Depression a Major Factor in Requests for Euthanasia

Bioedge, which is a great weekly on-line newsletter that summarizes major news stories, professional journal articles, and other reports in bioethics and biotechnology (see link), has reported on a study that finds depression to be a key factor in requests for euthanasia in the Netherlands. The report, which I am striving to obtain, was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. According to Bioedge, “Dutch doctors have found that few patients who ask for euthanasia are making a rational request for a good death,” but rather, “researchers say that contrary to their own clinical experience and their initial hypothesis, depressed patients were four times more likely to request euthanasia and half of all requests were made by depressed patients.”

This makes sense. And hence, the proper and truly compassionate answer to such requests is suicide prevention and treatment for depression, not death facilitation. Unfortunately, such reports will not dim the zeal for “assisted dying” among the death with dignity crowd.