Eutanazja – refleksje psychiatry

Abstract

The author has analysed people’s attitudes to life, especially in those who show suicidal inclinations, go through crises and suffer from diseases that cause this attitude negative. He stresses the fact that in today’s consumerist society euthanasia may become a cultural norm, as there can be no room for the handicapped and dependent, suffering from chronic diseases (including mental ones), the people living too long, who can be a burden for their families or public finances, those whose life is of a ‚low quality’ and unprofitable from the social point of view. According to the author, legitimizing euthanasia is a symptom of a crisis of socila policy and contemporary medical science. It violates basic, traditional standards of a physician’s attitude towards a patient, the principle of confidence in a physician-patient relations, it blurs the line between medical treatment and murder. A physician, especially psychiatrist, should have the right to refuse to take part in any stage of an action resulting in the death of a patient, and oppose such practices. A proper treatment of depression is an effective form of help one may offer the patients suffering from it and wishing to die.

Instytut Psychiatrii i Neurologii w Warszawie