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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 4, 2025

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"The doctors did the right thing in helping a 29 year old woman with depression kill herself" is quite literally the slippery slope. That's what we're talking about when we call something a slippery slope, that social norms will change so radically, and people will just be all "actually, that's a good thing we changed that!"

Hang on, please explain to me, ideally without referencing slippery slopes at all, what is the precise issue with this 29 year old woman with depression being offered euthanasia?

I try not to brow-beat people with my credentials any more than I can help, but I have experience in both psychiatry and being severely depressed. It would take far worse to make me seek euthanasia, but my depression wasn't as bad as it can truly get. Some forms of dysfunction and agony can truly be hard to discern from a distance. You see a pretty young woman in the prime of her life being consigned to death by uncaring doctors.

I see a tortured soul, who has consented to her doctors trying everything they can feasibly try. If you don't believe me, you can look at the article. Her every day is utter misery, we have no idea how to fix her, at present. And we've tried, tried oh so hard, with no results. I had reasons to cling to life even when my brain screamed it was pointless to get out of bed, I do not care to dictate beyond a very limited extent, how much others should really tolerate.

She is an exception. 99.9% or more of depressed people are not recommended euthanasia. She went through all the loops and hoops, she didn't change her mind. Her very right to do so was challenged, and when I initially engaged with the article, being adjudicated in a court of law. The rules are being followed.

She went through all the loops and hoops, she didn't change her mind.

This is a very critical point. By saying "MAID is in principle on the table for depression", you create some incentive to engage with the medical system.

If instead you take the firm stand that suicide is bad and that you will gladly lock up patients who talk about suicidal ideation until they learn to credibly deny having such thoughts, that is sending a very different signal.

As others have pointed out here, anyone who is not bedbound has a BATNA, which is to kill themselves against the wishes of broader society. Unilateral suicides impose great costs on broader society. You can not let your loved ones know lest they call the cops on you -- unless you trust them to approve your defection. While medically, killing a person in a way which is both painless and also not highly disturbing to onlookers is a solved problem, the situation for the average person is very different, and they may well prefer an option which is good at delivering a quick death but traumatizing for the onlookers. Jumping in front of trains has massive externalities, for example.

Knowing that your loved one is opting for MAID for depression is terrible, but what is worse is coming home and finding them dangling from a rope -- without you ever having had a chance to talk to them about it or say goodbye to them. If offering MAID for depression turns 10 suicides into 7 suicides (who do not want to jump through the hoops) plus 1 medically assisted death and two patients who can be treated to a level where their life is positive-sum for them, that seems like a clear win.