Knowing how easily and quickly one can take one's life and how complex human behavior and motivations can be, I believe that it is simplistic to ascribe a single motive to the act of suicide. 

There are, nevertheless, many people who have attempted suicide who have nearly succeeded and then lived on to regret the attempt. There certainly must be lots of research done on these subjects. 

Rather than quoting Wikipedia, a source that cannot be taken as being reliable, maybe someone ought to have a look in Psych Abstracts  for studies appearing in
peer-reviewed, scholarly journals (even e-journals) on this topic.

Although, I do find the discussion going on here to be interesting and worthwhile, doing a little research might shed light on the topic.

Issac in that situation of the mother I would say what is the most selfish is that she did not find her child adequate care before killing herself, it is sad to me the child will grow up without there mom it's sad that the child will most likely blame themselves. BUT I am not going to judge the mom when I have no idea the kind of pain she felt inside.

Mental illness is not a black and white issue and it appears to me that you are making it that, it wont be it never will be. I was a single mom and I did take 20 something odd vicodin to kill myself, my actions at the time and how I felt were anything but selfish, if anything I was being selfless or at least with a severe mental illness that is what you feel inside.

I have overcome a lot since that time and my mental illness was not of any fault of my own. It's what happens when severe sexual, physical and emotional abuse happens to kids, allthough I am mentally 100times better now than I ever was than can guarntee you if I lost all my kids tomorrow I would kill myself. My children and my love for them are what now keeps me alive and going and if I lost all of them I would not want to live.

Imagine loosing your wife and kids, I know that they are the most important part of your life, that pain you feel inside everyday you loose any sense of rationality and logic and sorry but at the time you aren't thinking about how it might affect your sister or brothr or aunt, you are thinking about how all this pain inside is unbearable and you just want it to stop just want it to go away for a little bit not no matter what it takes.

I am glad my life was saved and if I could see than what I do now I would have never attempted it, lord knows at 14 I tried very hard to kill myself to stop the abuse with no luck, and everything did work out in the end but you don't see that when you are mentally not there.

You say you can understand if someone is terminal well mental illness can very much feel like a terminal cancer that you are dying from.

To me it is selfish for you to sit here not knowing what it is like to be in that much pain and make the issue black and white, I say not knowing cause you have said yourself before when we have talked you have never had to go through this or that and had a good life.

If you remember, I didn't start the discussion by saying that I personally felt this way in all instances.  I like to look at things from different angles and sometimes I debate something from the other side even if I don't hold a strong opinion.

I honestly don't know if a person who has viewed the inclination toward suicide from person experience can argue this dispassionately or in a disinterested manner.  But I'm going from the assumption you can.

If someone is suicidal, do you think they would be rational enough to try to find someone to take care of their children?  It seems kind of unlikely to me.  And what is the suicidal person going to tell the "prospective" parent the reason for giving the kids away?

If I lost my wife and kids, I doubt I would feel suicidal.  In fact, I am inclined to feel obligated to do something to honor them, not immolate myself.  I'd probably become a priest.

I still don't see the mental illness/terminal illness comparison.  Has anybody ever died directly from depression/anxiety/bipolar disorder?  I can't think of any cases.  If the person honestly felt like they were dying from it, they probably wouldn't need to try to commit suicide because they believe they would die soon anyway, wouldn't they?

But once again, I don't feel like I understand the circumstances you feel like it would be a good idea or unselfish to commit suicide.  By that I mean, what are your limits?  Like, would it be okay if someone committed suicide if they had an otherwise great life, but got an F on a test?  Or their boyfriend dumped them?  Is it ever okay for a 12-year-old to commit suicide?  Where do you draw the line?  Is there any point, ever, in intervening?

From my standpoint, I said someone with a terminal, debilitating illness (Lou Gehrig's disease, late-stage cancer).  I also said a hermit committing suicide would not be selfish, if no one cared about him.  I admit it would be sad that no one cared about him, but if he doesn't impact anybody emotionally, physically, etc., then he hasn't commmitted an act in consideration of himself, and to the detriment of someone else.

