ABSTRACT
Rejecting suicide prevention in principle, and eschewing it as a professional practice, would protect the mental health clinician from having to play self-contradictory roles; would protect the mental health client from having to submit to coercion in the name of suicide prevention. However, it would be mendacious to deny that, in practice, suicide prevention rests on the use of force to restrain the would-be suicide. Indeed, the term prevention, bracketed with the term suicide, implies coercion. Psychiatrists bear an especially heavy burden of responsibility with respect to the moral dilemmas posed by suicide; hence, they must be especially thoughtful and forthright about where they come down on the issue of coercive suicide prevention. Failure to prevent suicide is one of the leading reasons for successful malpractice suits against psychiatrists and psychiatric institutions. The main reason mental health professionals and mental institutions are found liable for a patient's suicide is because they assume the duty of preventing suicide.
