yeah, but your specific point - that suicide is inherently selfish, is just wrong. If you intend to put pressure on people to think about living, you got it extra wrong. For me, staying alive is about being careful with my time. For instance, with Christmas coming up, I need to line up a series of distractions I can use, because I am very likely to have very strong feeling of wanting to die in the coming week. I have to trick myself into social contact, and then I use cannabis and a pharmaceutical to help manage my moods while alone. I need to avoid certain types of media, for instance movies that emphasize how important it is to be with your wife and kids, especially tales where something is overcome to save a family from breaking apart.
do you get what I'm saying? do any of my management techniques involve reciting to myself what I "should" do? Or what I shouldn't do to avoid shame, and judgement about how horrible and selfish I am because it hurts, I can feel it, and I don't think I can live with it much longer?
what about suicide as political protest? what about conquered noble females committing suicide rather than endure gang rape from the other army? What about Socrates? Seppuku? What about self-immolation as political protest?
if you look at various human cultures an traditions over time, you'll find suicide is or has been considered an honorable way to die by most of them. So the only way to really judge whether it's acceptable is to look at the cultural context. In your case and in mine, it's the influence of religion (Christianity via Judaism) on our ethics. It's important to note that Judaism is cool with the rebels on Masada committing mass suicide, whereas in Christianity that would be a no-no as they prefer to commit suicide by getting executed.
"Suicide is selfish" is very close to "suicide is a sin".
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