Ann Smolin and John Guinan

In the following viewpoint, Ann Smolin and John Guinan contend that intervening in a suicide attempt may only postpone the suicide, not prevent it. They maintain that there is no way of knowing if a different course of action by the suicide survivors—the family and friends of a person who committed suicide—would have prevented the suicide. Smolin is a clinical social worker and the director of the Northern Westchester branch of the Westchester Jewish Community Services in New York. Guinan is a clinical psychologist and the director of the Wall Street Counseling Center, also in New York. They are the authors of Healing After the Suicide of a Loved One, a self-help book for suicide survivors, from which this viewpoint is excerpted.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. In...