Mental Health Professionals and Assisted Death: Perceived Ethical Obligations and Proposed Guidelines for Practice

I have three purposes in this article: (a) to briefly review the legal obligations a mental health professional has when working with a client who is talking about taking some action that could lead to his or her death, (b) to clarify the positions of the 4 major national mental health organizations regarding the acceptable roles of their members with clients who are discussing the possibility of receiving assisted death, and (c) to propose a set of guidelines for practice for mental health professionals working with clients who are considering assisted death that comport with the various laws and codes of ethics.