• Poutinetown
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    9 months ago

    Which mental illness would benefit from MAID? Is there a concept of terminal mental illness in a way the patient would need palliative care or suffer for the rest of their life?

    • bionicjoey
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      9 months ago

      I could see it for very severe and advanced cases of dementia/Alzheimer’s where they have a living will requesting it. But I’d be wary of expanding availability much beyond that. Informed consent is really challenging with mental illness in general, but especially so for something as irriversable as MAID

      • kent_eh
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        9 months ago

        . Informed consent is really challenging with mental illness in general,but especially so for something as irriversable as MAID

        I assume that is the main reason for the delay.

        If you’re going to do this, you have to get it right.

      • Rodeo
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        9 months ago

        Alzheimer’s and dementia aren’t really mental illnesses. They’re neurological diseases but not really a mental illness.

        Are they including those in their definition of mental illness?

    • Showroom7561
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      9 months ago

      Which mental illness would benefit from MAID? Is there a concept of terminal mental illness in a way the patient would … suffer for the rest of their life?

      Yes, quite a few, except they just get lumped into suicide cases because they could never find a treatment that helped.

      It’s easy to treat “the blues”, seasonal depression, and depression caused by an event.

      It’s not nearly as easy to treat major depression, bipolar disorder, major anxiety disorders, and a whole host of other mental illnesses that can cause prolonged suffering spanning decades without relief.

      I think its cruel to not offer MAID in these circumstances.

      Many of these people will decide to take their own lives with or without the government’s support.

      And in those cases, the results are far worse, and considerably more traumatic, for the family of those people.