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posted by [identity profile] beckyc.livejournal.com at 09:02am on 15/06/2011
Obviously (to me) it makes sense not to allow people who are mentally ill to make a decision for assisted suicide. The question is what should be done for people who are not, on the face of it, mentally ill?

Mental illness of some sorts can be invisible. Yet, if you put in place a criterion of having to prove sanity before making the decision - well - tests have shown that to be a difficult proposition.

Er, can I just ask, are you equating mental illness with insanity and irrationality here?
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posted by [identity profile] alitalf.livejournal.com at 08:10pm on 15/06/2011
No, though there is an overlap. If all the details about mental illnesses had been discovered, which I don't believe to be even nearly the case, it just might be possible to determine accurately what types of mental illness would or would not be likely to impair someone's ability to make a rational decision.

At the present level of knowledge, it is probably possible to make estimates in many cases as to whether someone is completely off with the fairies and has little perception of what most people perceive as reality, or whether the person is able to properly consider a serious decision. If the prospect of imminent and painful death causes you to be depressed, I would not expect that that would, of itself, prevent someone from making a rational and informed decision. As rational as life ever gets, anyway.
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