Should Depressed People Be Helped To Kill Themselves?

A 24-year-old Belgian woman who suffers from depression and has had a "death wish" since childhood has been granted the right to die — even though she's not terminally ill.

Doctors gave the young woman, identified only as Laura, the go-ahead to be euthanized by lethal injection after she spent her life battling suicidal thoughts, she told Belgian newspaper De Morgen.

"Life, that's not for me," she said. "Death feels to me not as a choice. If I had a choice, I would choose a bearable life, but I have done everything and that was unsuccessful."

Laura, who entered a psychiatric institution when she was 21, said her alcohol father and troubled childhood contributed to her longtime "death wish."

"I played all my life with these thoughts of suicide, I have also done a few attempts," she said. "But then there is someone who needs me, and I don't want to hurt anyone. That has always stopped me."

Laura is now planning her funeral and final words to loved ones, De Morgen reported. - full article

What's your stance on this?

P.S. I for one don't see myself voting in favor of such permission to lawfully exist under any circumstance, and not just a psychological one.

I have nothing against assisted death or whatever the right name for it is... But I see it as a last instance. I don't want to believe that someone has since their childhood has just given up on life.

What in the ****, lol.

if she was that eager to end her life since her childhood she would've already found a way to do so. i don't think it is a justified case of euthanasia. don't give assisted death a bad name.

This is something I could never vote on. Sure it's your right but is it the right thing to vote on this permission? Life is more value.

"I don't want to touch that one with a forty foot pole."

No, they shouldn't. Depression can be debilitating and should be taken extremely seriously but it can be treated with the right combo of therapy and medication.

However, terminally ill people in unbearable pain should be given the option to have someone help them end their lives.

If someone actually wants to die in the US, it should not be too hard for them to get a gun for a painless way out. So I don't see this as important in the US.

There are also other methods that are generally pretty simple - carbon monoxide, drug overdose, etc.

Not everyone's life is worth living

Sure if all avenues that can help them has been visited and they still fail to see any reasons to continue living. Best for it to be peaceful for them than chance them ruining someone else day by involving other people in their suicide (Walking in front of buses, trains, or cars. Or going home, killing their entire family before turning the gun on themselves. Things like that)...

I believe in bodily sovereignty.

If it's chronic and has lasted for years, maybe.

But now that we have meds to control that and therapy to overcome depression, I don't see it needed.

Oh, man, there is a lot of stuff wrong with this thread...

This. Clinical depression is treatable. Like someone else said, if she really wanted to commit suicide, she would have done it by now.

The thing is, it's not that easy. A hell of a lot of suicide attempts either fail or end up being extremely painful. One could argue that in many cases it'd be more humane to administer a lethal injection in a controlled setting, rather than let someone shoot himself in the head and then survive with massive brain damage and a disfigured face. Also, people taking this into their own hands can put innocent bystanders at risk. For example, people also commit suicide by doing things such as jumping off of tall buildings. For obvious reasons, we clearly don't want 100+ pound bags of meat and bones getting dropped off of tall buildings.

So, did this woman's treatment not work, or did the doctors just completely forget that such treatment exists?

She should win herself the right to free meditation therapy or transcendental meditation maybe, certainly not death. Something just doesn't seem right here.

WTF

But, then, if such a thing is permissible by law - there will be some people who kill themselves just due a bad 'phase' in life.

In Belgium, euthanasia is legal for people suffering with severe and incurable distress, that includes any psychological problems. I don't understand why people feel the need to put their opinions on the wishes of others. Maybe she has tried all other alternatives? It isn't an easy decision but I understand how awful depression can be.

Gunshots are not painless and even shooting yourself in the head is not guaranteed to kill you.

If she truly wanted to wanted to die it's not hard to go down to the hardware store and get some rope. Regardless of her wishes to die she may still have family that loves her. Given the amount of pain and suffering it would cause her loved ones I'm against the decision. It may be her right to die but she has no right to inflict harm and suffering onto her family. My father shot himself and I saw what it did to my grandparents. Suicide is not fair to the ones you leave behind.

