“Rational Suicide” or Is It Depression?

“Bob Stern always was a fiercely logical thinker, and he made the decision to die with the same unflinching reason that had governed his life.
He explained the process to a video camera he set on a tripod in his living room.”

The comments above is from the story of Bob Stern and his family and his self-inflicted death in
“One man's defense of his own suicide
Documentary looks at his 'rational' act” by
Reyhan Harmanci, staff writer of the San Francisco Chronicle in today’s edition

I present this resource now as a followup to the July 16, 2005 posting here on assisted suicide in which commentator Bob Koep discusses the concept of “rational suicide”.

This issue is also discussed in the Chronicle article with comments by Hemlock Society founder Derek Humphrey who is quoted "Elderly suicidal people recognize that life has run its course and if that's what the person wants…" Whereas Wesley Smith, an opponent of assisted suicide, is quoted "If you end up with a public policy around rational suicide, you might as well throw suicide prevention in the trash…If a mental health professional gets in the business of stamping suicide, it's abandonment."

My question: Does the fact that a person requests “assisted suicide” makes the diagnosis of depression since the person is “asking for help” and if the person such as Bob Stern shoots himself in his head, this act makes a diagnosis of “rational suicide”? Or should we just forget about the term “rational suicide” since all suicide represent mental irrationality of one sort or another?. ...Maurice.

p.s.- Thanks to Alyssa Uphoff for referring me to this article.