Post by Admin on Mar 13, 2023 22:10:56 GMT
Should assisted death be available for intractable mental illness?
psyche.co/ideas/should-assisted-death-be-available-for-intractable-mental-illness
Think about a person who has suffered from depression and chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for many years. She has received on-and-off treatment with variable results. She feels hopeless, has continuous negative thoughts about herself, and wants to die. What should this person do? If she lives in Belgium, a possible course of action, sanctioned by law, is to speak with her psychiatrist or therapist about dying with a doctor’s assistance. As a psychiatrist from Belgium, I have encountered cases similar to this one – not through direct involvement with assisted death, but as a therapist working with patients who sometimes raised the issue.
In most countries that allow assisted death, it is available only to those with terminal illnesses such as cancer or the motor neuron disease ALS, but in certain countries it has been extended to some people on the basis of mental illness. The Netherlands and Belgium recently marked the 20th anniversary of their assisted death laws, and in both countries people can request assisted death based on, say, chronic depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD or any other mental disorder. The Netherlands has seen a slow but steady increase in the official number of cases of assisted death for a psychiatric disorder: from 13 cases in 2011, to 60 in 2016, and 115 in 2021 – a total of 647 in the past decade.
To some, this practice might seem understandable; to others, it might seem unthinkable. Regardless of one’s intuitions, the conversation about assisted death for mental disorders is pressing. Canada is in the middle of a heated debate on this very issue. Though government officials hit the pause button on initial plans for a rollout in 2023, the country continues to debate the expansion of its current assisted death law to include mental illness starting in 2024.
‘Assisted death’ is an umbrella term that refers to both assisted suicide and euthanasia. Both involve a physician providing a lethal drug at a person’s request. In the former, a physician prescribes the drug, and the person then ingests it on their own. In the latter, the physician is present to carry out the act of ending the person’s life through an injection. Along with Belgium and the Netherlands, Luxembourg also permits assisted suicide and euthanasia based solely on a mental disorder, while Switzerland allows for assisted suicide (but not euthanasia) in such cases.
Where assisted death is legal, there are typically three key requirements for a person to be eligible. First, they must be decisionally competent and their request voluntary. Second, their suffering must be unbearable, with no prospect of improvement. And, third, their condition must be deemed ‘irremediable’, or incurable.
psyche.co/ideas/should-assisted-death-be-available-for-intractable-mental-illness
Think about a person who has suffered from depression and chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for many years. She has received on-and-off treatment with variable results. She feels hopeless, has continuous negative thoughts about herself, and wants to die. What should this person do? If she lives in Belgium, a possible course of action, sanctioned by law, is to speak with her psychiatrist or therapist about dying with a doctor’s assistance. As a psychiatrist from Belgium, I have encountered cases similar to this one – not through direct involvement with assisted death, but as a therapist working with patients who sometimes raised the issue.
In most countries that allow assisted death, it is available only to those with terminal illnesses such as cancer or the motor neuron disease ALS, but in certain countries it has been extended to some people on the basis of mental illness. The Netherlands and Belgium recently marked the 20th anniversary of their assisted death laws, and in both countries people can request assisted death based on, say, chronic depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD or any other mental disorder. The Netherlands has seen a slow but steady increase in the official number of cases of assisted death for a psychiatric disorder: from 13 cases in 2011, to 60 in 2016, and 115 in 2021 – a total of 647 in the past decade.
To some, this practice might seem understandable; to others, it might seem unthinkable. Regardless of one’s intuitions, the conversation about assisted death for mental disorders is pressing. Canada is in the middle of a heated debate on this very issue. Though government officials hit the pause button on initial plans for a rollout in 2023, the country continues to debate the expansion of its current assisted death law to include mental illness starting in 2024.
‘Assisted death’ is an umbrella term that refers to both assisted suicide and euthanasia. Both involve a physician providing a lethal drug at a person’s request. In the former, a physician prescribes the drug, and the person then ingests it on their own. In the latter, the physician is present to carry out the act of ending the person’s life through an injection. Along with Belgium and the Netherlands, Luxembourg also permits assisted suicide and euthanasia based solely on a mental disorder, while Switzerland allows for assisted suicide (but not euthanasia) in such cases.
Where assisted death is legal, there are typically three key requirements for a person to be eligible. First, they must be decisionally competent and their request voluntary. Second, their suffering must be unbearable, with no prospect of improvement. And, third, their condition must be deemed ‘irremediable’, or incurable.