Many people with debilitating and irreversible health conditions do not have supportive family and friends. They include include people with metastatic cancer, irreversible neurological conditions, and multiple medical problems that have taken away any enjoyment and quality of life as determined by them. They no longer want to continue living because they know that their condition will only worsen, and for them it is already beyond bad. There is no realistic hope that their lives will improve. Most of the time, family members and friends are able to see the suffering in their loved one's life and understand a desire to end the suffering. But this is not always the case, as illustrated in this post.
If we use "existential suffering" as a stand-in for all of the related terms we use, it will help us discuss what we may mean by them. Certainly, distress, dread, angst, anxiety, anguish, or crisis all suggest suffering at least in a mental or psychological sense, a kind of suffering that all people encounter at one point or another in their lives, or even daily. Some existential suffering can be mitigated through changes in circumstances or with the help of others, but when one is dying, whether slowly or rapidly, one may wish to forego the suffering whether or not there may be temporary relief for it.
There is no medical reason why a person who hastens their death because of suffering or unacceptable quality of life should be precluded from being an organ or tissue donor. What is important is the medical history of the prospective donor, the location at time of death, and the timely discovery of the body after a non-hospital death, which affects tissue donation.
