I go with a simple rule: I kill them, if their story arc allows it (that means, the death gives more to the story than take from the story). Mostly, if it´s memorable, the player will understand and maybe even like it. You aren´t in Westeros, you are in the Star Wars Galaxies, and in these Galaxies, PCs die dramatically. In my opinion, at least.

The most have touched the topic, but as far as I can see, here are my ideas

1) Save him. He´s a Droid, the body fails, PCs take the head with them. But it is badly damaged, only the legendary mechanic can help their friend... a legendary mechanic like Brandon Brightstar? But he is missing... new adventure!!! Or something like that, you get what I mean (and got the humoric interpretation I hope). F***k the rules, praise the story.

2) Kill him. But do not let him simply bleed out. He knows that he is "dying" and that he will fail in a short time. So he will have the opportunity to sacrifice himself by blowing something up or by a "Go! I will hinder them!"

You could say: "Your internal sensors indicating tat your plasma streams leak, the memory banks fail and the Kilorian acid vains are eating away your interior. There is no way to help you anymore, your failing." Then you could take away all wounds and critical hits, his last reserve. And than, he´ll be caring about for himself giving a glorious goodbye, or at least a memorable scene when he collapses on the escape shuttle.

Give every PC a great death, at least in this universe. My 2 Cents at least.

I'm a bit more pragmatic about PC death. So long as all the rules were obeyed and no dice were fudged in anyone's favor, no one needs to be upset. If a game system - and that's any game, not just FFG Star Wars - permits character death and the prerequisites for death were met, that's the game.

If you want to remove death as an option, make that a house rule. But I think it takes away a lot of the suspense and calculated risk taking if there's no consequences for poor or less-than-ideal decisions.

Characters don't die easily anyway so if they are going to die by the rules, so be it. Especially if, like the OP's player, it was caused by poor choices and recklessness. You have to live with the consequences of your choices, otherwise it means nothing.

My thoughts.

Update on the game and player in question, if anyone was curious:

The droid did indeed die, and the player seemed to have come to terms with it since the last session. There were some heroic efforts to try to save him, including averting one 'the end is nigh' crit through a last ditch mechanics check from a character totally unskilled in mechanics. However, it ultimately was too much to solve long term. Didn't help that they were escaping from prison cells in a star destroyer, so were on the run to start with. I let the player go ahead and narrate his own death, and he liked a simple death of just crumpling on the spot.

I liked the suggestions of allowing him to get saved via the head or something, and depending on the player's attitude I was going to mention it, but he seemed to already have a couple potential new characters in mind anyways. So thanks for all the suggestions everybody!

...but he seemed to already have a couple potential new characters in mind anyways.

This is true in, probably, 99% of cases. I'm always a little weirded out by people who get upset about their character's death. I typically have 7 alternate character ideas floating around in the back of my skull.

I was in a game where a player basically wanted to take a grenade and pull the pin and hold it until he passed out.

The GM and the other players told him "THIS IS A BAD IDEA" and he decided to stop it.

If the other players are letting him get himself blown up, give warning, give PLENTY of warning, have the players help warn him. then give them a heroic death.

my bet is the player will either do something differant, or roll up the same character and do it all over again.