ABSTRACT
Medical error is characteristically thought of in terms of mistakes made during procedures or in prescribing and dispensing medications. However, there is an earlier point where morally troubling errors may be made: during determinations of a patient’s competence to give informed consent, particularly in cases of mental illness. The author focuses on cases where medical aid in dying is requested by a mentally ill patient, coupled with the added moral complexity of such a request being made in the absence of terminal biophysical illness and/or when the patient’s death is far from imminent. The author ultimately argues that in light of further concerns regarding how compounding elements of a mentally ill patient’s situation (such as social isolation) may potentially compromise decision-making competence, a blanket assumption of incompetence (with some room for exceptions) will be the best approach to take in the type of cases under consideration.
