Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by addicted 554 days ago
The entire reason why the mental illness discussion is complicated is because with mental illness it’s not clear it is a choice.

And this isn’t even something made up for the particular case of assisted suicide. The idea that someone with mental illness cannot make legitimate choice has been around in the legal system for a while, with mental illness leading to reduced sentences, and even being the basis of acquittal in many situations.

2 comments

> The idea that someone with mental illness cannot make legitimate choice has been around in the legal system for a while

There is mental illness and then there is competence, they are related but not the same. Complicating things further in this case would be things like reactive mental states (grieving etc) which might for a time manifest like mental illness but tend to be not diagnosed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competence_(law)

Thank you! This is EXACTLY the issue I've been failing to articulate.