Opinion: My mother killed herself. I wish assisted suicide had been an option
Summary
A writer recounts her mother’s decades-long struggle with severe psychiatric and neurological illness, including roughly two dozen suicide attempts before her death in 2016. The writer believes medical aid in dying might have prevented a lonely, painful death or prompted her mother to reconsider suicide. The account examines whether psychiatric suffering can be terminal and whether assisted death should be available in exceptional cases. It also notes that Canada indefinitely suspended plans to permit MAiD for mental illness, citing concerns about access, vulnerability, and whether psychiatric illness can be deemed incurable.
Watchmen Signals
Biblical Context
The reported debate places two biblical concerns in direct tension: the obligation to protect human life and the obligation to care compassionately for people enduring profound suffering. Genesis 1:27 grounds human dignity in humanity’s creation in God’s image, while Exodus 20:13 establishes a strong prohibition against the wrongful taking of human life. These passages do not specifically settle the modern question of physician-assisted death, but they weigh against treating a suffering person’s life as disposable or defining death as the ordinary solution to disability, mental illness, or dependence. The mother’s isolation, psychosis, chronic pain, and repeated crises also make passages about compassionate presence and protection of vulnerable people materially relevant. Psalm 34:18 speaks of God’s nearness to the brokenhearted, and Galatians 6:2 calls believers to bear one another’s burdens. Proverbs 31:8-9 urges advocacy for those who are vulnerable and unable to protect their own interests. Applied to the article, these principles support sustained care, honest accompaniment, and safeguards against pressure or abandonment. They do not by themselves determine whether a government should legalize or suspend psychiatric MAiD. Scripture also recognizes the seriousness of despair without presenting suicide as a prescribed remedy. Elijah’s request to die in 1 Kings 19:4 appears in the context of exhaustion and despair; God responds by providing rest, food, and renewed care before recommissioning him. The passage is not a direct policy statement, but it offers a meaningful contrast to assuming that a person’s desire to die necessarily represents a settled, unimpaired judgment. It also cautions against reducing a crisis to a moral slogan while neglecting practical care. The article’s description of extensive treatment, uncertain diagnoses, medication burdens, and inadequate support highlights the biblical duty to pursue mercy and justice for vulnerable people. At the same time, Scripture does not specifically address psychiatric euthanasia, modern standards of decisional capacity, or the structure of medical-aid-in-dying programs. Therefore, the biblical connection is substantial and ethical, but it should not be presented as a direct biblical endorsement of either Canada’s policy or the writer’s proposed alternative.
Biblical Sources
Scripture references supporting the biblical context above.
Elijah expresses a desire to die while overwhelmed, and God responds first with rest, nourishment, and care. The account offers a thematic caution against assuming that a desire for death is always a settled or fully autonomous decision.
The prohibition against murder establishes the seriousness of intentionally taking human life, though the passage does not directly address modern physician-assisted dying.
Believers are instructed to bear one another’s burdens, a principle relevant to the family, medical, and communal responsibility to support people facing severe psychiatric suffering.
Human beings are made in the image of God, providing a biblical basis for affirming the inherent dignity and value of people living with severe mental or physical illness.
The command to speak for those who cannot adequately speak or protect themselves is relevant to concerns about impaired capacity, coercion, and protection of vulnerable patients.
God’s nearness to the brokenhearted speaks to the article’s account of psychiatric anguish and supports compassionate presence rather than abandonment of those in despair.
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