“In Holland, a Dutch woman in her 20s who reportedly experienced childhood sexual abuse from the ages of 5 to 15 and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and other complex negative consequences as a result was allowed to choose lethal injection in Holland when doctors decided her condition was untreatable.
If that doesn’t make me, a trauma psychologist, want to scream or cry, I don’t know what would. Treatment is hopeless? Who says that to their patients? And why should people stand for such cynicism from their health-care providers?
Recovery from such severe trauma is not easy, but telling someone it’s not possible? Well, at minimum, that’s just untrue.”
When I heard this story I was truly saddened. It shocks me that there are professionals willing to tell someone in their 20s that they would never heal from their abuse. Healing is hard, and not everyone manages to do it, but it can, and does, happen. I’m saddened every time a survivor gives up on their healing, but there is something especially awful when they are actually encouraged to give up, and then assisted in it.
Doctor-Assisted Suicide Cannot Be an Answer for Trauma Victims