Euthenasia: Can mental illness such as bipolar disorder be considered terminal illness?

Bipolar disorder can become worse with age, inherently. Bipolar disorder patients, according to research can render a shorter life expectancy because of various complications such as gastrointestinal problems and the powerful manifestation of stress in the human body. Does this mean it can be considered a terminal illness?

If the answer is yes among some of you, given that it can greatly impact the quality of life, does a bipolar disorder patient have the right to euthenasia if they are deemed to be of sound mind when they make the decision? Especially if they are told that the illness is likely to become worse as it has in the patients family members with bipolar disorder?

If they feel their illness is taking a toll upon family members and society, should they have the right to pass on if the patient and family members would feel at peace?

Let us say the scenario would not be a traumatizing finding for family or others but a hospice setting with professionally assistance.

Bipolar affective disorder is definately not a terminal illness.

Just because you have bipolar doesn't mean your life is over and it doesn't necessarily mean you get worse with age. If you have no treatment then perhaps it will escalate.

One major reason for the statistics you are quoting is because people with bipolar are more likely to commit suicide and poor lifestyle chioces (smoking, poor diet, recreational drugs, decreased exercise) but once again therapeutic drugs , lifestyle change, good diet and exercis and counselling can greatly reduce most (if not all) untoward effects.

I know many people with bipolar who lead very fulfilling lives my best friend is a highly respected lawyer with wife and two kids and i swear no one would even know!

I think euthanasia for bipolar would be very traumatic for everyone and especially considering that the treatment for bipolar is so much better these days. Look at the alternatives.

Chris- Registered Nurse (also psych trained)

No. terminal means that the disease WILL cause death because of physiology of the disease. It is not a phycological thing. It means that medication/treatment will not cure the disease, leading to death.

and theres no way it would not be traumatizing, and plus, dont you think that other illnesses cause great amounts of stress on the body? i think it would be more stressful getting a disease where someone tells you that you have a certain amount of days to live... or the same thing but maybe its not terminal

you have to fight and never give up. i have 2 diseases, a kidney one and a gastrointestinal one, and you just gotta do what it takes to move through and it has made me stronger.

Bipolar doesn't kill you. The person may end up committing suicide, but that's not necessarily bipolar at fault there. Some people with bipolar on the right combination of medications can be much better than without.

No because it's not the bipolar that kills you. You either die from a secondary complication or you kill yourself.

What??? Bipolar disorder is NOT a terminal illness. Your quality and length of your life can be shortened by many things. Pollution can deteriorate your health and make life expectancy shorter but it's not the same as being terminally ill. Terminal illnesses are medical conditions that are fatal. To be "terminally ill" with decades of your life ahead of you just contradicts itself. So of course there is no justification for euthanasia on a person who just has a mental handicap. Then any mental illness could be considered the same and you could have a majority of the population killed off because of any mental handicap. Why stop there with that mentality? You could kill people with any handicap with that sort of logic. You're boarding genocide at this point. It's just not a very strong or logical argument to say someone should die because they are emotionally unstable.