Their son, the Cambridge mathematician Tom Körner, described their deaths as "very sad, but it could not be termed a tragedy. My parents had shared 56 years of marriage and were devoted to each other." Not everybody who commits suicide is so easily forgiven by those they leave behind. Above and beyond our common fate, those who are bereaved by suicide must endure guilt, anger, resentment and, often, an intolerable sense of rejection. Without such inhibiting considerations for the bereaved, many more would carry out their suicidal intentions. The fact that Professor and Mrs Körner were 86 and 79 respectively may have eased the parting for their son and daughter. Advanced age, though, cannot alter the essential selfishness of suicide.