Year: 1995 Source: Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, v.25, no.1, (Spring 1995), p.193-204 SIEC No: 19950084

The impact that the legalization of assisted suicide & euthanasia would have on the ability to treat suicidal patients & prevent suicide is explored. Information from The Netherlands is used to illustrate how legal sanction promotes a culture that transforms suicide into assisted suicide & euthanasia & encourages patients & doctors to see choosing death as a preferred way of dealing with serious or terminal illness. A case study examines the assisted suicide of a Dutch psychiatric patient.