I agree with Desire, I also had different opinions on suicide until I had first hand experience of it.
On the issue of whether it is selfish, no I don't think it is. To look at my uncles suicide from an outsiders perspective then I guess they would say he was very selfish. He left behind a wife, a 15 year old son & three daughters under the age of 9; and seemingly he had nothing so wrong in his life that couldn't be helped or changed. From the outside he had quite a happy marriage, no major money troubles, a job he loved, beautiful happy children, brothers and sisters who loved him-yet there was something inside tearing him up. And as a family we were only aware of his pain through the letter he left-I can't and won't go into what was in it, suffice to say that my uncle was in pain I hope to god I never experience. He was not selfish, he took a course of action that was best for him-I do not see that as selfish.
Humans by their very nature do things to help themselves, it is only after millions of years of conditioning to believe that others come first that we do not show this egocentric nature all the time. Ultimately, from what was in the letter, my uncle truly believed that his family would be better off without him & that certainly he would be better off not on this earth; that is his opinion & judgement & who am I to question it? Just because our actions affect others doesn't mean that we should always put others above ourselves does it? I certainly do not believe it total aultruism! My philosophy is-until you stand in someones shoes then don't judge them.

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by BettyBoop
I agree with Desire, I also had different opinions on suicide until I had first hand experience of it.
On the issue of whether it is selfish, no I don't think it is. To look at my uncles suicide from an outsiders perspective then I guess they would say he was very selfish. He left behind a wife, a 15 year old son & three daughters under the age of 9; and seemingly he had nothing so wrong in his life that couldn't be helped or changed. From the outside he had quite a happy marriage, no major money troubles, a job he loved, beautiful happy children, brothers and sisters who loved him-yet there was something inside tearing him up. And as a family we were only aware of his pain through the letter he left-I can't and won't go into what was in it, suffice to say that my uncle was in pain I hope to god I never experience. He was not selfish, he took a course of action that was best for him-I do not see that as selfish.
Humans by their very nature do things to help themselves, it is only after millions of years of conditioning to believe that others come first that we do not show this egocentric nature all the time. Ultimately, from what was in the letter, my uncle truly believed that his family would be better off without him & that certainly he would be better off not on this earth; that is his opinion & judgement & who am I to question it? Just because our actions affect others doesn't mean that we should always put others above ourselves does it? I certainly do not believe it total aultruism! My philosophy is-until you stand in someones shoes then don't judge them.

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I don't think I could have put it better (well I know I couldn't have) I think the sadest part is that a person feels that that is the only way out of their pain and I think we have no right to judge them at all.

The 'stand in someone else's shoes' argument bothers me. Not that I think we should necessarily judge people who are suicidal, but because it means we really can't judge anyone. Which rationally might be a good thing, but is entirely contradictory to human nature...

Anyway, to add my perspective. I haven't directly known anyone who's comitted suicide. I do know several people who've tried. In the face of that, my feelings were those of shock, helplessness, and ultimately of failure. Because I don't feel that suicide is inherently wrong on any level, but I do feel that I'd like to be able to help a friend who feels that way out of it, and I also now know that I wouldn't be able. I've also contemplated suicide myself, but that's unimportant really.

To answer the questions:
It is in my view acceptable, and I think it would be rather pointless (and possibly somewhat comical ) to see someone informing a corpse that it wasn't.
I think it's different and not entirely comparable with euthanasia, and I have trouble with assigning levels of 'acceptability' to them.
Tricky question. Slightly different, but I think there is a certain level of stigma associated with mental health, of which I'm guilty. Despite having been through depression and counselling myself I still feel slightly uncomfortable when people ring for my mum and I have to say she's at therapy.. I suppose the question is 'Is someone who's attempted suicide liable to be prejudged because of it?' and while having no experience in the matter myself, I'd say probably yes.
I think shame is down to the individual, but generally, no.

First, my now traditional pedantic point:

Euthanasia. Can we first off clarify that we are all talking about 'Voluntary Euthanasia’, as the history of Euthanasia is not always a case of it being voluntary.

Further, I would suggest that the only reason we even call it Voluntary Euthanasia is that we're scared of calling it what it really is - suicide, assisted or otherwise.

The reason we do this is the stigma attached to suicide, mainly due to the historic treatment of it by the major religions of the modern world. I, personally, see nothing reprehensible about suicide, just regrettable and distressing. But then it is the same when anyone you care for dies, however it came to pass.

As for the idea of suicide as selfish, I can't agree. When someone looses their will to live, it doesn't matter how many other people might be hurt, as you cannot live for other people. You need to want to live for that to happen. Further, from my experience and knowledge, for what it's worth, a suicide victim is more in despair of themselves than they are of events around them. Events and other people come and go. It is far harder to deal with and change you.

I should also mention, at this point, that not all suicide victims actually intend to kill themselves, but are actually issuing a cry for help that they do not feel they can vocalize. The saddest part is that this doesn't always work, and they do die anyway.

Read in today's Community Care magazine

"Nearly one in six adults have considered suicide at some piont in their life according to findings from the Office of National Statistics. It found that around 15% of 16 to 74 year olds in Britain had considered suicide at some point in their life, while 4% had thought about suicide in the past year."

The whole report can be found here:-

www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/nonfatal0302.pdf

It doesn't give the statistics for fatal suicides.

Personally I was surprised, I thought the figure would be higher than that....