Rationality of Suicide and Physician-Assisted Suicide

Philosophy of Death and Dying
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Philosophy of Death and Dying
Evidence from suicidology and from jurisdictions that have legalized physician-assisted death present conflicting pictures of the rationality of the decision to end one’s own life. Suicidologists argue that suicidal ideation results from psychological illness such as psychosis, depression or bipolar disorder (Hartogh, 2016). In most cases, people who attempt to commit suicide do not decidedly want to be dead. Instead, their decisions to kill themselves are driven by mental problems. In this case, suicidologists claim that those who intend to commit suicide act on unsettled plan. They almost never discuss their plans with family of friends. Due to lack of planning, they use violent means that damage their bodies or cause some severe harm before dying (Hartogh, 2016). They use means like drowning, hanging self, shooting, and throwing themselves from a high building. In other words, suicidologists perceive that rational suicides occur rarely, because the competence of individuals who want to commit suicide is compromised by mental conditions.
In contrast, jurisdictions that have legalized physician-assisted suicide have a totally different picture. They perceive that euthanasia is rational because it involves an agreement between the doctor and the patient or the family of the patients. Most of these cases concern terminally ill patients. Nothing can be done to keep them live. To prevent their pain and suffering, as well as burden to the family, the patient asks the physician to help them end their lives (Hartogh, 2016). Before granting this request, the physician must determine if the patient is competent to make this decision. To be competent means that the person does not presents with the history of mental illness. If granted, the physician uses a method that results in quick and painless death of the individual. The method is usually limited to prescription of a lethal drug. They do not consider violent means to kill themselves. Such people often do not have history of mental illness.
The two arguments show that suicide and euthanasia are both ways of ending life, but differ in the sense that euthanasia is performed by a physician upon the patient’s request. This evidence cannot be reconciled. That is to say, the evidence that suicide is rational cannot be merged with the evidence that euthanasia is rational. As noted, suicide is mainly influenced by mental illness that affects an individual’s ability to make decisions. A person with mental condition such as depression can decide to end life without informing a friend or a family member. They do not deserve to die, but, due to their mental health, they chose to do so.
The state of mind of such people also makes them incompetent to make certain decisions such as physician-assisted suicide. Although physician-assisted suicide follows the patient’s autonomy, the doctor must first examine the mental condition of that person before granting the request to help them end life (Hartogh, 2016). It is because states of mental illness, particularly major depressive diso...