He who hesitates is saved

Health | September is National Suicide Prevention Month, and a grisly statistic is in the news: Some 32,000 Americans kill themselves in a typical year, about twice the number who die by homicide. Could physical and psychological barriers save lives? | Marvin Olasky

Tomasz Szymanski/istock

Parent advisory: This article includes descriptions of the results of suicide.

What goes through the minds of suicide perpetrators and victims during their last seconds of thought? Journalist Scott Anderson ended a New York Times article two months ago ("The Urge to End It All," July 6) with a quotation from Kevin Hines, one of 29 people known to have jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge without dying: "I'll tell you what I can't get out of my head. It's watching my hands come off that railing and thinking to myself, 'My God, what have I just done?' Because I know that almost everyone else who's gone off that bridge, they had that exact same thought at that moment."