The best interests of any patient must be based on a clinical judgement about what is best for his/her health. Patients have the right to state their preference about the treatments offered to them and whether to accept them or not, however they also have a responsibility to act ethically. Patients therefore cannot refuse treatment with the intention of killing themselves. Neither patients nor doctors can decide that it is in someone’s best interests to die. This is again a quality of life judgement. If it is the patient who considers him/herself better off dead, we do not afford them dignity or respect by agreeing that their life has no value and that they are right to want to die. People who feel this way often do so because they are suffering from depression, which can and should be treated. Everyone should be helped to see the value in their lives rather than be ‘helped to die’ because they have temporarily lost sight of that value.

Jacqueline Dalrymple June 2002

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