Before commenting on the case of Ms. A (see SIEC #930986), Mayo outlines the two competing ideologies of suicide that lie behind the ethical tensions surrounding the issue. The first ideology (liberal) is that of rational suicide while the second (conservative) holds that suicide is never reasonable or morally right. Mayo says that the nurse’s ambivalence in Ms. A’s case was really an ambivalence over the practical implications of these two belief systems. (7 refs.)