Euthanasia for the Depressed?

[Jenny A]

Suicide is, absent actual confinement, always available to anyone. It isn't a right the state can take away without actually incarcerating the individual and even then it isn't easy to prevent a determined suicide. So the question isn't should the depressed have a right to commit suicide, the question is whether they should be allowed assistance from others.

I've had several long deep depressions, and while I was certainly lucid and rational, I was missing one thing, any great interest in living. Wanting to commit suicide isn't an escape from the side effects of depression, it's part and parcel of the illness itself. And once well, desire goes away. That's rather different from chronic pain, or permanent disability, or terminal illness. So no, I don't think doctors should assist a patient in carrying out suicide when that same patient is highly unlikely to want to commit suicide once they are well.