Comments on: Thoughts on assisted suicide for the mentally ill

By: cheenusj

cheenusj — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:01:30 +0000

Hi there Jlegend and all others,

I agree with you totally!

I think that there is not sufficient open-mindedness on the the part of the political parties (or maybe political leaders have to be politically correct for their constituency and to get re-elected) and too much to profit/money to gain from the medical (psychiatric) perspective. Hence, assisted-suicide is “disallowed” for “mentally ill”.

I have been diagnosed with “drug-induced” psychosis, i.e. smoking dope (although this had to be a common agreement with the psychiatrist, as he was not “too sure” where the problem emanated from), schizophrenia, manic depression and bi-polar disorder (although I am not so sure of what the difference is between the two). I was dispensed a ridiculous amount of “M&Ms”, as those drugs are preferable to soft drugs (which to me are GREAT, as they make me “numb” and I don’t even remember my dreams, or rather nightmares). And no solution. I have just been re-re-re-re-re-released fro psychiatric hospital, as I have “no problem” and don’t need medication. The number of suicide attempts is in the double digits and I have so many scars on my body that I have to hide them with clothes, that I still am scouring all possible sources to find a sure-fire death, without causing myself anymore more physical damage or hospitalisation (I have even e-mailed Dignitas to get info - but as far as I know they did it once for a “mentally ill” person and were legally pursued for it - and did not answer).

My answer is… Theoretically, my parents have created my body. My soul entered my body. I asked my parents why they put me on this world, and received bizarre excuses. Hence, I am responsible for being alive, because I cannot blame God for the beautiful world that we are given. My soul was sitting in hell, and when my parents conceived my body, some worker of God came by and said who wants to go to life. I jumped up and said “Me, me, me”. And, hence came to life.

What is the difference between hell and life? Hope. When you lose hope, what is the use of life?

When will a lawyer or a politician have the guts to stand up and say we have the right to die without violence or risk, as it should be assumed that we did not necessarily choose to come to life? Does anyone else out there also want to take this to the International Court of Justice and Human Rights in The Hague, Netherlands?

Cheenu

By: ergo

ergo — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:59:22 +0000

Everybody has the right to take their own life if they wish. That’s my view. (It is not the view of most religions.) My essay is about the moral dilemma of a person ASSISTING
the suicide of a person with mental illness. — Derek Humphry, author, ‘Final Exit’.

By: jlgend

jlgend — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 18:53:00 +0000

Comments for miguel and rockhawkmills, i totally understand your pain, although not diagnosed schizophrenic i knew and know there is something very wrong with my mind, i have coped with this problem for many years and have hidden it from people, i finally broke down and am now in total agony, every day the same. Nobody really believes that anything is wrong because of how i conducted my life but i am to the point that i want the end for myself. Mental disease is a death sentence and i believe most is genetic but also stem from abnormal upbringing, maybe prolonged craziness or negativity i dont know but i believe that it is worse than something that can be treated like cancer or other such diseases but again i do understand and what are ways or where are contacts to find out how to end your life. thank you

By: rockhawkmills

rockhawkmills — Tue, 29 May 2007 22:52:47 +0000

Anonymous, I really see what you’re saying. I’ve been suffering from schizophrenia for over 10 years. There’s all these people out there who assume they fully understand me. Well, they don’t! That’s why I don’t like to talk to people. Yeah, you have to be in someone’s shoes to really understand them. Schizophrenia is so complicated that it’s impossible to understand unless you’re in their shoes. I have a severe form of schizophrenia, not the mild kind that can simply be treated with some nonsense pills. Nothing works for me, not pills, not psychiatrists, not conversations, nothing period. I already know every day is going to be a bad day. Every day I want to die. I used to cry about suicide, but now I don’t have any more tears to cry about when I think about suicide. I don’t think anyone genuinely feels sorry for me. Everyone has either given up on me or think I’m a worthless, weird, subhuman piece of garbage. I feel so alone every day, it’s a painful feeling. I can breathe and walk, but mentally, I feel like I’m undergoing torture. Whatever I do, even if I try so hard, I’m going to fail in life. I know that feeling of severe schizophrenia…it’s the most horrible feeling in the world, you have to be in someone’s shoe to feel it. I wish I ended my life when my schizophrenia started, I wish my family was without me and didn’t have to see me, I know that by living life, I agree to be tortured forever every day.