I'm all for assisted suicide if the person is terminally ill. I have paranoid schizophrenia and I've been through more suffering then most have in 10 lifetimes. Theres been a few times I wanted to die than to go on with this illness. I could never bring myself to do it because I don't want to put my mother through what my dad put his parents through.

Thanks but I'm not I hate him for it.

But see, that seems REALLY fucking ass-backwards to me. You've suffered enough for 10 lifetimes and yet you still have to suffer for decades more just to avoid making other people sad? **** that.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for exhausting all other options before death. But if all treatment fails, I tend to side with the person who's suffering. As long as they don't have dependants (kids, invalid grandparents, etc), let them die. Sure, family and friends might be sad, but they weren't the fucking ones directly suffering from whatever physical/mental illness. If I've suffered enough for 10 lifetimes, sure people will be sad when I'm gone. But everyone loses loved ones, and people get over it.

Anyway, you're correct. Sure I could just buy some rope and hang myself in the backyard for my friends and family to find. Somehow, I think that'd actually be MORE of a dick move than going through an etended process towards killing myself, thus letting my friends and family gain closure with me before I die and avoiding a situation in which tghey're having a normal day and then find me dead or dying.

Give suicide as an option to people and give every teenager a ticket to end his life without struggling. I won't concede for it.

I've seen what suicide does to the people closest to you. It's quite selfish to hurt the ones that love you just because you don't want to live. My official diagnoses it paranoid schizoeffective which is bipolar and schizophrenia. I've dealt with it for the past 15 years. Having hallucinations and delusions and not knowing what is real and what is not. It's like having a nightmare where you feel all of the fear and dread while awake. Totally paranoid thinking everyone is out to get you. It's a horrible existence. I can't work I live off of the pennies that the government throws at me. I have no friends no social life. I haven't had a girlfriend since I came down with this illness at 19. I have no future. The only thing I find happiness in is video games. My life totally sucks and there are times I go to bed and hope I don't wake up. But with every new day I search for happiness. Someway somehow to make life life just a little more bearable. But after having witnessed what my dad did to his family there no way would I want to inflict that on my mom.

No, if anything they should get counseling and medication

I don't support euthanasia no. You don't cure an ailment with the ultimate ailment. As @VaguelyTagged already mentioned, if she really wanted to end her life that long ago she'd have done it already. It's not hard to kill yourself as they're numerous ways of doing that and none requires "assistance".

I honestly think it's more of a cry for help, especially considering what she is quoted saying in that article. She's capable of taking her own life without the help of a euthanasia clinic, so if she really wanted to she could've killed herself by now. The same cannot be said for many terminally sick people who live in excruciating pain and are physically unable to take their own life.

Not as a first resort, no...but if everything else was tried and failed I don't see why not. We shouldn't force people to live...yes, their suicide will hurt their families but do families really want a family member suffering for life just so they can feel better? Besides, if nobody helps them a train will and that affects a lot more people. Even for the family in question it's nicer to see a loved one go peacefully than in pieces and ending up on the news.
And then of course, there's the failed suicide attempts like that guy a few years back in Portugal who jumped in front of a train, the train hit his arms and legs so they saved the guy but not the limbs...wonderful improvement of his life situation.

Yes, they should have that option available to them. Suffered from life long depression myself - from the abuse of my childhood, from being female within a male body and forced to be male for the vast majority of my life and being repressed because of society's obsession with genitals while dismissing the actual person within the body - and tried to end my life many times and always failed, the only thing I'm living for these days is my transition and if I'm forced to de-transition then I would rather be able to end my life before the depression overwhelms me again.

No one should be forced to live a life that has nothing to live for, they shouldn't be forced to suffer because of people's demands that we all live just to suit themselves. Forcing someone to live when it's painful with no joy at all is cruel, it's like a slow painful death that's being dragged on by people who think they're being well meaning but are really just doing it for themselves and not thinking of your own personal feelings on the matter.
Better to die when you're ready to die than to be forced to live when you have no reason to live in the first place and don't see a future for yourself.

