I think very few people really believe in an afterlife enough to embrace death.

I think it is a comfort blanket so they don’t have to really think too much about it while alive.

Perhaps they're secretly afraid that all their beliefs are based on nothing but nonsense?

You would think that they'd have huge "going away/bon voyage" parties!

This reminds me of something that happened to me years ago. I was still agnostic, and leaning towards atheist. This incident actually probably pushed me further away from religion.
I was working as an EMT. We had a regular dialysis patient, a retired monsignor in the Catholic church. On top of complete kidney failure, he was a diabetic, and had multiple limb amputations. We would take him to dialysis every other day. He had zero quality of life, and was in constant pain and suffering. On one particular trip, he actually begged me to kill him enroute. He was in his 70s, had led what he believed was a good life, and just wanted to be done with his time here.
There were a lot of unnecessary extreme measures that were implemented to prolong his life. Why? The carndinal for this particular diocese had a meeting with his family. In that meeting, he told them that it would be a mortal sin to not do whatever was necessary to keep him alive. He guilted this family into prolonging this man's suffering. To me, that was reprehensible.
I remember how happy I was for the monsignor the day I showed up at quarters, and found out he had passed that morning.

I think this is a false theory. I've seen people pretty much beg for Death to come. My Mother for one who was Roman Catholic. And definitely believed in the afterlife.

There comes a point where people may want to die but the laws don't allow it. Or they can no longer access what they need because of health.

Somewhere we have a group on this site about "Right to die".

I am really for choice in this.

I find it interesting most resort to labeling the religious as projecting, fearful, or irrational, but in reality, they're simply exhibiting natural tendencies of living species whose most basic functions are primarily to live and procreate.

No matter how much we congnitively progress, we're still primal beings driven by some degree of instict.

Good point! If the afterlife is so wonderful.....why would anyone be afraid of death? Really makes little sense.

We put down suffering animals, how can they be more important than us ? Euthenasia, I agree with it whole heartedly.

The religious issue around suicide is simply that, at least in the Christian religion, it's considered a sin. So clearly, assisted suicide (or euthanasia) is out of the question. This has nothing at all to do with belief in an afterlife. I feel that belief in the hereafter by good little X-tians and the promise of a seat at you-know-who's right-hand, if anything, makes them value life on earth less.

Religious belief systems are interesting to ponder about, why humans use them, what they gain from them, etc. But I'm not sure they involve much logic though.

As related examples: god plans everything yet I need to keep praying and hoping that he changes his mind, even though he apparently never does. I'll thank god when medicine heals (because medicine does nothing, only god does) but I'll use medicine as much as I can, even in the scenario you provided. I'll kill others for my belief even though murder is in the commandments, but god also commanded his people to murder. Self murder is wrong but suicide killers/bombers, etc.

Not sure one can attribute logic to human belief systems that are fallible at best.

But it's still interesting that our species uses and clings to these in spite of logic.

There's a couple of different potential explanations, but the one that springs to mind first is that most organized religions include a sort of caveat wherein suicide/murder both result in failing to get to "the good place" - if you kill yourself, you won't get there. If you kill someone else, you won't get there. So, they're cursed to suffer through the "tests" they face here on earth until something else puts them out of their misery, at which point they get to crack open the pearly gates. I suppose it's not less rational than the rest of the ideology?

I think this is an issue regardless of religious affiliation. People want to cling to the hope, however faded and minimal it may be, that the person dying will recover. I experienced this personally with my brother 14 years ago when he was dying from Leukemia. Ultimately, we (parent and I) opted for "pulling the plug" over causing continued deterioration of his body and quality of life; but had we been presented an option where there was more hope for recovery, regardless of how small it might be, there would have been a different action taken. When you watch your loved ones die, it's not so much a "life flashing before one's eyes" but you remember them for who they were and even the sad times that you wish you could take back. That hope that they'll live so you can "make things right" - while self-serving on some level, isn't wrong. It's what makes us human. It's our capacity to care.

Whether you believe in an afterlife or not, why would anyone incapacitated so severely want to continue to live in a vegetative state?

I have always wondered why Christians will spend every last dime they have to cling to life no matter how bad the quality of that life is. It goes back to my belief that most of them live with a lot of doubt. Most say they are believers just in case. That makes no sense becuase their God knows everything, and would know their faith is not real.

I think it's just innate, irrational fear.
And projection, let's not forget projection.
If they're afraid, they want everyone else to be afraid.

Because jeez suffered....why can't you.
It's utter stupidity with a side of malice.