Hendin H
Suicide Life Threat Behav. 1995 Spring;25(1):193-204.
What impact would legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia have on our ability to treat suicidal patients and to prevent suicide? Information from a study of the Dutch experience illustrates how legal sanction promotes a culture that transforms suicide into assisted suicide and euthanasia and encourages patients and doctors to see choosing death as a preferred way of dealing with serious or terminal illness. The extension of the right to euthanasia to those who are not physically ill further complicates the problem. So too does the tendency of doctors in such a culture to begin to feel that they can make decisions about ending the life of competent terminally ill patients without consulting the patient. "Normalizing" suicide as a medical option lays the groundwork for a society that turns euthanasia into a "cure" for suicidal depression.
协助自杀和安乐死合法化会对我们治疗自杀患者及预防自杀的能力产生何种影响？一项关于荷兰经验的研究信息表明，法律制裁如何助长了一种文化，这种文化将自杀转变为协助自杀和安乐死，并鼓励患者和医生将选择死亡视为应对严重疾病或绝症的首选方式。将安乐死权利扩展至非身体患病者使问题进一步复杂化。在这样一种文化中，医生开始觉得他们可以在不咨询患者的情况下就决定结束有行为能力的绝症患者的生命，这种倾向也是如此。将自杀“常态化”作为一种医疗选择为一个将安乐死变成治疗自杀性抑郁“疗法”的社会奠定了基础。
