College students were presented with a hypothetical scenario in which they were dying from AIDS. Those with a hypothetically higher level of pain estimated the probability of committing suicide as greater; those with a hypothetically greater chance of survival for a year estimated the probability of committing suicide as less. This study suggests an approach for studying the rationality of decisions to commit suicide and for studying the actual decisions made by terminally ill people.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
RichmanJ., Preventing Elderly Suicide, Springer, New York, 1993.
2.
BattinN. P., Suicidology and the Right to Die, in Suicidology, LeenaarsA. A. (ed.), Jason Aronson, Northvale, New Jersey, pp. 377–398, 1993.
3.
LesterD., The Logic and Rationality of Suicide, Homeostasis, 34, pp. 167–173, 1993.
