Mental illness, lack of autonomy, and physician-assisted death

Résumé

In this chapter, I consider the idea that physician-assisted death might come into question in the cases of psychiatric patients who are incapable of making autonomous choices about ending their lives. I maintain that the main arguments for physician-assisted death found in recent medical ethical literature support physician-assisted death in some of those cases. After assessing several possible criticisms of what I have argued, I conclude that the idea that physician-assisted death can be acceptable in some cases of psychiatric patients who lack autonomy ought to be taken into account in assessing the moral and legal acceptability of physician-assisted death. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved) SUICIDE-ASSISTÉ AUTONOMIE PATIENT-PSYCHIATRIQUE