A 63-YEAR-OLD MOTHER in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, recently committed suicide in the hope her insurance compensation would pay for the medical treatment of her son, which failed as her life insurance had already expired and did not cover suicide in the first place. A local charitable organization has promised to offer free medical treatment to her son. Beijing Times commented on Monday:

It would be pointless to accuse the desperate mother of being ignorant or trying to swindle her insurer, because she clearly felt she had no other options to pay for her son's treatment. Her death, although it failed to convince the insurance company to compensate her family, did achieve its purpose as a charity has promised to pay for her son's medical treatment.

However, she would not have chosen to end her life if she had been informed that suicide was not covered by her insurance, and charities could help her.

In fact, an increasing number of charitable organizations have emerged in the past years, many of which are exclusively designed to help those with serious diseases. These professional social aid providers in many cases remain unfamiliar to citizens who need their help.

What happened to the Shenzhen mother is a case in point. The local charity, which has said it will support her son, has already helped over the past three years more than 20 patients with the same disease. Had the woman known about the charity, her son could have received proper treatment and she would not have taken her own life.

Therefore, measures must be taken to encourage charity organizations to make sure people know about them. In particular, they should use more targeted public advertising to let people know they are there to help.