Soldiers' Suicide Rate On Pace to Set Record (WaPo)

[struggle4progress]

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 5, 2008; Page A02

Suicides among active-duty soldiers this year are on pace to exceed both last year's all-time record and, for the first time since the Vietnam War, the rate among the general U.S. population, Army officials said yesterday.

Ninety-three active-duty soldiers had killed themselves through the end of August, the latest data show. A third of those cases are under investigation by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's Office. In 2007, 115 soldiers committed suicide.

Failed relationships, legal and financial troubles, and the high stress of wartime operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are the leading factors linked to the suicides, Army officials said.

The officials voiced concern that an array of Army programs aimed at suicide prevention has not checked a years-long rise in the suicide rate ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/04/AR2008090403333.html

[RB TexLa]

1. It's sad, but it is their right.

[struggle4progress]

2. That's a silly and pointless response: the "right" to kill oneself is not at stake here

This is a mental health issue, associated with enormous psychological strains. Or it is a physical health issue, associated with actual neurological damage incurred in the theatre of war. Or perhaps it is both

The major right involved is the right to healthcare. There is also the question of what obligations we might have to care for those who are injured after agreeing to put themselves for a supposedly higher social purpose