SG Says Suicide Sucks
WASHINGTON/ Conservative Monitor -- The Surgeon General, David Satcher, has begun a new campaign against suicide. Stating, "Suicide exacts an enormous toll on the American People," he outlined a plan for education and intervention.
The Surgeon General's office has a long track record of restating the obvious, including a campaign to let people know that inhaling smoke from a burning weed could be hazardous to health. Some health campaigns sponsored by various governmental agencies have even had an effect opposite those intended, such as condom distribution that was meant to reduce teen pregnancy, but actually increased it.
Among the steps outlined by the SG is an education program that attempts to reduce the stigmatism on suicide by getting religious organizations to tone down sanctions on those attempting it. The effort does not take into account the preventive effect of such sanctions, nor the strength of the underlying belief of various religious communities toward suicide. Universal truths developed over centuries of thought and belief are to be modified on the whim of a governmental agency.
Figures gathered by the federal government show that 30,000 people die yearly at their own hand, making suicide the eighth leading cause of death.
The government report did not speculate that government intervention might actually make these figures worse at the expense of the US taxpayer. Senator Wellstone's has proposed a $75,000,000.00 plan for intervention, which comes out to $2,500.00 per suicide. This figure does not include implementation of federal guidelines that would require specific new reporting procedures for hospitals, police and coroners as well as guidelines for new state and local lawmakers.
The Senator is also working on expanding laws that help people to get better mental health coverage from their insurance plans, completely ignoring the fact that the market will take care of a valid need as it arises and to impose artificial requirements on insurance companies will only increase premiums across the board.
"America is not yet fully facing the mental health needs of its Citizen's", was the comment from Michael M. Faenza, National Mental Health Association President, ignoring all of the faith based and hospital based programs already in place.
Suicide is a serious problem among older Americans and Teens. The question seems to be, does the solution lie in a bloated government bureaucracy implementing untried solutions, or does it lie in tried methods developed over the years and implemented on the human level at less cost and greater efficiency?
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