assisted suicide vs suicide prevention

[Whateverist]

So I know there are quite a few people here who have said that they support assisted suicide for any person who no longer wants to live, so long as they are an adult. The rationale is, a person has the right to end their life for any reason if they so choose, and there should therefore be a safe and painless options for them to do so. 

For those people, my question is, do you feel then that it is not appropriate to call 911 when a friend tells you they will kill themselves, since you are preventing them from doing something they have a right to do? Do you think we should lay off the whole suicide prevention thing, and just let people choose for themselves, and not make suicide into this thing we should prevent people from doing?

We just had a situation in my wife Lia's family that relates.  Her first cousin Gail has had extreme social anxiety for a long time being now in her late 70's.  Recently she wrote to Lia and Lia's brother Richard, telling them that she wanted to end it, that life was just too hard.  She tends to end up staying in places which fill up with things she won't throw out and into which she won't invite anyone.  She doesn't let anyone know where she is either.  But after getting that letter, Lia tracked her down living in a place a couple hours south of us.  She didn't answer the door and either had no phone or not one of which we were aware.  But a neighbor directed her to where she could go around to call into a window to say who she was.  She let her in and they talked.  Meanwhile Richard phoned some agencies which resulted in her being placed in a senior assisted living facility.  She gets medications and activities now which have greatly improved her outlook.  She struggles with social anxiety but now her day to day maintenance doesn't feel so far beyond her capacity.  

If we are to allow self selected suicide I think we must make some serious effort to rule out the possibility to alleviate the condition which prompts the request.  Of course in this country where so many want to erode our very inadequate social safety net, I'm sure we will go on allowing millions to live in desperation and only voice our concern when talk of suicide comes up.