[webmobdev]

I came to post a similar thought too. I meet and help 4 old couples occasionally - in my neighbourhood, and some of my friend's parents - who now live alone. And all of them are physically healthy (as much as 70+ years old can be), and economically well off, but feel depressed due to crippling loneliness. Two of them openly tell me that they curse God for giving them a long life and just wish for death. If India had assisted suicide for old people, these are the kind of people who would be in front of the queue.

And that's one issue I have with such programs - one of the symptoms of depression is suicidal thoughts / ideation, which tends to disappear when depression is successfully treated. And depression also manifests itself in people with other illness. At the very least, these kind of assisted suicide programs should screen for depression in individuals opting for the program, and deny it to those depressed. They should instead be alternatively treated for depression.

[hotpotamus]

What if their depression isn't treatable?

[webmobdev]

It's rare. The answer would then depend, I guess, on how comfortable are you in allowing mentally troubled people to opt-in in for suicide.

[hotpotamus]

Look at the success rate of SSRIs and other common antidepressants and you might find it's far from rare. You say yourself that the depression is near universal amongst the old people you know, have any of them had successful treatment?

[webmobdev]

No, unfortunately psychological treatment are neither easily available or popular in India. There is also a cultural aversion in the previous generation to availing such treatment. (On SSRIs note that the medical community is increasingly of the opinion that SSRIs don't help with depression in the long-term and may even be responsible for suicidal tendencies in those who never even had it in the first place. Cognitive Therapy is now the gold standard for the treatment of depression.)