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Just wanted to highlight this piece from the article: "Depression and other mood disorders are widely recognized among the most important risk factors for suic

Just wanted to highlight this piece from the article: "Depression and other mood disorders are widely recognized among the most important risk factors for suicide... [Bertolote and Fleischmann (2002)] report that 98% of those who died by suicide had a diagnosable mental disorder." You can dispute the number to some extent, but thinking of suicide as a choice made in sound mind is a misrepresentation of the reality of suicide.

guerrilla 6y ago
This misses the possibbility of common cause in some or many cases. Also, mental illness can cause immense suffering and choosing to escape that can be entirely rational depending on the circumstances especially considering acccess to health care. The reaction to mental illness socially and economically should also be considered because it can make life even worse for sufferers. If escaping a life of gauranteed pain is irrational then we're going to have to disagree on our conception of rationality here.
- automatoney 6y ago
  The problem is that mental illness affects your ability to think. Most of the time, someone contemplating suicide is not making a rational choice about their future - mental illness often impairs the ability to make well thought out decisions. So sure, someone could hypothetically make the rational choice for euthanasia, but that isn't what is going on most of the time people are suicidal. I don't know what I believe about euthanasia, but I am in no way comfortable with okaying people to independently make that decision without a second opinion.
eikenberry 6y ago
I thought one of the problems with that figure was that many of those cases were diagnosed after the fact and, in many cases, based on the fact that they committed suicide.
closeparen 6y ago
A depression diagnosis may mean that your suffering is a clear defect and unreasonable given the circumstances, or it may mean that someone thought access to a therapist could help you cope better with your shitty life.

guerrilla 6y ago

This misses the possibbility of common cause in some or many cases. Also, mental illness can cause immense suffering and choosing to escape that can be entirely rational depending on the circumstances especially considering acccess to health care. The reaction to mental illness socially and economically should also be considered because it can make life even worse for sufferers. If escaping a life of gauranteed pain is irrational then we're going to have to disagree on our conception of rationality here.

automatoney 6y ago
The problem is that mental illness affects your ability to think. Most of the time, someone contemplating suicide is not making a rational choice about their future - mental illness often impairs the ability to make well thought out decisions. So sure, someone could hypothetically make the rational choice for euthanasia, but that isn't what is going on most of the time people are suicidal. I don't know what I believe about euthanasia, but I am in no way comfortable with okaying people to independently make that decision without a second opinion.

eikenberry 6y ago

I thought one of the problems with that figure was that many of those cases were diagnosed after the fact and, in many cases, based on the fact that they committed suicide.

closeparen 6y ago

A depression diagnosis may mean that your suffering is a clear defect and unreasonable given the circumstances, or it may mean that someone thought access to a therapist could help you cope better with your shitty life.