By Jonathan Noyes and Greg Koukl Why would a person take his own life, especially a young person who has so much to live for? When our natural instinct is to do everything in our power to preserve and protect our personal well-being, why would anyone kill himself ? In a certain sense, the answer is not complex. Simply put, people commit suicide because they’re convinced they would be better off dead. They’ve given up on this life, hoping the next one will be better—if there is a next one. If not, ending their life will at least end their pain. Suicide, though, doesn’t end all pain because it is never a solitary act with a single consequence of a life ended. When one person takes his life, a host of other lives are sucked into the vortex. Every person who kills himself leaves others behind lamenting the loss, sometimes for the rest of their lives—colleagues and friends, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, children. On January 23, 2011, my cousin Derek took his ...