Ethical norms of suicide prevention and crisis intervention

Life is not a so called highest value in itself--it is highest value as life subdued to the spirit, to the transcendence, as life 'in relation to'. Human existence is existence within history which means that it is vocational. If life is vocational it has an inborn eschatology. To commit suicide is to stop out of one's own history and eschatology, an act devoid of freedom. To help suicidals means: to give the suicidal person 'assistance to freedom', helping him to find his freedom which is also a freedom to suffer, to live, to believe, to gain confidence and to die when death overcomes us.