Assisted suicide: psychiatric assessment should be systematically provided (France)

The public debate about the legalisation of euthanasia in France is raging. Some psychiatrists published a study that reviewed the role of psychiatrists in cases of requests for assisted suicide. The study was based on 127 articles, mostly sourced from Pubmed and Cairn, dating from 1997 to 2020, involving Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg and Oregon. The study emphasised the importance of an in-depth consultation with a psychiatrist in all requests for assisted suicide. This decision was based on the findings that the most prevalent reasons for a request to die are “spirituality, attachment style, social isolation, despair, depression […]. It was also found that a doctor’s qualifications influence the evaluation of patients and can obscure the motivations that lead a person to request euthanasia.

Source