You're not allowed to end it all. Ever.

[Autumnlicious]

The point is merely that we don't have unlimited resources. Therefore spending a lot of money so that just one person might reconsider is not worth it.

Bullshit. We spend and waste tons of money on many other things. Why is this any different?

Maybe this would also force people to reconsider a rent control works and how taxes are collected in the city.

But you don't care about that, do you? It's all zero-sum game, right?

[Napoléon]

Ignoring your psychobabble.

Ignoring your entire post.

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[Autumnlicious]

Whatever you say.

You're more interested in allowing the despairing to end it. Publicly.

You probably don't even know that the Golden Gate bridge was designed with a lower than normal railing, making it rather easy to slip off over the side.

[Autumnlicious]

And some history:

In his original design for the Golden Gate Bridge, engineer Joseph Strauss included a structure to deter suicide. He specified a safety railing of five feet six inches, capped in a manner difficult for any climber to grasp. Strauss advertised the Bridge through the press as practically suicide-proof. Architect Irving Morrow changed that design, and specified a lower railing.

Ref: http://www.bridgerail.org/the-issue-a-th...action-why

Irving Morrow was of short stature and wanted to see over the edge. What was the cost for his change?

Within weeks of the 1937 opening, the Golden Gate Bridge witnessed its first suicide. In early 1939, with the Bridge open only 18 months, the suicide count reached 11 and the California Highway Patrol began to express its concern publicly.

[Autumnlicious]

Leave it to the advocates for suicide to completely ignore the history of the Golden gate Bridge...

[ShaMan]

My buddy hung himself in a public bathroom - we were 14 years old. He had been in the bathroom for a long time, and when I went into the bathroom to look for him, I found him with one sleeve of his long sleeved shirt wound around his neck and the other sleeve tied to a sprinkler pipe - he was already dead. There is no way to stop a person who is determined to die.

[Autumnlicious]

So every successful suicide means suicide cannot be prevented?

Nothing is completely effective. Even comprehensive solutions have holes.

Fact of the matter is, the Golden gate Bridge has an abnormally higher rate of suicides and this should retard that.

[Losty]

If the barrier makes one person reconsider, then it is worth it.

I'm sorry. Obviously this issue gets you really upset, but I completely disagree with you. $76 million on a barrier to make the slightest difference? Someone who gets that far to find a fucking net blocking their path will find another path. We could be saving thousands of people who didn't really want to die. People who just needed someone to reach out to. Someone to tell them that their life is valuable. Someone to hear them when they're silently screaming that they can't take it any more. Those are the people we should be helping. That much money could make a world of difference to people who actually want to be saved. Wasting it on a net to "save" people who didn't want it is bullshit. You want people to stop jumping off your fucking bridge legalize medically assisted suicide for those who are really determined to die and spend money helping those who actually want to be saved.

[Cinjin]

Suicide is another tough issue. Always heated with passionate people on both sides.

I've been lucky enough not to have anyone I've loved kill themselves, but I have known a couple.

What distresses me the most is how easily their lives could've been fixed had they had some deterrent or someone to guide them back to a place of inner contentment.

Should people have the right to kill themselves? Admittedly, they probably should, but the ramifications of accepting that concept is a price that our society is not willing to pay - and I for one would rather see us trod a LITTLE roughshod over the right to die and save some lives rather than give up and let the disease of depression destroy entire families.

[Autumnlicious]

@Losty

Another zero sum game believer...

Wasting it on a net to "save" people who didn't want it is bullshit.

Funny, survivors from jumping off the bridge often regret having taken that fateful step.

I've read their stories - have you?

Some ended up killing themselves anyways. It is sad. Others have continued to live.

You want people to stop jumping off your fucking bridge legalize medically assisted suicide for those who are really determined to die and spend money helping those who actually want to be saved.

1) death with dignity is interesting and I agree there are many situations where it should be allowed. You're on to something.

2) I'm fairly certain that those who seek suicide often don't reach out for help regardless of how trivial or complex their problems are.