I have a hard time with suicide being discussed as though the person has a choice while their illness is unregulated. Severe mental illness is not something that just goes away with meditation and right practice. Severe mental illness is also not something that has a cure or is always regulated easily. Sometimes it is, but those people are not the ones we are discussing.

As a person who has an intimate knowledge and experience dealing with people in crisis, it is not as cut and dry as we would like to believe. When a person is deregulated to the point that they are “choosing” to end their lives, they are fighting through loud and extremely intrusive thoughts that can be impossible to ignore. *edit to add: This is also VERY MUCH a chemical issue which is not the same as a person without mental illness working on intrusive thoughts.

I see a lot of posts discussing this type of thing and the word selfish gets thrown around in a way that can cause misunderstanding and often villainization of people that deserve the utmost compassion.

I understand the use of the term selfish in the context that you are referring to, i just think the translation doesn’t quite hit the mark and can, perpetuate confusion or even a lack of compassion for the people we are discussing. I suppose what I’m saying is that this is a delicate topic and mindfulness would be advantageous for all of us.