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Dutch woman, 29, granted euthanasia approval on grounds of mental suffering (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Do you really think that becoming a therapist is a good idea when you can't even read the article which lays out her hopeless situation?

Also this isn't a precedent.

Also why are you okay with assistance in dying when it comes to pain and illness but not mental illness? Because you can't see/diagnose the latter so easily?

[–] [email protected] -3 points 6 months ago (3 children)

This is definitely a nuanced discussion and every situation is different, so I'm not going to make any sweeping statements about the whole thing, but I generally see suicidality as a symptom of something else. If we can improve the "something else," the suicidality improves or even goes away in the vast majority of cases.

This is different from other Medical Assistance in Death situations because in the cases where it is implemented because of pain and illness, there is no reasonable hope of improving their outcomes. In the vast majority of mental health cases, there is a lot of hope, even if the patient does not see it (which is often. Most situations where a person expresses suicidal ideation and intention to family, friends, or therapists do not end in follow through. Having someone to talk to about those thoughts helps. Even validating their thoughts helps: "It makes sense that you feel like that, honestly." But ultimately, you want to help them get through to the next day. The vast majority of people who were in this circumstance are glad they did not follow through).

Again, the discussion is nuanced and I don't think Lemmy is the best place to facilitate this discussion, but that is more or less my take on it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

Dude... Did you still not read the article?

And do you think that it was willy billy that the state approved her request?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

but I generally see suicidality as a symptom of something else. If we can improve the "something else," the suicidality improves or even goes away in the vast majority of cases.

If it was as easy as that she would never have gotten her request approved. It is extremely rare for someone at her age to have her euthanasia request approved on account of mental issues. Hell, it is near impossible to get your request approved for this at old age, let alone when you are in your 20's or 30's. So please be careful with comments like this, as having exhausted all available treatments is a prerequisite and there are a lot of them. Mental healthcare in the Netherlands is in a fairly shitty state thanks to 20 years of budget cuts and 'let the market solve it'-policy, but it is not so shitty that we just resort to killing off troubled people.

If medical professionals would even have had the slightest feeling that there was a way remaining to get her some semblance of a normal life, she wouldn't have been eligible.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I don't think your distinction makes sense.

You're saying most mental health/suicide cases have hope, and thants probably true! But the article wasn't "every suicidal person granted euthanasia approval", it was approved for one very extreme case of mental suffering with no indication of improving. That would be like saying "most cases of pain still have hope". Yes exactly, they do, but there are rare, chronic cases where euthanasia may be a valid option, right? And just as much as suicidality is just 'a symptom of something' else, isn't pain also just a symptom of something else?

And obviously we should help suicidal people to improve their mental health, but in her case she has been struggling since childhood with no indication of improvement. So how was this "the wrong decision" for her?