Assisted Suicide

One of the articles I've come across this week - and a news item I think most of you would have heard - is about the young man who was injured whilst playing rugby and subsequently was paralysed from the chest down.

He travelled to Switzerland where an assisted suicide took place. It appears that his parents are now talking to the police and the Crown Prosecution Service are deciding whether to take the case forward.

We've discussed suicide often in the Media Watch Group, but this story has pinpointed an important ethical issue: when do you accept somebody's wish to die? Should you ever accept it? Maybe if they're terminally ill? What about somebody diagnosed with schizophrenia? With depression?

What do you think?

World Mental Health Day...... waste of time?

What's your view on World Mental Health Day?

A wonderful opportunity to hold events, gain publicity, celebrate our existence and raise the profile of the mental health community?

A chance to combat stigma and discrimination?

Or a patronising construct that serves to allow self-congratulatory behaviour on behalf of mental health service providers (and users/survivors, come to that)?