10/18/2026
When we talk about someone having a “terminal illness,” we generally mean an incurable, progressive disease that will eventually end someone’s life. Advanced cancer, end-stage heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and many other diseases are widely accepted as terminal in modern medicine.
Most medical institutions don’t include mental illnesses in that category either, for understandable ethical reasons. But as actor Martin Short shares from firsthand experience, viewing treatment-resistant mental illness as “terminal” can help families process the loss of a loved one to su***de.
In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Short compared losing his 42-year-old daughter, Katherine, to su***de in 2026 with losing his wife, Nancy, to cancer in 2010.
“You know, it’s been a nightmare for the family,” Short said when asked what he wanted to share about Katherine’s death. “But the understanding that mental health and cancer, like my wife, are both diseases. And sometimes with diseases, they are terminal. And my daughter fought for a long time with extreme mental health issues, borderline personality disorder, other things, and did the best she could until she couldn’t. So Nan’s last words to me were, ‘Martin, let me go.’ And she was just saying, ‘Dad, let me go.’”
Short is speaking a hard truth that goes against the unequivocal messaging that su***de is preventable. As with so many human realities, conversations about mental health and su***de require nuance. Those who have seen a loved one through every available treatment, medication, therapy, and program, only to lose them to su***de after trying everything, play an important role in that conversation.
