Only 3 or 4 percent of suicides are terminally ill persons. In the rest, there is probably a better way of handling the pain. Although 3 out of 4 suicide attempts are women, men are far more successful at completing the act. This may be because of the difficulty involved with committing suicide if one does not choose something violent like a gun. However, most all people who are talked out of suicide and receive help, are very glad to find a new life out there and very happy they did not go ahead with their plans of ending it all.
Suicide is a poor treatment for depression, it turns out.
And depression, not the physical illness is the problem. It's been shown by people such as Helen Keller and others that quality of life is in the person and not in how healthy or able they are. Hugh Gale, the Kevorkian patient with COPD said he did not sleep at night but his wife said that after he talked with Kevorkian, he slept very well for the first time in years. This shows that his not sleeping was not entirely due to his illness and thus, things like this could have been managed with a less final solution like better pain management and counseling. The American Medical Association is opposed to Physican Assisted suicide for two reasons, primarily.