Depression and the right to die

There is a complex relationship between depression and the capacity to forg o life-sustaining treatment. On the one hand, the courts have recognized a constitutionally protected right to die for competent persons; on the other hand, psychiatrists have tended toward the presumption of incompetence on the part of anyone who refuses lifesaving treatment. This traditional psych iatric viewpoint stems from experience with many patients whose wish to die disappears when their depression is successfully treated. (C) 1999 Elsevie r Science Inc.