, more so than is the case in physical illness. Thus when deciding whether someone is truely 'terminally' ill it would be harder to reach a conclusive decision. If people have got a chance of recovery, however partial, they should be kept alive. As Andy says, the issue of rational consent would also be highly problematic.
