Madam, - Lynn Swinburne of the National Youth Health Programme (August 4th) talks of the need to challenge the stigma and misunderstanding surrounding suicide. We are advised to avoid the criminal term of "committing suicide" and refer instead to the "completion of suicide" or "death by suicide".
With all due respect, I think that such mollycoddling is not the right approach. I have the utmost sympathy for people who are in such distress that they see their only option as to take their own lives but I fear that by trying to be more sensitive to those who are left behind - for that is who benefits from such terms - we risk making the act in itself more acceptable.
There needs to be a concerted campaign to highlight the repercussions of suicide, the terrible destruction it causes. We have to "talk" about the turmoil left in its wake. This may seem like a harsh attitude but by being more "sensitive" to the issue we may inadvertently be encouraging suicidal thoughts.
The more sympathetically we present suicide, the more acceptable - or, even worse, glorified - it may become. Ireland's suicide rate is growing. Young people, in particular, seem to be increasingly disillusioned in an increasingly prosperous country. We need to demonstrate what life has to offer and highlight the consequences of suicide. The focus should not be on increased sensitivity towards the issue of suicide but rather on its prevention. - Yours, etc,
E McNAMARA,
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.