Are Wishes to Implement a “Rational Suicide” Usually Justified and Usually Rational? (IN: Clergy Response to Suicidal Persons and Their Family Members, edited by D C Clark)

The author of this chapter believes the debate about “rational suicide” & physician-assisted suicide is consistently & dangerously oversimplified. He discusses 10 points that should be included in any thoughtful & informed discussion about the subject. He concludes by noting that the wish to end life by killing oneself is almost always a serious symptom arising from a temporary psychiatric illness & that the complexity of depressive illnesses often makes it difficult to recognize the problem.