title: Suicide in old age: illness or autonomous decision of the will?
abstract: Depression, often accompanied by suicidal behavior or recurring thoughts about suicide, is one of the most common psychic impairments in old age. Statistics in Austria tell us clearly: Suicidal candidates among the elderly are likely to succeed. Especially in men, suicide has become a significant cause of death. In an age where traditional family structures are beginning to fall apart, and where the elderly increasingly feel to be a "burden" to society, unable to find their place, we tend to look at suicide more and more as a voluntary and autonomous decision, thus rationalizing it as in: "This life I would not want to live either". But is it permissible for physicians to consider a patient, who has acted suicidal, to be "not ill," or to have acted "with good reason"? The present paper shall critically revisit the concept of "rational suicide." What I hope to illuminate is the tension between medical care for, and autonomy of the patient that physicians have to negotiate in their work.
authors.affiliation: Landesnervenklinik Sigmund Freud, Gerontopsychiatrie, Graz, Austria. gundula.ruckenbauer@lsf-graz.at <gundula.ruckenbauer@lsf-graz.at>
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ruckenbauer
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yazdani
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ravaglia
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014836:Volition; D000092864:Suicide Prevention