Suicide

The intentional taking of one’s own life. In the medical literature, suicide is viewed as an act of despair and connotes an often desperate, violent, secretive act resulting from severe depression or mental instability. By this definition, suicide is something to be actively prevented, and is fundamentally different from aid-in-dying. Suicide ends the process of living in a life that can go on; physician-aid-in-dying ends the process of dying. Suicide in the context of severe end-of-life suffering can have a different meaning and under such circumstances can be rational.

The intentional taking of one’s own life. In the medical literature, suicide is viewed as an act of despair and connotes an often desperate, violent, secretive act resulting from severe depression or mental instability. By this definition, suicide is something to be actively prevented, and is fundamentally different from aid-in-dying. Suicide ends the process of living in a life that can go on; physician-aid-in-dying ends the process of dying. Suicide in the context of severe end-of-life suffering can have a different meaning and under such circumstances can be rational.