Not only is the victim held accountable but also denied the sympathy and understanding associated with any untimely death. In addition, confronted with a loved one's death to suicide, family and friends must mourn the loss with a different mixture of denial, anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance than would have been present if the survivor's accident had claimed her or his life. Suicide seems to contradict a significant aspect of being human, the struggle to survive in spite of the trials a person must face in life. This may be why suicide across societies is always a moral issue regardless of cultural interpretation. In fact the morality of suicide is only an issue for those left behind, a reminder of the responsibility of life and the inevitability of death.
Suicide becomes the focal point for discussion of the meaning of life.
What seems to be forgotten in the reduction of suicide to a list of risk factors is the series of seemingly unrelated and coincidental events that impact on an individual over time and contribute to an untimely death. In the 1960's Edward Lorenz noted that small changes in air flow caused by a butterfly's wings occurring in one part of the world can have a major effect on the weather in another country. No where is this more evident than in the case of TBI survivors. The routine of living each day after a TBI is cluttered with small seemingly insignificant reminders that life is no longer automatic but rather a very mechanical or manual process. We don't see how necessary it is to have a paste note to remember our daily duties, or how discouraging life can be when a memory that could retrieve any of our friends' phone numbers now requires a notebook.