Virginia decriminalizes suicide with approval of new law

I'm not sure if it's in the Bible directly, but yes it was a doctrine for quite a while (might still be around, not sure) that successfully committing suicide was one of the worst sins a person could do.

Most definitely. To briefly play devil’s advocate, I can understand being angry with someone for that if you knew them personally, but why should our position as a society be to punish people in this situation? We have long needed to cut out the religious undercurrent that has motivated so much of this country’s legislation.

Punish, exactly. I work as a disability lawyer so I'm among many people who actually sees it - but maybe I see it from a different perspective because I look at the person's whole file, records from diverse sources. I see the ER visit that just says they were placed on a hold for suicidal ideation. I see the 14 days of inpatient psych records that say a whole lot of nothing. I see a person in a facility for 14 days but I don't see 14 signatures from any one qualified provider. I don't see 14 hours of therapy notes. I just see a couple short check ins with a duty psychiatrist and some notes that say "attended group" and that a nurse verified they weren't dead. Then, after that, I see primary care, psychiatry, therapy after that, all wildly spaced out. Sometimes it's months between the inpatient stay and the next actual therapy visit, just because of backlogs. Often, the primary care notes will contradict other notes because a good chunk of the doctors talk to the person and don't take them seriously. We see psychiatry and therapy showing no sign of coordination, but mostly we just never see enough of any kind of actual care. And we never really see anyone with a higher credential than an LMHC really spend any serious one on one time with the patient. But I'm the disability lawyer so I see other stuff too. I see their job application notes. I see the reports the government asks them to fill out. I see their work history including the part where "reason for separation" is "fired for cause, no call no show, couldn't call them from 72 hour hold at ER." Sometimes I get another wrinkle right after that where their health coverage is interrupted. They had insurance the day they went to the ER, so that's not Medicaid; they are at least on the hook for a deductible which might be $7k. That gap between the ER and their next therapy session, some of it was trying to find a provider that takes Medicaid now that they lost their job and insurance. Etc, etc. And for the most part nobody external cares. People I'm affiliated with are just used to it. These people lives are ruined and we have to keep an emotional distance and just talk about it casually over coffee, because if we actually let ourselves empathize with each of them, we too would be in the depths. Oh wait. Look at that. Here I am anyway. I'm down here with the drowning victims who don't know how not to attack the lifeguard. I've been punched in the face over and over again in this pool and I'm not sure I can swim much more myself. Except that I already know there is no help for me.

Yeah, renewed my term life last year and the policy excludes anything not declared on the application and suicide for two years. Not that I'm planning that or any extreme sports.

Definitely. And glad you made it through.