Doctors help depressed to die

By Simon Caldwell
10 October 2008

Doctors in America are helping depressed people to kill themselves, according to research published this week.

A law in the state of Oregon allows terminally ill patients to request a lethal dose of medicine when physical suffering becomes unbearable.

It stipulates that doctors must determine that the patient is not afflicted by a state of mind that might impair their judgment.

But a study published on Wednesday in the British Medical Journal shows that a quarter of all people who ask doctors to help them to die are suffering from depression.

Of those who successfully acquired the toxic cocktails needed to kill them nearly one in five was suffering from mental health problems which might have affected their judgment. the rest