Editorial: Suicide research center makes sense

THE new Suicide Prevention Research Center not only will tell us why people kill themselves but may help people contemplating such drastic action realize there are other options.

The center is scheduled to open today at the University of Nevada School of Medicine. The school, which will receive $1.5 million to be spent over three years under the federal Health and Human Services Appropriations Bill, was chosen over several prominent national medical schools because Nevada has the nation's highest suicide rate.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., helped secure funds for the center. His father, a rock miner, killed himself 26 years ago. It was a tragedy Reid says his family has never really gotten over.

There have been other studies of suicide commissioned separately by pro-gaming and anti-gaming forces. Sometimes it seems the purpose of these studies is to support each side's position on what role gambling plays in suicide. But this will be an independent study, looking at suicide as a public health problem.

The more independent research and information we have, the better equipped we will be to intervene and prevent people from taking their own lives. Establishing the center at the School of Medicine makes sense.

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