My Body, My Choice: Should Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legalized in the United States for Individuals with Chronic Mental Illness?

Authors

Angelika Anderson, Texas A&M University School of Law (Student)Follow

Document Type

Comment

Abstract

Many individuals with mental illness wish to die because the symptoms of their illness are unbearable. They shoot, suffocate, and poison themselves to make their pain go away. Because this is a statistical reality, a more certain and less violent means of death should be legalized. This Comment advocates for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide (“PAS”). As of 2022, nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized PAS for terminal illness, but this Comment argues that all fifty states should legalize PAS and not only for terminal illness, but for chronic mental illness as well. To do so, this Comment suggests minimum requirements legislators can adopt regarding which mental illnesses the PAS legislation should cover, how to assess competence to consent, and in what form that consent must be offered.

DOI

10.37419/LR.V10.I2.3

First Page

269

Last Page

297

Recommended Citation

Angelika Anderson, My Body, My Choice: Should Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legalized in the United States for Individuals with Chronic Mental Illness?, 10 Tex. A&M L. Rev. 269 (2023).
Available at: https://doi.org/10.37419/LR.V10.I2.3