Rational suicide:

[grandmoon]

Beverley Broadbent was not dying of a terminal illness, nor was she depressed or unhappy. But at 83, she wanted to die.

After living a rich and satisfying life, the Brighton East woman said the ageing process had come to feel like a disease that was robbing her of her physical and mental fitness. In February, she said she had had enough.

''I look well and I walk well so people think I'm fine. But I have so many things wrong with me,'' she said. ''The balance is gone. It's taking so much time for me to keep fit to enjoy myself that there's not enough time to enjoy myself.''

In several interviews with Fairfax Media, Ms Broadbent said she planned to take her own life so she could have a peaceful, dignified death. She said she did not want her health to deteriorate to the point where she had dementia or found herself in a nursing home with no way out.

The environmental activist chose to tell her story because she believed many elderly people wanted to die when they felt their life was complete, but lacked the means to go gently.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/rational-suicide-why-beverley-broadbent-chose-to-die-20130401-2h34...

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/rational-suicide-why-beverley-broadbent-chose-to-die-20130401-2h34...

[daydream**believer]

Her life. Her choice.

She's lucky she got to make the choice

[cat_mioux]

Sets precedent??? where did you pull that out of? Even if there's a correlation doesn't equate to cause and effect??? What if it's due to genetics or some other factors. ?

It was well known when I studied psychology at Uni but because you need stats, here they are:

A person is more likely to complete suicide if a family member has taken his or her own life or has a history of psychiatric illness, a new study suggests.

Danish researchers tracked 4,262 people between the ages of 9 and 45 who had completed suicide and compared them to more than 80,000 controls. They evaluated the suicide history of parents and siblings, history of psychiatric illness among parents and siblings and other data.

Those with a family history of suicide were two and a half times more likely to take their own life than were those without such a history.

[purple.cow]

There is an old saying 'you're never eighty in your dreams'.

I never passed 25 in mine, and my brain still never thinks it's no older than 30 max too, it's only the mirror that tells the true story when I look into it, which is why I do my best to avoid such foolish actions :^O

[the_bob_delusion]

It was well known when I studied psychology at Uni but because you need stats, here they are:

A person is more likely to complete suicide if a family member has taken his or her own life or has a history of psychiatric illness, a new study suggests.

Danish researchers tracked 4,262 people between the ages of 9 and 45 who had completed suicide and compared them to more than 80,000 controls. They evaluated the suicide history of parents and siblings, history of psychiatric illness among parents and siblings and other data.

Those with a family history of suicide were two and a half times more likely to take their own life than were those without such a history.

evidently you can't evaluate cause and effect. 

[cat_mioux]

Eh?

[cat_mioux]

It's important to take these risk factors for suicide very seriously:

Previous suicide attempt(s).Psychological and mental disorders, especially depression and other mood disorders,

schizophrenia, and social anxiety.Substance abuse and/or alcohol disorders.History of abuse or mistreatment.Family history of suicide....

[0z_girl]

how do you define suicide?

there are hundreds of different scenarios, which need to be judged on an individual basis IMO

a couple of examples, someone is diagnosed with breast cancer, and they refuse to have chemotherapy (thier decision leads to death), are they commiting suicide?  advances in medical technology mean that people are living alot longer then they used to, are they to be kept alive at all costs?  is quality of life a factor which needs to be given more consideration.

or someone needs a gastric peg tube to be fed, to sustain life, and they refuse as they don't think their quality of life will be good having to live like that, are they committing suicide?

you are talking purely from a psychiatric point of view cat_mioux.

the example in the OP doesn't necessarily have a psychiatric illness. 

if someone is unstable, then they wouldn't be deemed as suitable to make a rational decision.

[cat_mioux]

I didn't think Beverley suffered from a psychiatric illness. I think she suffered from loneliness and fear.

[cat_mioux]

I don't think people are getting my point ..

My point is:

The reasons Beverley cited for wanting to kill herself seemed to be issues that could have been addressed. Instead of advocating suicide when a person has 'had enough' why not try to address the problems first as a collective society?

[jean2579]

I don't think people are getting my point ..

My point is:

The reasons Beverley cited for wanting to kill herself seemed to be issues that could have been addressed. Instead of advocating suicide when a person has 'had enough' why not try to address the problems first as a collective society?

Perhaps Beverley did not want to be part of a collective society. I know that I do not want any collective society telling me how to live my life. From your perspective the issues could have been addressed maybe not from hers . To many people any form of religion or belief system is completely unacceptable.