It’s on this kind of thought process that I have issues with statistics being used by people who don’t really understand them.
I’m not trying to get on a high horse and exclaim that the common people shouldn’t cite studies and stats, but if you are going to cite them, cite them fully. More often than not, by adding a standard deviation and median to an average, you get a picture much closer to what is actually occurring. But even after that, there are other tests which can yield a whole bunch of information that could be more useful towards refining the picture.
I guess if you are going to cite a study, you should take the time to read through the math people tend to skip over, or at least, read all of the conclusions drawn from the math, and not simply mine reports for the facts that happen to work for your argument.
My main problem with suicide is that more often than not, rationality is not employed in the decision to commit the action. Most people who attempt suicide and fail regret the attempt almost immediately after jumping off the bridge, or taking the pills, or cutting their wrists. A depressed person is not necessarily the best, unbiased judge as to whether his life is futile.
As for the role of suicide in society, it may be an issue, but there seems to be little we can do about it. If a friend of mine comes to me saying he feels suicidal, my first call will be to a licensed professional. Obviously not all feelings of committing suicide are instincts we will act upon, but most individuals follow the “better safe than sorry mantra.” Otherwise, we risk our friends becoming mere stats chalked up to the bystander effect.