Suicide of psychiatric inpatients assisted by euthanasia advocacy groups. Cases of assisted suicide?

The debate on passive and active euthanasia has met a controversial echo both in the German-speaking media and in professional publications within recent years. This discussion, however, largely excluded mentally ill patients. Also, euthanasia advocacy groups have usually distanced themselves from e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNervenarzt Vol. 70; no. 7; p. 645
Main Authors Strnad, J, Grosjean, S, Schüpbach, B, Bahro, M
Format Journal Article
LanguageGerman
Published Germany 01.07.1999
Subjects
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Borderline Personality Disorder - psychology
Depressive Disorder - psychology
Euthanasia - legislation & jurisprudence
Euthanasia, Passive - legislation & jurisprudence
Female
Humans
Informed Consent
Mentally Disabled Persons - legislation & jurisprudence
Mentally Disabled Persons - psychology
Middle Aged
Patient Advocacy - trends
Self-Help Groups - organization & administration
Suicide, Assisted - legislation & jurisprudence
Suicide, Assisted - prevention & control
Suicide, Assisted - psychology
Switzerland
Switzerland
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Summary:The debate on passive and active euthanasia has met a controversial echo both in the German-speaking media and in professional publications within recent years. This discussion, however, largely excluded mentally ill patients. Also, euthanasia advocacy groups have usually distanced themselves from euthanasia in psychiatric patients. We report here two cases from our hospital in which inpatients with affective disorders committed assisted suicide during a hospital pass. We discuss these events under the assumption that these are cases of questionable active euthanasia in mentally ill patients whose judgement was considerably compromised by their disorder.
ISSN:0028-2804