BMJ 1994;309:492-493 (20 August)

Editorials

Assisted suicide for depression: the slippery slope in action?

In June this year the Dutch supreme court convicted but declined to punish a psychiatrist, Dr Boudewijn Chabot, for assisting the suicide of a physically healthy patient who was stated by the court to have "a depressive disorder in the narrow sense."1,2 This judgment has been interpreted as "a historic ruling,"3 but outside the Netherlands it has received scant attention.4,5

Although the prosecutor general thought "that help in assistance with suicide to a patient where there is no physical suffering and who is not dying can never be justified," the supreme court rejected this contention. It explicitly accepted that euthanasia or assisted suicide might be justifiable for a patient with severe psychic suffering due to a depressive illness and in the absence of a physical disorder or a terminal condition.

The court did, however, find Chabot guilty because he had not obtained a second opinion examination of the patient by . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Assisted suicide for depression
T Helme
BMJ 1994 309: 1160. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Norwood, F., Kimsma, G., Battin, M. P (2009). Vulnerability and the 'slippery slope' at the end-of-life: a qualitative study of euthanasia, general practice and home death in The Netherlands. Fam Pract 26: 472-480 [Abstract] [Full text]  
  • Materstvedt, L. J. (2003). Euthanasia: on slippery slopes and vulnerable patients. Palliat Med 17: 650-651  
  • Williams, C. J, Pieri, L., Sims, A., Russon, L., Alison, D. (1998). Controversies in management: Does palliative care have a role in treatment of anorexia nervosa? • We should strive to keep patients alive • Palliative care does not mean giving up. BMJ 317: 195-197 [Full text]  
  • Leavitt, F. J. (1996). Educating Nurses for Their Future Role in Bioethics. Nurs Ethics 3: 39-52 [Abstract]  
  • Ryan, C. J. (1996). Euthanasia in Australia -- The Northern Territory Rights of the Terminally Ill Act. NEJM 334: 326-328 [Full text]  
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