Psychologist Takes Suicidal Person to Switzerland for Assisted Suicide

A Canadian psychologist has been reported for unprofessional conduct for taking a friend to Switzerland for an assisted suicide. The friend was not a patient. Full disclosure: I know about this case because the complaining party asked me to write an opinion letter about the goals of the assisted suicide movement and the participation by a mental health professional—either as a doctor or a “friend”—in someone’s suicide.

I will post the contents of some of that letter once this matter has been heard. But for now, let me say that a shrink taking a suicidal person, whether or not a patient, to a Kevorkian-like setting is the epitome of abandonment and unprofessionalism.

Note that the suicidal person was not dying and that the reporter calls the trip a “mission of mercy,” demonstrating the typical bias of most journalists on this issue.