Assisted suicide is bordering on oxymoronic if you think about it. Suicide means "self" inflicted. Assistance comes from "other", not self. So what we're talking about with this term may be unclear. The only circumstance I can think of in which "assisted suicide" might be an accurate description would be where a person was fully mentally competent but physically disabled to the extent they could not manipulate the necessary tools to end their own life.

Plenty of people have ended their lives by simply refusing to eat. Hard as that might be, if a person is unhappy enough with life to choose death, it is a path requiring little else other than determination.

Other than in the fairly rare circumstance mentioned above, I can't think of a reason a mentally competent person couldn't DIY this task without assistance, and if not mentally competent to make the decision at the time then another person following prior instructions would just be a murderer. There is no way to know what you will want in any given moment until that moment arrives. So, for me, except for that one rare circumstance, suicide is best left to the mentally and physically able. There are ways. It's not hard. You can figure it out with a little study. I don't want to "assist".

It should be the choice of the person involved. I do think it's important that the person that has asked for assisted suicide be given a small amount of time to contemplate and verify that is what they want for sure. My husband's brain cancer denied him a choice in that area. Eventually I had to make the decision to withdraw life support and that's a very hard decision when the person you love cannot communicate with you any longer. My father wanted to die during the last two months of his life but his decision wavered almost daily. In other words assisted suicide should be granted but there should be safe guards.

I agree.

Yes in favor of it under guidelines of course, for instance if you get drunk one night and call for the death squad to come over and finish you off it would be an irresponsible service if they did indeed arrive and finished you off.

I hope I have the capacity and the courage to end my life once my health and quality of life are irreversably poor, but I would appreciate it if I could legally have a doctor aid me in doing this. If that is not an option by then, I will find a way even if I have to order the drugs by mail to do it.

I'm all for assisted end of life. I decided this after watching my Mother, who was mobile with normal aging aches and pains, locked in a secured memory care facility. She had dementia but remembered us but often talked about us as if we were much younger. She cried a lot wanting to know what she had done wrong and how bad the guards were. She wasn't in prison but it felt like it to her. She was miserable for 3 or 4 yrs and even if her memory was scrambled, her emotions, whether rightly or wrongly deserved, were real. I hope my mental state lasts long enough that I know when the right time is.

I watched an academic documentary about the decision to turn off life support. It was produced for medical students to help them explain options to relatives. In recent years there have been a number of famous cases involving young children. I understand they caused contraversy in USA because children belong to parents in UK where as they don't here. Anyway they interviewed families who had taken the decision to turn off life support (assisted suicide of a sort). Most moved forward but notably a few families couldn't. One guy said, it is easy to say what you would do but you never know and that is the best way to view it. I can't imagine ever wanting to leave this world, but you never know.

I've always said that the day I judge myself to be burden or potential liability to my family I will quietly go away and end it all rather than drag them down with me, even if they want to.

Im in total favor of it. I plan on using this option when the time comes. The legality / controversial nature of the issue is a byproduct of our religious culture.

I can't say much on the subject because I've never been in a situation where death seemed a better option. I've never suffered pain that could not be helped with an aspirin. And I'm sixty years old. I do know that I would like to have the choice of ending my life in a manner that is dignified providing I was in the state of mind to make that decision and if there was no better option. For other circumstances, I couldn't care less. I will make that decision. Hypothetically speaking.
Right now I'm healthy, I love people in my life, people love me back, some of them depend on me which I like.

I guess I used the wrong word when I actually said "assisted suicide. I suppose the assistance I meant was in having a Dr assist you, by prescribing medications to assist you in your passing.

I am against assisted suicide. As a nurse, I have seen suffering too, however no person is an island and I think there is no real way to be sure that this is the individual's own desires or someone elses'. Already in some countries, we are seeing assisted suicide of the mentally ill, children and I even read about someone who was intractably obese being assisted to end his life (assisted as he wasn't able to). I think it is a very quick leap to 'assist' those 'undesirables' in society. I cannot comment on someone taking their own life, that is a personal choice but we never have the right to assist someone to end theirs. People are not sophisticated enough.