Older people with the wish to die

Background

 There is ongoing debate whether or not physician-assisted death should be allowed if older people are "weary of life", i.e. if they experience their situation as unbearable and hopeless, although they do not suffer from a severe physical or psychiatric disease. A committee of the Royal Dutch Medical Association (KNMG) concluded in 2004 that physicians should know how to care for these patients and that they also should be allowed to assist with suicide as a last resort. An important problem they observed was a lack of consensus about the possibilities for help and care for these patients.