To play devils advocate for a moment... it maybe isn't quite so black and white. And might not be a case of one person thinking they're better than someone else.
This is the key thing:
Quote from: William on March 02, 2009, 05:04:17 AM
A few times on the internet there have been cases where someone (on a blog or something) has talked seriously about killing themselves...
Knowing the difference between that and someone who uses the powerful emotional trigger of suicide (sometimes repeatedly) as a means purely to garner attention and the spotlight for a while (a failsafe "people are guaranteed to notice me if I do this" kind of thing), or perhaps because they're bored and want something to occupy themselves, or even as a form of emotional blackmail in order to manipulate others (a means to an end)... all with absolutely
no feelings or intention of such actually going on. There
are people with seemingly no qualms about doing such things (even here), and playing on people's sympathies, in my view, can be almost, if not just as unscrupulous as a cold, unfeeling, tactless response to those in genuine need of help and support.
I think that sometimes, to some people, this can have an effect similar to "The Person Who Cried Wolf", and that is very unfortunate. It doesn't take a whole lot to make someone rather cynical and jaded.

The trouble with this medium is there is often very little background information on which to base this differentiation, to gauge the difference between an actual cry for help and purely attention seeking, or manipulative behaviour.
So, that being said, it is perhaps better to err on the side of every case being genuine and heartfelt, if or until proven otherwise, and the respondant in question should perhaps have showed a bit more compassion and understanding.
However, while not necessarily justification, such actions can possibly be understood to an extent. If someone has been subject to constant "If you don't do this I'll kill myself!" or "You weren't nice to me, I'm going to kill myself!" from someone close to them... the heart can become hardened, and expression of suicidal feelings from
anywhere may be met with a sort of defense mechanism formed from a person's own experiences, and the attitude of "they're just trying to manipulate me again, after all, that's what happened the last time" may kick in.
Therefore, I wouldn't dismiss the response out of hand as 'sick' or whatever, since I don't know the person's own mental processes and what formed the basis for that reaction, just as I don't know what mental processes were occurring in the person feeling suicidal.
Like I said, it may not be purely black and white.
Just my thoughts.