Maybe give them medication to prevent depression from being a huge problem.

Now you're getting in subjectivity.

Going with this.

I'm really sorry to hear of your situation jdc, my sympathies.

I can relate. While I'm not Schizophrenic, I'm diagnosed bipolar II and am also a cancer survivor since 20, now 37, of which I'm still fighting. About two years ago, in one of the roughest of periods when I was enveloped in some of the most intense suffering my diagnosis and treatment had to offer when it seemed like there was no escape, my mother came out to me and said in tears, "While your father and I would never wish it, we would understand if you committed suicide. Just don't disappear without saying goodbye". Close to verbatim. Not making that up, parents actually said that to me which I think is pretty fucked up honestly, but I've come to terms with why they would say it.

But it brought a realization to light: those who would really suffer from one's suicide suffer just as much alongside them while they're alive. My parents were also in torment from seeing a child endure some pretty unpleasant shit, so much so that they basically advocated my death in mercy. So it's no different to me: suffering in life is suffering in death, but it's suffering all the same. Hell, at some point if this disease becomes too much I still may put that barrel to my temple while stepping off a bridge. But before doing so, I can't help but think those who believe they have the right to hold me in judgement for such a choice to release myself from chronic misery when they didn't raise a finger of caring or suffered with me when it was ongoing can fucking shove it (not directed at you, just in general). Anyone who cares enough to be grieved by my death, is grieved by my life.

With that said, I do agree with you. I'll not end it either because I'll suffer to the ends of the Earth to spare my parents such an ordeal. I almost feel indebted to continually suffer in repayment of the caring I've received. But I find it highly ironic that while they would certainly be the ones most devastated by my end, they are also the ones that would understand it the most and wouldn't hold me in judgement for it.

I definitely don't mind. It's a fair question. The distinction for me is that the terminal illness doesn't have a reasonable hope of being treated. But I agree with you that the issue is ultimately more complicated than that. That's not to downplay emotional pain but it just seems wrong to let someone with depression off themselves when helping them feel better might be a matter of getting them good medication and therapy. So maybe terminal illness versus non-terminal illness is not the right distinction. Maybe depression specifically should be looked at in a different light rather than the admittedly overly general category of pain not associated with a terminal illness.

Might be the case.

As to your question, as cliche as this might sound, it seems it would really need need to be looked at on a case by case basis, which could potentially be legally messy but probably necessary. I think that people in unbearable pain should be given the option to responsibly end their life, but it's also important to exhaust all options, which is kind of what I was getting at. Frankly, I think foxhound's "bodily sovereignty and that's it" ideology is shortsighted.

People are going to kill themselves anyway with or without assistance. I think doing it in a controlled setting and talking it out with your loved ones first softens the blow, albeit a little, and is better than doing it in silence. A lot of the times those who are depressed don't tell anyone and I feel this will make them have to tell someone - if their loved ones know about their problems then they can potentially talk them into seeking another alternative.

I think some in this thread are either confused or purposely twisting what the main issue here is:

"Laura, who entered a psychiatric institution when she was 21, said her alcohol father and troubled childhood contributed to her longtime "death wish."

She has been getting psychiatric help. People aren't saying, "hey, if you got suicidal thoughts then just go here and kill yourself". Of COURSE the first line of help would be psychiatric/psychological treatment including drugs and so forth.

Don't be intellectually dishonest.

But if after treatment/s (and the time and effort that that entails) the person still feels that ending his/her life is the course of action then: should these individuals be "helped" to end their lives with the sanctioning of the state?

Sorry about your buddy. I agree that you story does show that "exhaust all options" might be too strong a position.

No worries. I didn't think you were being confrontational. Your questions are fair and it helps to question one's stances on issues like this.

WTF!? Now we're letting people kill themselves because they're depressed? NO just NO! i'm not in support of anyone killing themselves when they can in fact live a happy life.

I'm not even in support of killing of terminally ill people if they can live their remaining life happily.

But in the end why the hell does it even matter? if people want to kill themselves they will.. no law can really stop it.