2/5/07

Death to the unfit in Switzerland..

A link to a story about how Switzerland, following Holland's lead, is contemplating allowing the active participation of doctors in ending the lives of the mentally ill.

A question or two arises.

How do we determine the capacity of a mentally ill person to make such a decision? At what point are they sane enough to request death yet mentally ill enough to provide the rationale to end their suffering? Do we treat them until we think they're sane enough to make a decision for suicide? Perhaps, since it would be hard to determine whether a person with a mental illness has the capacity to request suicide there should be a panel of doctors who determine, based on their diagnosis, which mentally ill person should live and which should be euthanized

At least we have a model for that.

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