But he has a good point. I don't think we can say that "suicide" is a universally Bad Thing, and I think it's fair to say that if you want to help prevent suicide, you could benefit from trying
very hard to understand the mindset of a person who is contemplating suicide. Reading and understanding the arguments
for suicide strike me as a very valuable tool in accomplishing that. You can't really
understand suicide unless you yourself are feeling suicidal, but if you approach if from multiple directions / angles and kinda circle around it, you may be able to gain a better appreciation for it (without needing to become suicidal yourself).
All of this said, and saying this as someone who has contemplated suicide at least once in my life, I don't know much much any kind of app is really going to help. The times in my life that I've been depressed enough to think thoughts like that, I doubt I would have pulled up an app and consulted it.
Same deal with "Suicide prevention hotlines". My feeling is that many people who contemplate suicide don't want to be talked out of it, and won't call the hotline no matter how well publicized it is or whatever. When you're suicidal, you're in a totally different mental state where the normal rules just don't apply.
Which leads back to my saying that you can't really understand suicide, and why I think the GP post was valuable.