Probably the most morally debated, contested and picketed against medical practice of the last two centuries – physician assisted suicide – is again under close scrutiny. The practice has been legal in the Netherlands for 6 years (since 2002). For 20 years before it was codified, there was a silent agreement that doctors who performed the suicide in specific cases were not to be prosecuted. In the United States, euthanasia has been legal in the state of Oregon for 11 years now.

The British Medical Journal has been conducting a study concerning the mental state and capacities of the patient who opt for physician-assisted suicide. The process of euthanasia implies the injection of a high, lethal dose of certain types of medication. The patient’s request is cardinal for the process to commence and in cases where the patient is unable to exercise their option (paralyzed, in a coma etc), their last medical directives or the family’s agreement lead to the beginning of the physician-assisted suicide process. The study conducted by the British Medical Journal revealed that one in four terminally ill patients who opted for euthanasia in Oregon suffered from clinical depression, and thus were unable to make a rational, informed decision. Moreover, the Death with Dignity Act gives the family of an unconscious patient too much liberty over the patient’s fate.

The study concluded that the Act does not do its best to protect mentally instable, terminally ill patients. However, depressed patients are not unable to make a decision. Opting for ending your life because of a terminal disease is always fair ground for developing depression, especially since the Act – both in Oregon and in the Netherlands – has as primary criteria the end of a patient’s hopeless and unbearable sufferings.

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