Thanks for writing Chris Crawford.

I think I wrote “health care” euphemistically. I don’t personally know any doctors or nurses or trained medical personnel who are “rubbing hands gleefully in anticipation of all the money they’ll make by providing end-of-life care” for either of my parents. You make an excellent point.

“Health care” is a broader industry than medical professionals. It includes pharmaceutical companies, for example. Why the hell was my Mother on statins? Because we’re worried about her cholesterol?

It also includes the nursing home and assisted living corporations making massive capital investments in new buildings that look to me like old people ghettos. And it includes the major food corporations that are “feeding them while they wait to die.”

One of the things that bothers me about suicide statistics is that sometimes we act like the only suicides that count are those by “professionals” like doctors and lawyers. (I’m an engineer).

According to this article at the Center for Disease Control, the highest rates of male suicide are found among are among construction and extraction (e.g., mining, oil) workers. For women, it was Arts & Media.

For men, health care professional suicide rates rank below those of landscapers, truck drivers, factory workers, and repairmen. To compound matters, these occupations get no training on death and bereavement.

Perhaps the high status of a professional job offers some protective factors.

Nevertheless, what you’ve alerted me to is the fact that those doctors who take an oath to protect life are still prone to those low moments in which they chose to take their own. And that’s tragic.