I believe that is a broad explanation for many human actions, including "regular do it yourself" suicides.
And that's a very relevant point. It's a shame that something as important as our deaths is left to chance for so many people. Only capital criminals know how they will go (and some even have some control over it) while we don't honor good honest citizens similarly. Wouldn't it be better if we could be more "grown-up" about death, facing it directly and not insisting on having it sneak up on us unexpectedly?
If anyone understands even slightly that our identity is eternal soul or spirit which lives beyond the death of the body, artificially hastening death is not a good idea.
Okay, so who defines "artificially hastening"?
Were the disposal of human life so much reserved as the peculiar province of the Almighty, that it were an encroachment on his right, for men to dispose of their own lives; it would be equally criminal to act for the preservation of life as for its destruction. If I turn aside a stone which is falling upon my head, I disturb the course of nature, and I invade the peculiar province of the Almighty, by lengthening out my life beyond the period which by the general laws of matter and motion he had assigned it.-- David Hume, Essays on Suicide and the Immortality of the Soul, Essay II, 1783(?)
I recognize and respect your personal insights gained from your experiences. However, please recognize that there are others who have their own experiences with death and have their own preferences. Our country is founded on non-interference with others' preferences,* not a forced conformity.
Obviously, I am not directly addressing the question of those who cannot express preferences (the subject of the article).
*unless they interfere with others
"It's a shame that something as important as our deaths is left to chance for so many people"
That by far is one of the most chilling statements I've seen posted here. Simply sociopathic, my friend.