Physician Suicide: Cases and Commentaries

Physician-assisted suicide and federalism.

ALS and physician-assisted suicide.

Patients with a new diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) may struggle with uncertainty about progression and the realization that they will lose key functions and how they will ultimately cope. Eventually, most lose abilities to talk, walk or transfer, swallow, and feed themselves, and are increasingly dependent on others. Thus, the diagnosis creates a complex psychodynamic and exis...

Psychiatry and physician-assisted suicide.

The psychiatric literature on physician-assisted suicide is scant and almost universally opposed to legalization. This opposition stems from the traditional perspective of suicide as a symptom of mental illness and the tendency of psychiatrists to extend their view of suicide in the medically well to the terminally ill. This article examines the basis for and validity of this opposition and mak...

Physician suicide: unnecessary losses.

On a very ordinary day in a very unremarkable year of fellowship training, one of my closest friends gave me a clue I still grieve over missing: she said that in a few days, all the secrets patients and friends had confided in her would be safe forever. I remember thinking it was a strange remark, but didn’t pursue it. That weekend, she left her clothes and wallet on a Nantucket beach and swam ...

Physician-assisted suicide.

Medical professional codes have long prohibited physician involvement in assisting a patient's suicide. However, despite ethical and legal prohibitions, calls for the liberalization of this ban have grown in recent years. The medical profession should articulate its views on the arguments for and against changes in public policy and decide whether changes are prudent. In addressing such a conte...