- Feb 5, 2002
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Is it really discriminatory to stop someone with a mental illness from accessing 'assisted dying'?
Currently, several countries, such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, allow patients who are suicidal to receive death by either lethal injection (euthanasia) or a self-administered prescription for lethal medication (assisted suicide). In 2002 Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg (all three collectively known as Benelux) legalized both these practices.
Laws in those countries permitted voluntary death for patients whose physical or psychological suffering was unbearable and could not be effectively treated by means that were acceptable to them.1 A terminal condition was not a necessary criterion.
This opened the door for some patients with psychiatric illness to have suicide provided for them, rather than prevented. Now between 100 and 200 patients with psychiatric illness are euthanized upon request annually between Belgium2 and the Netherlands.3
These laws are being passed around the world, and they could profoundly change the practice of psychiatry. In concerned response to those developments, the American Psychiatric Association issued a position statement in 2016: “A psychiatrist should not prescribe or administer any intervention to a non-terminally ill person for the purpose of causing death.”4Psychiatrists traditionally have done all they could to prevent suicide. Should they really facilitate it instead? (Check out this video presentation of the
key ideas.)
Continued below.
Canada's new euthanasia law will provide, not prevent, suicide for some psychiatric patients » MercatorNet
Currently, several countries, such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, allow patients who are suicidal to receive death by either lethal injection (euthanasia) or a self-administered prescription for lethal medication (assisted suicide). In 2002 Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg (all three collectively known as Benelux) legalized both these practices.
Laws in those countries permitted voluntary death for patients whose physical or psychological suffering was unbearable and could not be effectively treated by means that were acceptable to them.1 A terminal condition was not a necessary criterion.
This opened the door for some patients with psychiatric illness to have suicide provided for them, rather than prevented. Now between 100 and 200 patients with psychiatric illness are euthanized upon request annually between Belgium2 and the Netherlands.3
These laws are being passed around the world, and they could profoundly change the practice of psychiatry. In concerned response to those developments, the American Psychiatric Association issued a position statement in 2016: “A psychiatrist should not prescribe or administer any intervention to a non-terminally ill person for the purpose of causing death.”4Psychiatrists traditionally have done all they could to prevent suicide. Should they really facilitate it instead? (Check out this video presentation of the
key ideas.)
Continued below.
Canada's new euthanasia law will provide, not prevent, suicide for some psychiatric patients » MercatorNet
