… “Misperceptions about mental illness lead some people to oppose extending the right to medically assisted death to people with mental illness. Many believe that psychological suffering is less onerous than physical suffering. Others maintain that mental illness impairs the rational, careful thinking required to provide informed consent. And because mental illnesses are rarely associated with imminent natural deaths, providing medical assistance in dying seems premature, and perhaps even heartless, to many. These impressions offer poor guidance in the debate.
McGill University philosopher Daniel Weinstock and others have noted that the moral case for medically assisted dying rests on two principles—respect for individual autonomy and compassion. By allowing individuals to choose the time and manner of their deaths, just as we allow people to choose how they will lead their lives, we respect a principle with a long pedigree in liberal societies. We might prefer that individuals not end their lives prematurely, but we violate their autonomy if we prevent them from doing so. It is not clear why this principle should apply any less to people with mental illness than it does to people with physical illness.
Moreover, a principle of compassion holds that where there is suffering in society, we ought to do what we can to alleviate it. But where suffering is unavoidable, unnecessary and unbearable, offering medical assistance in dying is the compassionate course of action. In its decision in Carter v. Canada, the Supreme Court highlighted what Alheli Picazo rightfully calls a “callous dilemma.” Individuals who are “grievously and irremediably ill,” and who lack medical assistance in dying, “may be condemned to a life of severe and intolerable suffering. A person facing this prospect has two options: she can take her own life prematurely, often by violent or dangerous means, or she can suffer until she dies from natural causes. The choice is cruel.”
A compassionate society will provide an alternative that dissolves the dilemma and avoids cruelty. There is no reason why compassion, like autonomy, should apply less to those with mental illness than it does to others. …”
Source: www(dot)macleans(dot)ca/society/health/should-mentally-ill-canadians-have-access-to-assisted-dying/
2 comments
I wholeheartedly agree. They allow this in Belgium and I would move there in a heartbeat if I could. There is a constant struggle to put mental health on the same footing as physical health but we are not there yet.
The argument is often “oh but mental health problems are treatable”. And that is true to a certain degree. But not for everyone. Some people get better but not everyone does. And just how many pills and therapies am I expected to try until I am allowed to stop putting myself through hell on a daily basis?
If someone in intense physical pain is allowed access to relief from suffering (no one says to that person “hey just keep suffering because new treatments are being developed every day, and hey there is some experimental trial that we can get you into—it probably won’t work and has ridiculous side effects but it might keep you alive a little longer”), then why can’t we offer the same relief to someone with mental pain?
Needless to say, agreed.
Without getting into aspects of my condition (s) which I am extremely aware, the idea of living another 30+ years is daunting given my present age of 36. It isn’t like I haven’t seeked help (CAD10,000 approximately) but I’ve concluded that help isn’t available for me because of my cognitive strengths and understanding of my condition(s).
Some people think and feel that assisted dying isn’t needed per se for the mentally ill so long as they aren’t physically disabled; they are physically able to die at their own hand as they have access to various tools and supplies needed. While I understand that school of thought, that school of thought does not take into account considerations that include potentially failed suicide, the effect on the individual(s) who find your body, and simple dying in dignity.
Unfortunately I do believe that Canada is a very long way away from adopting the appropriate legislation necessary for assisted dying being available to individuals who are mentally ill. Decades at the very least. Far longer than what my extinguished tenacity is sustainable with my options limited to that of barbaric means for an exit.