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Euthanasia and assisted suicide for psychiatric disorders

This chapter discusses reasons for and against euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide for patients with treatment-resistant depression or other psychiatric disorders. Although these actions may seem anathema to the goal of treating psychiatric patients in order to prevent suicide, there may be cases in which it would be permissible to bring about or assist in the death of a person with one of these disorders. The permissibility of these actions depends on four conditions. First, the patient must be competent enough to weigh the reasons for and against euthanasia and assisted suicide. Second, the patient must make an informed and persistent request for it. Third, the suffering the patient experiences from the disorder must be unbearable and interminable. Fourth, the disorder must be resistant to all indicated treatments given to the patient over many years. There must be a reasonable limit to the time a patient could be expected to wait for a possible treatment that might relieve symptoms. Any right to euthanasia or assisted suicide entails at most a permission and not an obligation for a physician to perform these actions.