Originally Posted by icelander

I agree. I have spent my life with low grade depression and never seriously considered suicide until I got this ugly disease.

I had a dog some years back that I loved more than any person I've ever known. He finally after 11 years got bone cancer. I treated him myself with Pot brownies for the pain and that worked very well for some time. But eventually I could see that he wasn't happy with his condition. He was still not in a lot of pain but his life was now just laying around doing nothing and he wasn't happy about it. So even though most would not I put him down that early I did it. It was an act of love and mercy and the hardest thing for me to do. Now if I would do that for him out of love and mercy then why would I not do that for myself for the same reasons when my quality of life was poor with little prospect for improvement?

Most people are terrified of even the word suicide. No matter how painful their existence their fear of the unknown wins out every time. That or religious belief or pressure from family and friends. (btw there is nothing in the Bible against suicide from my explorations)
Otherwise we could all just discuss this in a relaxed and open fashion like any other subject. But we all die anyway. I'd rather die when my quality of life makes living an nasty chore. IMO suicide is a rare gift of nature to mankind. And instead of embracing it as a gift most consider it a horror. Not I.

I do not fear the word or the deed nearly as much as a lifetime of unremitting pain and emotional suffering. I had a pretty decent, exciting life before this disease even with low grade depression and I don't want to lose that feeling to years of unremitting suffering. Because in that amount of suffering, suffering becomes the whole of or the majority of the life experience. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

So I guess you could say I'm in favor of it for anyone who freely chooses it and I respect them for that choice.