Alright, CT. Despite my admitted irritation with your intentional limiting of examples "within western countries", I'll submit to your request.
First, a direct example as you requested:
Link #1
Carolyn G. Heilbrun's suicide this past October could not have come as a great surprise to her family and friends. After all, the 77-year-old former Columbia University literature professor and mystery author had written for years about her plans to kill herself.
Heilbrun was suffering from none of the conditions commonly associated with suicide when she evidently took an overdose of pills and put a plastic bag over her head. She was neither terminally ill, in severe pain nor, apparently, depressed. Instead, she committed what some have called "rational suicide" -- ending one's life out of a conviction that one has lived long enough, that the likely future holds more pain than joy.
Rational suicide, a coinage dating back nearly a century, has also been called balance-sheet suicide, suggesting that sane individuals can objectively weigh the pros and cons of continued life, and then decide in favor of death.
Secondly, a interesting article you may want to give a read over on the subject of suicide, society's stigma and misconceptions on it:
Link #2
I believe we need to either recognize rational suicide, or develop a new term to describe it. Given that such suicides are rational, is it not also rational to allow such patients the benefit of discussion of their dilemma without patronization, and unwanted attempts at psychiatric treatment. If their desire is rational must we deny them a rational means to accomplish their desire; the alternative is for them in desperation to use the common methods employed by the elderly such as hanging, shooting, gassing, drowning, cutting, jumping, or to be forced to suffer that which most dread without relief. If their desire is rational, how should medical practitioners deal with a request for assistance in achieving that rational suicide in a humane manner? They can ignore it, or patronize it, or try to change it (which they should do if they have any doubt that the request is rational), or they can assist by veiled means (terminal sedation) or directly by a prescription of appropriate medication, coupled with counseling and ongoing support, trying to ensure that such action is never taken before it is absolutely necessary.
