Judy, when someone really wishes to take their own life, it is not selfishness, usually quite the opposite, as they feel that they are doing the very best thing possible for those that they love. It may feel selfish to those loved ones left, but do not continue to make such damning, crass, comments about mental illness.
My youngest son died very tragically and suddenly - now some 16 years ago. A few months later, I can remember crying whilst I was trying to cut the grass and thinking that if I deliberately ran over the wire, perhaps the electric shock would be enough to kill me and take away the pain. Then I thought of my other five children and knew that, no way, could I inflict another trauma onto them.
Some years before that, I had a very bad year, my husband suddenly left me in a rather desperate state, and then I crashed my car. Driving home in a hired car I went over a high bridge, and I can remember thinking that if I wrenched the wheel sharply to the left at speed, I could go through the wall and plummet downwards. My next thought was that the way my luck was running, I would just probably end up terribly injured, but still alive, at the bottom.
Somehow, I have come through it all, and am pleased that I have lived to see my eight g.children all born, and my own children doing well, etc.
Must say, would still like to see the law changed to allow those of us who wished it to be able to choose euthanasia, with obvious appropriate safe guards. Old Age is a terminal illness, and I feel I should have the right to choose how and when to die, in much the same way as I have chosen how to live.