Does the modern world still stand for suicide prevention? Unfortunately, the answer is maybe not.

[Mosby]

Does contemporary civilization still consider suicide an avoidable tragedy? Do our institutions still unequivocally follow this compassionate proposition: Society must help people who are suffering from mental illness and prevent them from taking their own lives?

These questions may seem not only grim but also absurd. Sept. 10 was World Suicide Prevention Day. President Biden’s proposed budget for fiscal 2022 seeks $180 million for suicide prevention, an increase of $78 million over fiscal 2021. On July 16 of next year, those experiencing a suicidal crisis will be able to get help by dialing a federally mandated three-digit phone number, 988.

And yet developments in the country immediately to our north suggest that the norm is indeed weakening.

Last spring, on March 17, Canada passed a law establishing an expert panel to study the extension of euthanasia — the intentional administration of a lethal dose of medication, by a physician — to people who seek it solely to relieve what they say is intolerable suffering due to mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

The 12-person panel, whose members were officially named in August, has until next March to recommend “protocols, guidance and safeguards to apply to [patients’] requests for medical assistance in dying," which will begin in March 2023 (barring the theoretical but unlikely possibility Parliament reconsiders).

The panel’s task, according to the law, is to ensure that “practitioners are equipped to assess these requests in a safe and compassionate way based on rigorous clinical standards and safeguards that are applied consistently across the country.”

Less than a decade ago the Canadian Parliament passed a law establishing a “federal framework for suicide prevention,” on the grounds that suicide caused by mental illness was a major public health issue — preventing it was "everyone’s responsibility.” Now it has reframed suicide as at least potentially a manifestation of individual autonomy, which doctors might not only respect but facilitate.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/16/canada-euthanasia-assisted-suicide-prevention/

[CrispyQ]

1. Our country will never consider compassionate euthanasia.

The self-righteous right will declare that it's because humans don't have the right to play God, but the real reason is that we want to wring every last dime out of you before you go.

[spooky3]

2. It's already legal in Oregon and DC, and maybe elsewhere. Nt

[CrispyQ]

4. I stand corrected.

I used to say pot would never be legal, too.

[spooky3]

5. :-) sometimes it's good to be wrong!

[captain queeg]

3. There are many good reasons why someone might want to end their life

I don’t think I’ve ever seen it used for mental illness but I haven’t been exposed to severe mental illness and I could see that the ideas should be researched. But we ought to have a consistent policy. I think society will need to make some adjustments around many end of life issues. In the US at least it’s common to try to keep someone alive at any cost. I’ve heard it’s different in other countries. I just don’t see how when can spend so much effort and expense to keep someone going for a few months, the money would be better spent on youngsters. The aging population is really going strain on medical resources.

I’ve thought about quite a bit lately. My brother lived in a state where you couldn’t get any help from a doctor to end your life, though he’d certainly been a good candidate. I’m now visiting a friend who has used a doctor to get “death with dignity” drugs. He recently acquired the prescription and I think he’ll end up using it soon. There are many factors they look at, and a waiting time before approved. I’ve read only about 20% of the drugs are actually used and I can see where having them would alleviate some fear for people in some situations.

[appalachiablue]

6. Tragic story of a man with terminal illness in Colo.

where assisted dying is legal, and his doctor agreed to his wishes to end the suffering. But the Christian hospital with Catholic rules where he received treatment considers assisted dying 'evil,' has barred state law and fired his physician. I don't know how this man's story turned out but will look into it.
____
- 'Terminally ill, he wanted an assisted death – but his hospital was Catholic,' The Guardian, Jan. 28, *2020.

- Patients in 8 states can now legally obtain lethal drugs to end their lives but face obstacles enacting their wishes as Catholic hospitals expand -

The telephone call from the pharmacist came when Neil Mahoney could still stagger from his bed to the porch of his mobile home to let his boisterous labrador out. Mahoney, a once-rugged outdoorsman, now reduced to gaunt bones and a swollen belly riddled with incurable cancer, sighed with relief when he went back inside and heard the message. Your prescription is ready, it said.

The call came in late September last year, and after the 64-year-old had faced months of obstacles he finally had access to lethal drugs under Colorado’s 2016 End of Life Options Act. The state is one of a growing number in the US that allow terminally ill patients to obtain medications to end their own lives.

> Even as an increasing number of US states have legalized assisted dying laws, exercising that option is challenging for patients in a country where many large hospital systems have deep religious ties. About one in 6 hospital patients are now cared for at a Catholic hospital, according to the Catholic Health Association.

Centura Health Corp, the Christian-run hospital where Mahoney sought treatment for his cancer, regards assisted dying as “intrinsically evil”, citing the firm’s governing rules, the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. The hospital has barred its physicians from following the state law. In August, it fired his physician, Dr Barbara Morris, for consulting with Mahoney with the aim of carrying out his wishes...

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jan/28/catholic-hospitals-lead-fight-against-access-drugs-assisted-dying

[captain queeg]

7. Well that sucks. My friend is still at home so I guess that makes it easier

My brother died of ALS earlier this year. But from what I’ve heard even if he lived here where we have the death with dignity law he couldn’t have used it. Nothing worked from the neck down and the patient has to take the pills themselves. He would have had to do it a year or two earlier when he still had some function. I scares me that I could end up like that and just forced to exist for a long time.

[appalachiablue]

8. That's really sad about your brother, and the situation

you describe about being unable to take the drugs on your own is a tragic reality for some and certainly frightening.

In reading about death w dignity a few years ago, esp. in Oregon I don't recall so many issues and obstacles. The impression I got was that it was more accessible, common and facilitated by caring, cooperating physicians very engaged with the patient throughout the process.

And I remember interviews with the doctor for the Colorado man with terminal cancer (above). She was well regarded, first rate and helping him with his wishes until the hospital intervened, stopped the process and fired her.

[captain queeg]

9. It's a legal requirement in some states. Probably hospitals affiliated with religions

I think things will change. I certainly hope so. Especially that thing about the person having to be able to take the meds without assistance. Just found out my friend took the dwd meds on thanksgiving. Wasn’t really surprised, he hadn’t been answering texts. I’m going to post a new thread about it, seemed to be a lot of interest.