Year: 1982 Source: Psychiatric Quarterly, v.54, no.2, (1982), p.77-84 SIEC No: 19841043

Clinicians will increasingly be confronted by patients wanting to exercise their right-to-suicide or to commit a “rational suicide”. If current trends continue, society will adopt a more tolerant stance toward these individuals than in the past. The clinical evidence concerning rational suicide is examined to provide the clinician with a basis for intervention, or nonintervention, when confronted with such a case. Evolving societal values concerning death and suicide are also discussed.