If you remember, I didn't start the discussion by saying that I personally felt this way in all instances.  I like to look at things from different angles and sometimes I debate something from the other side even if I don't hold a strong opinion.

I honestly don't know if a person who has viewed the inclination toward suicide from person experience can argue this dispassionately or in a disinterested manner.  But I'm going from the assumption you can.

If someone is suicidal, do you think they would be rational enough to try to find someone to take care of their children?  It seems kind of unlikely to me.  And what is the suicidal person going to tell the "prospective" parent the reason for giving the kids away?

If I lost my wife and kids, I doubt I would feel suicidal.  In fact, I am inclined to feel obligated to do something to honor them, not immolate myself.  I'd probably become a priest.

I still don't see the mental illness/terminal illness comparison.  Has anybody ever died directly from depression/anxiety/bipolar disorder?  I can't think of any cases.  If the person honestly felt like they were dying from it, they probably wouldn't need to try to commit suicide because they believe they would die soon anyway, wouldn't they?

But once again, I don't feel like I understand the circumstances you feel like it would be a good idea or unselfish to commit suicide.  By that I mean, what are your limits?  Like, would it be okay if someone committed suicide if they had an otherwise great life, but got an F on a test?  Or their boyfriend dumped them?  Is it ever okay for a 12-year-old to commit suicide?  Where do you draw the line?  Is there any point, ever, in intervening?

From my standpoint, I said someone with a terminal, debilitating illness (Lou Gehrig's disease, late-stage cancer).  I also said a hermit committing suicide would not be selfish, if no one cared about him.  I admit it would be sad that no one cared about him, but if he doesn't impact anybody emotionally, physically, etc., then he hasn't commmitted an act in consideration of himself, and to the detriment of someone else.

Diane, I got the message.  Please disregard my last post here.  Like I said, I sometimes beat a topic to death to figure out how I feel about it.  I am very much on the fence about a lot of issues.  I'm not here to drag somebody down with a debate like this.  At least not intentionally.  Take care, everyone.

I wish you all (no I will not wish this on anyone)could have been at the very sad and senseless funeral of a good friends son this past week that I had to attend. Anyone would think twice about trying to defend the acts of suicide if they had .It has basically destroyed his family and I know that if he only could have seen the hurt he caused he never would have done what he did.
It is a very selfish act, and I can not understand it,and I don't think that any so called 'expert' can.

1. Wikipedia says the following about suicide among the Inuit elderly: "This practice was not universal among the Inuit — some bands never had such practices — and was only tolerated under truly desperate conditions".  In fact, they said infanticide was more common during food shortages.  So, I think it would be helpful if you provided a better example.

2. Being monogamous DOES make sense in anthropological and evolutionary terms.  In fact the reason, is that the male is compelled, by innate biological impulses, to stay with the female so that his DNA will be propagated -- children are provided for safely until they reach adulthood, and so on, and so on.  In fact, people will tell you nowadays that social dislocation and dissolution has led to this instinct being defeated.

3. Your "sad and blue" vs. clinical depression comparison is interesting.  A person suffering from clinical depression that has a chemical basis can often be treated very successfully.  In those cases, it make utterly no sense to commit suicide when that help is available.  If you are sad or blue, it makes even less sense.

There was a very serious issue being discused here and thought I would chime in with my 2 cents (cause that's about all it's worh on eBay)
I have to say that no matter how others interpret it suicide is an unknowingly selfish act. By this I mean that to everyone else it's a selfish act but for the person commiting it (in general) it is a very selfless act. Having been very close myself at different stages in my life, even after my son was born I had completly convinced myself about how much better off the world would be without me. How much better my son's life would be. I was the last person that I was thinking about. Most of it had to do financially because of the situation my son would have received a large life insurance settlement plus my retirement funds, plus social security that was equal to about half of my gross pay at the time, but anywho. A person that is deeply depressed like that continually beats themselves up, imagine the weird kid in high school getting picked on daily now take all that and do it to yourself.

Like I said just my 2 cents. Now I'm done being serious for a long while (I hope) back to the fun and smartassedness.