What would make you tell someone it's better for him or her to commit suicide?

I think that borders on conspiracy to commit murder.

Nothing.

While I do believe that there are circumstances in which it is better to die than continue living, I would never recommend suicide. That is a decision that one must come to on their own. Were I to be asked for advice, I would limit myself to a discussion of the available options and the questions that one should answer before reaching a conclusion.

There are things that could happen that I believe would be worse than dying. But that is me. For example, would I want to be basically paralyzed from the neck down? Stuck in a wheel chair with others having to take care of even the basic things for me? No. That would be horrible in my opinion. Yet Christopher Reeves and Stephen Hawking managed through situations like this for years and seemed to lead productive lives. To them, they found a way to not let it get them down. Suicide is a very personal thing because our tolerance and acceptance of things is a personal thing.

I don’t understand the supporting information with the main question, so I might be answering this incorrectly, but what first came to my mind is if someone is sick with a terminal disease where they either will wind up in extruciating pain, or become helpless and unable to take their life later, maybe they might want to consider doing it before things get really bad.

As far as criminals justifying it, I never can see that as ok. I would die myself before killing someone else. I remember watching some movie where medicine was keeping people alive, but the nasty truth was the way the medicine was produced was by killing other people. I would not want that medicine. It’s completely immoral to me.

Seems to me that falls into the “None of your business” category.

Your details don’t match the question.
Can you give us an example of someone killing someone and justifing their crime by saying they did it to feed their kids? I can’t fathom how killing someone would allow them to feed their kids.

Same as others said, never unless someone is suffering a terminal illness or other serious issue and would rather be gone.

But even then ^^^ how would that feed their kids?

The circumstances behind homicides vary enormously. “To feed my family” as an answer to “why’d you do it?” makes perfect sense. It’s a variation of “I did it because it’s my job”. How do you counter that?

BUT HOW WOULD IT FEED THEIR FAMILY???

@Dutchess_III The OP is talking about the murderer feeding their family, as in a paid assassin or criminal homicide. There does seem to be a disconnect between the question and the details. Not sure how murder and telling someone to commit suicide are connected here.

I kind of gleaned that, but what does it have to do with committing suicide?

I would also like to join the chorus of voices questioning the link between the title question and its details. They are unrelated.

Looks like the OP is answering his own question. The proper time to advise suicide is to those individuals who kill for profit.

@stanleybmanly I don’t infer that at all.

What other interpretation is possible?

Another reasonable interpretation is that the OP did an exceedingly poor job of crafting this question.

The title question has nothing to do with the details. The details do not even explicitly state a murder was done for hire. We must assume the third-world assassins are the ones feeding their children by committing murder.

This whole question is a mess.

That’s exactly what @stanleybmanly said, @Hawaii_Jake!

@Dutchess_III At no point in this thread has @stanleybmanly said the question is poorly written or difficult to understand as written. You are wrong, and shouting at me will not make you right.

What on earth are you going on about now @Hawaii_Jake?

A person would have to be an arrogant, supremely selfish sick bastard to suggest such a thing.

@stanleybmanly is correct about my question.

I would have no qualms telling a killer for hire to just kill himself if the reason he does it is so he could support his family.

I also mentioned some third world countries where people are so poor they would kill for 300 US dollars.

Well, are there any GOOD reasons for killing other people, aside from self defense?

I sure didn’t get that from the question and do think it was hard to understand what was meant.

I could also….almost….see myself saying the same thing to a person who is in pain, suffering and terminal that if he asks me if it’s better to kill himself…I just might.

Though productive and revered, Stephen Hawking did consider suicide at times. Unlike many others, he had a vast support system. He was capable of providing support for his family, which is very important in the morale of persons of limited mobility.
In regards to a healthy person who commits homicide for money, are not at all likely to be convinced to kill theirself. The only way they might do it to leave support behind for their family is if there is an insurance policy of impressive value, and they don’t pay out on suicide.

In the case of suicide terrorists, well, if I were being recruited for such a thing on promises my family would be cared for financially, I would not buy into it. They are told they are going to earn themselves a special place in the afterlife. That thinking is for the greedy, not the selfless. Promises for my family? If I’m dead, how will I be sure they will keep such a promise?
No, suicide for personal gain seems like a losing proposition to me. I think a person would have to be mentally compromised to fall for such a notion.