ABSTRACT
In this short article, the authors describe their attempt to do suicide-prevention with a patient that ultimately died as the result of a physician-assisted suicide. Autopsy revealed no sign of physical disease but the patient’s letters indicate a preoccupation with independence as the definition of life, and conviction that people who lose independence are no longer alive.
I am not stressed, oppressed, or depressed. I don’t have Alzheimer’s and am not terminally ill, but I am 82 years old and I want to die.
