The concept of rational suicide argues that suicide could be a rational choice, in certain circumstances. Such an argument faces criticism when there is an accompanying mental illness, as many view suicide as a symptom of mental illness rather than as a rational choice about one's life. More specifically, the rational suicide debate has mostly excluded individuals with schizophrenia, as it is widely seen as a disorder that impairs rational decision making. This paper aims to examine the concept of rational (...) suicide in schizophrenia: Could it be possible that some acts of suicide are driven from a rational choice by patients suffering from schizophrenia? This paper does not include discussions related to physician-assisted dying in schizophrenia. (shrink)

The literature on rational suicide (RS) holds that if a rational person wishes to suicide under circumstances deemed rational, there is no moral reason to prohibit a person from suiciding. There are forty years of literature dedicated to establishing what rational suicide is and demonstrating its moral permissibility. What is shocking is that in this literature, almost no attempts are made to include the perspectives of mental health users. Drawing from the work of Hilde Lindemann, I argue that ignoring of (...) the perspectives of mental health users constitutes a form of erasure and oppression that must be rectified. (shrink)

In this chapter, our focus is the role played by notions of rationality in the diagnosis of mental disorders, and in the practice of overriding patient autonomy in psychiatry. We describe and evaluate different hypotheses concerning the relationship between rationality and diagnosis, raising questions about what features underpin psychiatric categories. These questions reinforce widely held concerns about the use of diagnosis as a justification for overriding autonomy, which have motivated a shift to mental incapacity as an alternative justification. However, this (...) approach too has recently been criticized from a mental disability rights perspective. Our analysis of the relationship between mental capacity and rationality is used to illuminate these concerns, and to investigate further the relationship between rationality and psychiatric diagnosis. (shrink)