Assisted Suicide

My only reference was "unbearable terminal pain" which I hope you are not equating your experiences to.

I'm arguing someone with unbearable terminal pain should, in a fully informed and medically validated manner, be allowed to choose to avoid such a horrible and undignified death.

I'm NOT talking about other scenarios where someone might feel compelled or heavily tempted to commit suicide and in fact I would argue we need to do more as a society to help people reach out and seek help for whatever problems they are having long before it gets to a point where they are contemplating suicide.

There is however no equivalence between someone who desperately wants to live but is terminally ill and doesn't want to die in a painful and undignified manner and someone who might have a very troubling but not life threatening issue to deal with. IMHO one deserves the right to choose the manner and timing of their death whereas the other person needs support and counselling and whatever else may be required to help them deal with the non life threatening problems they face.

Three observations:-

1. What about those who have to suffer later than necessary and at the end of their torture would have been thankful if someone had been allowed to facilitate their suicide?
2. Although some in extremis later may be thankful someone did not facilitate their suicide there are also many who's suicide was facilitated are were glad to have had that option.
3. If those in extremis who later were thankful someone did not facilitate their suicide had in fact been facilitated they wouldn't have any later regrets as they'd be dead.

Right now I'd be far less comfortable with assisted suicide in the case of psychiatric illness for three reasons:-

1. I (thankfully) haven't any personal experience or have known anyone so affected by psychiatric illness that they wanted to commit suicide but I am aware it is one of the key reasons people take their own lives.
2. Psychiatric illness's are not in and of themselves physically "terminal" as far as I'm aware but then I'm really not very well informed in that regard.
3. Psychiatric illness and its severity, which might have to be assessed and judged, before someone could seek an assisted suicide would require far more subjective judgement than someone with a terminal illness who's prognosis is well understood and accepted amongst medical experts.

The above does not mean I think people with severe psychiatric illness are suffering any less than those with non psychiatric terminal illnesses and it does not mean I think it's impossible for a safe protocol to be developed to allow those with the most severe and life debilitating psychiatric illnesses, with little or no possibility of improvement, to have a safe pathway to a release from such suffering via assisted suicide.

If you replace the word "animals" with "much loved pets" it'll give the correct context when referencing animal analogies.