Maybe they're depressed becuase they want to die but are not "allowed" to.

In the Sydney Morning Herald today: "Older men have highest suicide rate by drowning."

The reasons for it are purely speculative I know. But this isn't the first article I've read about the elderly committing suicide and it will not be the last.

We are told they have "depression" and it is implied that this is why they committed suicide.

This is just a theory on my part, but is it possible that they could be depressed because they feel they have finished with life but are being denied a dignified death? Is it so inconceivable that a person would rather die on their own terms than wait for death while rotting in aged care?

To me, it is perfectly understandable. But while we have a legal system that is still fundamentally based on a religious ethic that it is wrong to take one's own life, that these decisions are not up to us, that we should "let nature take it's course", the elderly and terminally ill will be denied the dignified deaths to which I believe they have every right.

We need to catch up with the Netherlands on this issue, as on many others.  Perhaps we will also have the courage to surpass them, and allow true dignified death for all who reasonably, and sanely, request it.