The author discusses medical illness as a motivation for suicide & describes the effects of depression, anxiety, & ambivalence about dying in medical patients who both attempt suicide & those who request assisted suicide. He argues that when the physical & psychological sources of the despreation that underlies requests for assisted suicide are addressed, the desire for death diminishes & patients are ususally rateful for the time remaining to them. Thus, he suggests that improved psychiatric & medical care for those who are terminally ill offer significant possibilities for suicide prevention. (13 refs)