Transcript: Allison Kelliher, M.D.

Traditionally, when elderly individuals felt they might become a burden, they would commit suicide

[Kelliher:]: People talk about suicide as a way out for many generations. They refer to it as being something to consider. For example, traditionally, people when they were older and felt that they might become a burden to the community and when they wished to—when they could not contribute in a way they felt was beneficial, and they didn’t want to be the burden of another mouth to feed, and they felt that their life had been fulfilled, and that it was time for them to pass on, I know of people saying “It’s time for me to go,” and they would go out on the ice flow. And some people might consider that on the spectrum of suicide. Whereas, that’s something that I think culturally people value that.