Matthew's Journal

The understanding of some physical illnesses is good, but over the whole field of physical illness understanding is patchy, and clearly there is still a lot to learn. It seems to me that mental illness is at a much earlier stage of understanding, and that seems to me to be part of the problem.

I would argue that if someone wants to kill him or herself because the voices in the head command it, then that is probalby not a good enough justification for an organisation tasked with assisting suicide for some people to make the decision to do so in that case. At least, not unless the voices cannot be silenced by any medication, are not a temporary affliction, and are, in effect, an incurable illness that causes much suffering.