Emotionally aware = someone who is by most accounts able to consciously make a decision. My aunt is bipolar, and cannot consciously think when she has episodes. Some people have such emotional disorders that they are not capable of making personal decisions. And yeah, I admit it would be hard to tell what point a person has enough self-awareness, but we do that for murderers, so I would think we could work out a similar system. Of course, err on the side of caution as much as possible.
And pain is generally not good. If a person, for whatever horrible reason, wants to commit suicide, it seems sort of reasonable to provide a easier way. It can’t be that pleasurable to die the way so many do. And if they have some horribly perverse love of pain, they can do it themselves.
Just a note: By no means do I support or look favorably upon suicide. I just don’t particularly see why people shouldn’t be able to choose to die in a decent manner. But I don’t care much about this issue, certainly not campaigning to institute such a system. Just expressing my own humble thoughts.
We neeed to know that our doctors are committed to health: and nobody is healthier dead.
The availability of death-as-a-treatment (and a cheap one, at that) disastrously reduces our motivation to seek treatment for depression and effective pain relief. Just as the availability of abortion STOPPED all research for a cure for Tay-Sachs, the available of prescription for a lethal dose of barbiturates will lessen institutional support for effective and humane palliative care.
Insurers, state healthcare systems and HMO's would probably agree that for cheap and for permanent, nothing beats death.