Unhappiness

Coming back from church today, CP chanced to mention to me an item of news that was both shocking and saddening. I checked the news channel when I got home and got some more details:

A lady in Hong Kong, in her late 30s, committed suicide this morning by jumping from a height. Before she killed herself, however, she allegedly first bound the hands and feet of her 12-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son, and then threw them from the apartment, killing them as well.

This scene is horrific, but I have to admit, we are probably shocked only because of how the lady killed her children. If she had burned charcoal or something like that and asphyxiated them instead, I think we would have just thought, "Oh, another one."

I remember seeing a commercial on the TV recently. I don't remember the entire commercial, but I do remember the tag line: "You have no right to determine whether other people will live." In the US, this might have been a pro-choice commercial. No, here in Hong Kong, it was a public service announcement, pleading with parents who feel that suicide is the only way out, not to kill their loved ones as well.

It's sad enough when people start thinking of suicide, and every time I see one of those PSAs from the Samaritans Society, telling people who feel trapped to call their hotline, I can't help thinking that this must be a failure of society. Now have we progressed to the point of having to tell people, "Okay, go kill yourself, but at least, please don't..."

What does it mean when society has reached this point? And how much lower can we go?