By: Miguel

Miguel — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:21:54 +0000

I just want to say that I desire my assisted suicide. I am schizophrenic there is treatment but not cure. People can’t understand what this makes me suffer. My emotions are conditioned I can’t cry anymore for example. I feel like my mind it’s in a cage sometimes.
My suffering it’s incommunicable. I am forced to use psychiatric drugs and I don’t have any choice for nothing. That’s unfair and painful. I think I should die with dignity and that will not happen.

By: Ranee Kennedy

Ranee Kennedy — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 14:47:43 +0000

Mr. Humphrey’s ignorance is appalling.

“Poor mental health can be treated”. This is utter rubbish.

Millions of people suffer from severe, untreatable mental illnesses. The constantly repeated slogan that “depression is treatable” is an insult to the people who have suffered with it for decades, through every therapy, medication, and shock therapy with no relief in sight.

It is certainly treatable in SOME people, but those who have found no relief after decades must no longer be swept under the rug by this ignorant one-sided argument. It is past high time that the problem of long-term sufferers of mental illness be brought out into the open, and their right to a decent, peaceful death of their own choosing be recognized.

The chronically depressed, bipolar, borderline, and other mentally ill people are presumed competent to make decisions about their jobs, marriage, children, etc. Only when it comes to a chosen death does society start calling them “incompetent”.

Dr. Ludwig Minelli of Dignitas is leading the way in a movement which will be as important in the coming years as the Hemlock society was in the past. Let us encourage his success in continuing to fight for our rights.

DEREK HUMPHRY RESPONDS: The writer mistakes the word ‘treatable’ for ‘curable’. Treatable means the condition can be alleviated without it being cured. Medications have helped milliions of people. It seems as though the writer has not seen in my article that I do believe that EVERYBODY has the right to bring their own life to end an end if they so wish. The dilemma is whether they should get active assistance in doing so.

By: anon

anon — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 11:43:37 +0000

as far as my thoughts go i think that the law should allow a person to assist their loved ones with a suicide but would have to make them sign a letter or whatever they would have to sign proving that they have gone along with this so that the person that “helps” them is not in any fault whatsoever, but if they can live with themselves after “helping” their loved one then i guess i have nothing to say

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 07:36:37 +0000

Don’t presume to make judgments on people unless you’ve walked in their shoes. I’ve suffered from major depression all my life. I’ve watched the people I love suffer because of my illness, to the point of ruining their lives. My hands are tied because I don’t want my children to have to deal with the stigma of suicide. But I pray every minute of every day that I’ll contract a terminal disease or die of a massive heart attack. I smoke and drink to excess, hoping that will speed things along. I am a useless, parasitic, blight on humanity; a worthless lump of protoplasm roaming through life, consuming resources and providing absolutely nothing in return. I don’t even want to go to heaven or hell. I just hope I’ll evaporate into nothingness when I die.
Don’t feel sorry for this poor person who is misunderstood. I have spent the last 30 years going to counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists, taken so many prescriptions, naturopathic remedies, hormone replacements, and everything else “modern” science has to offer, and NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING has helped. It has been suggested to me that I enjoy being miserable. If that was true, why have I spent every day of almost my entire life picturing myself blowing my brains out with a gun? Maybe someday there will be help for people like me. But there isn’t now. I wish so badly that I had ended my life years ago, before I married, before children, when I really wanted to. Before “good friends” and family stepped in and convinced me that I could be helped, that it wasn’t that bad, that I just needed a pill or two. HAH! They have no idea how their well-meaning intervention has simply prolonged my agony and ruined the lives of the ones I love.
Take my advice. Keep your nose out of other people’s business.

Derek Humphry responds: In my posting I did not condemn a person’s right to suicide. What my message was about was the difficulty presented in ASSISTING a suicide. I believe that everybody has the right to end their life if it is unbearable to them.

By: Deepak Modak

Deepak Modak — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:46:58 +0000

I’m shocked and saddened by Mr. Humphry’s essay on why the mentally ill should not be given the right to end their lives in a dignified manner.

Just a few weeks ago, I read about a man, in the U.S., who suffered from schizophrenia for about two decades, and who tragically ended his life by jumping in front of a train (a gruesome death, no doubt).

Many mental illnesses such as schizophrenia are not curable; while there is no doubt that caution is required in the case of mental illnesses (as some people might get better with medication), in the case of aprolonged mental illness, assisted suicide is the best way forward.