Suicide

I'm not against suicide as much as other people are. In some situations, I think it's appropriate, in others I don't. It's a personal decision and a very tough one.
But what irks me about this issue are the platitudes against suicide: That it's never the answer, that things will get better, that life is worth living, etc.
The taking of any human life is a complex and complicated subject that cannot be explained away so easily. When you tell a suicidal person something as simple as "suicide is never the answer" or "you'll get through this" you're telling them that they're so dumb that they've overlooked cliched reasoning.
I just read about a student at Indiana University who killed himself in his dorm room and nobody noticed for five days.
He was young and smart, and his death is being portrayed in media outlets as a tragedy. But I bet that if he had gone to someone and said, "I'd like to kill myself. I don't think anybody would miss me for at least 5 days." They'd have told him he was wrong.
I don't want to sound callous here. From what I've read about him, this kid seemed pretty great (but let's be honest: how often are people honest in obituaries and remembrance pieces?), but it doesn't mean he shouldn't have killed himself. I'm not sure that anyone besides him is qualified to make that call.
A nasty truth in life is that there are things worse than death.