I think its a pretty complicated subject and most people on average don't have the life experience, knowledge or wisdom to really discuss it well. It would be like asking people their thoughts on quantum mechanics. A difference being though, is that suicide deals with life and death, family, friends, loved ones, topics that are very important to people and play on our emotions, so many of us feel entitled to speak about it and express our views and opinions about it.
Peoples attitudes and understanding of mental health issues will always lag behind peoples attitudes and understanding of physical health. If one of our friends is shot, we can see their pain on their expression and body, we can see blood, we can hear them in pain, we will worry about them, realize something is wrong and ourselves and others, even strangers, will try and get that shot person to a hospital for help, to save them. The mental health equivalent of being shot however is incredibly easy to overlook. For many people who have experienced a lot of mental and physical pain in their lives, a lot of them talk about how mental and emotional pain is far worse, far harder to deal with, cope with, get help for, is more debilitating and straining. No only that but it can even usually exacerbate physical injury (and sever physical injury often will contribute to negative mental health conditions too)
A lot of people consider suicide cowardly, but they seem to not understand that often a suicidal person is in so much pain in the moment, that they literally can't understand or process the world like usual. Even emotionally and mentally sound and healthy people are useless at being able to plan and understand the future and consequences of actions, until they get much older. A suicidal person often experiences a disconnect so they can convince themselves that they are doing a favor to people they care about. Or of they do somehow acknowledge that some people might be hurt by their actions? It would be negligible and or the guilt of hurting others just adds more incentive to why they should commit the act. A bizarre and heartbreaking mix of guilt, honor and confusion.
The problem however with the idea of allowing people to end their life of their own volition is that most people lack the knowledge, emotional and mental restraint, understanding, foresight and experience to look at all the options. Just for things like where they might be in five years let alone the rest of their life. For small finite decisions, let alone decisions that last forever and are final. Euthanasia sidesteps some of that because the amount of pain and suffering experienced by an individual can be established by a professional and at some point the pain and suffering as well as odds for recovery and hope for that individual to ever experience alleviation, respite, relief all lead to a situation where a decision can be made ideally with the individual experienced the pain, for the most humane course of action/actions. So the ability for people to choose death has to come with a lot of conditions.
Modern day life can be pretty extreme and hard, a lot of time, even strong people can suffer for their situation, sometimes its completely out of their control, sometimes its the chemicals in their body working against them. Sometimes its stress and pressure from unfair living conditions. Sometimes its isolation and lack of adequate support network. Lots of things, no one should feel shame for such things, they just need help and are entitled to help. Of course suicide creates more victims than just the person that takes their life, losing a friend or loved one, family member to suicide is one of the hardest things to go through, but suicide is an ongoing problem, depending on how long this thread is around, and how many views it gets, statistically speaking a number of people who browse this thread are going to attempt suicide in the future. Which is incredibly sad to think about, so lets try and encourage people to get help, talk to people, look for alternatives.
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