 All the same, caution is in order both about the relationship between suicidal thought and mental illness and about the relation between mental illness and suicidal choices being rational or autonomous. The mere fact of having a mental illness does not entail that one is irrational or incompetent to make one’s own choices. (See  decision making capacity.) All  the more, disagreement continues about the strength of the link between suicide and mental illness, (Pabst Battin 1996, 5) and while many of those who engage in suicidal behavior seem to be mentally ill, the relationship is rather weak in the other direction: Most of those with diagnosed mental illness such as depression do not engage in suicidal behavior, implying that other factors besides mental illness may be equally important in predicting suicide. (Joiner 2010) In addition, doubts can be raised about how the link is understood. Some have argued that the mental health professions have come to see some mental illness as defined by suicidal behavior, i.e., that it is a sign or symptom of a disorder such as depression or schizophrenia that the individual in question is suicidal. But under this understanding of the relationship, that mental illness is responsible for suicidal behavior does not seem to be a testable empirical or scientific hypothesis but a normative judgment about the rationality of suicide. In other words, the link between suicide and mental illness turns out to reflect a controversial normative judgment that those contemplating ending their lives have ‘disordered’ minds. (Maung forthcoming)