The last word

Suicide is a subject requiring the utmost delicacy.  Brenda Leyland unleashed a stream of abuse on Twitter towards Kate and Gerry McCann, was later confronted by a Sky News team and two days later was found dead in a hotel, a situation the police are calling 'not suspicious'.  It could be said that at 63, she should have known better and thinking that there no consequences of being an internet troll, when finding out that there were, died of shame.  One must think of her son, living in Los Angeles and also the Sky crew who took her to task.  It would be unseemly though to attack Leyland as then one would be guilty of hypocrisy.  Without a sufficient support network, it is callous to say 'good riddance' - life should always be treasured.
The ancient Romans had a different conception of taking one's own life.  In this macho millieu, they saw it as essentially a noble act (much like the Japanese who commit hari-kiri).  The usurping emperor Otho chose to end his life rather than risk the blood of his soldiers battling another usurper - it was certainly a more dignified end than that of his successor, Vitellius, whose short-lived reign concluded when found cowering under a propped-up mattress in the imperial palace.  So moved were they by their leader's decision that several legionaries threw themselves on to Otho's funeral pyre as an act of solidarity.
When Christianity became the dominant religion in the Roman world, suicide was reviled as a rejection of the gift of life donated from God.  Judas Iscariot's final act confirmed the Church's opposition.  Those that died by their own hand were considered condemned to hell and were buried outside church cemeteries.  This attitude began to change by the time of the High Renaissance - Hamlet's famous soliloquy was a meditation on suicide - 'to be or not to be' - with the reaction to Ophelia's self-annihilation castigated by her former beau and Horatio, in his despair at the conclusion of the play, talks of ending his life like 'an antique Roman' (and is argued out of it by the moody Prince of Denmark).  By the time of the French Revolution and thereafter, suicide was again seen as the honourable way out.
These days it is a political hot potato with 'right-to-die' campaigns by those physically enfeebled by some debilitating condition.  Since depression has come to be seen as a mental illness (rather than the prejudicial 'disorder') that is not shameful to be discussed, compassion from the public has been fulsome.  Radio DJ Alan Brazil was castigated for being critical of Robin Williams' suicide, his anger motivated by what he saw as the scene of destruction left amongst Williams' family and friends.  Gary Speed, already depressed by the lack of ritual following his retirement from professional football and feeling his family life was falling apart following a particularly bitter row with his wife, hung himself in his garage (found by his wife on her return from a drive to get the anger out of her system).  This drew attention to the lack of support available in a sport where guys don't talk about what's going on in their minds.  Jacintha Saldanha, a devoted Christian no less, killed herself when she felt the scale of embarrassment was too much after mistakenly putting two prankster Australian DJs impersonating Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles through to Princess Kate's maternity ward.  It was a tragic postscript to the news of Prince George.  Yesterday, I heard on the radio the Welsh rugby player Gareth Thomas describe how he hated himself so much (as he struggled to comprehend his sexuality and the impact it would have on those around him) that he wanted to take his own life but "chickened-out" - a shocking thing to say, less because he did not understand that rejecting suicide is not a failure and more because his self-loathing had become so intolerable that any action he took was seen by him as cowardly.  Yet as much as we must take pains to understand the conditions that lead people to kill themselves, the devastation, even 'survivor guilt', of those left to deal without the fallout make them victims as well, something often overlooked in today's rush to absolve those who take such an ultimate decision.
My personal conviction towards suicide is one of instinctive distaste, seeing it both as selfish and weak.  Having seriously considered it in the past as a teenager and rejected it as a colossal waste (though my principal aim was to shame those who had so hurt and humiliated me), at the time I wasn't thinking about the pain it would cause my family and others who loved me.  Depression or not, that is a fatal narcissism.  Having rationally and conclusively decided against it for myself, one might say I have the zeal of a convert on the subject.  I think what would I do were I trapped in a completely paralysed body, I would like to believe I would construct a mind palace but hideous boredom would be prominent too.  Were I able-bodied, I can see no circumstance where I would end my own life - even if I lost everything, I am lucky enough to live in a country where I can find a way to rebuild my life up from the bottom.
So I am essentially unsympathetic but social mores dictate that I must be the opposite.  I thus soften my line and qualify it.  It stings when famous people for whom I have respect die, it stings more when the death is self-inflicted.  This is what I keep inside of me, outwardly I suppress it and offer up sincere (yes, it is sincere) warmth to those left behind and accept that suicide is rarely taken without much agonising inner turmoil.  I would never condemn anyone who has pondered it, to their face or electronically.  While I won't ever be satisfied with it, I won't deny anyone the right to take a more empathetic viewpoint.  Likewise, as I would not take such a harsh-by-turns-flippant line as Alan Brazil, I would hope not to feel pressure to conform to the prevailing political correctness.  We should all be committed to minimising suicide.  Brenda Leyland should not have done what she did against the McCanns (especially as the family, who let us remember have lost a young child, were vindicated with another newspaper paying out for libel) but neither did she deserve to die.  Any loss of life is sad.  Ultimately, people must not be afraid to talk of their demons and support networks must be strong enough to carry them through and show them that there is the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.  We will never reach a state of perfection but this is something we as a society should strive towards.