Psychosocial aspects of rational suicide.

In recent years a more tolerant attitude has emerged concerning suicide as an acceptable alternative to some life situations. This trend is attributable in large part to the growth of the "Rationale Suicide" movement. Proponents of rational suicide have consistently offered the terminally ill cancer patient in intractable pain as the paradigmatic case on which their position rests. Once having established the principle, however, they would extend the right-to-suicide to any individual who felt his life was not worth living, for any reason. They would also wish to institute a law to protect the individual's right to end his life. While the basic argument for rational suicide may seem reasonable, serious limitations in the position are demonstrated when it is examined in light of existing clinical and research findings. Unanticipated adverse individual and societal consequences that can result from extending and legally safeguarding the right-to-suicide were reviewed. Evidence was also presented that individuals who contemplate what they regard as a rational suicide may have much in common psychodynamically with the much more numerous suicides that occur each year and which are clearly desperate and tragic acts.