The mental-health professions have so far failed to reduce the increasing rate of suicide in Western society, especially among adolescents. This failure calls for a radical revision in the present approach to the problem. It is argued that no professional approach suffices to fight the suicide epidemic without an explicit commitment to the sanctity of life. A moral stand against suicide, denouncing its cruelty toward loved and loving ones and its senselessness from the suicide's own viewpoint, is called for. Only such an open plea can make the clinical efforts efficient.
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