Right, its not like hundreds of people's lives are in these pilot's hands. I can't imagine what a depressed pilot might do..
The discussion isn't really about whether suicidal pilots should be allowed to fly - it's whether the system should allow for pilots with mental health concerns (which would be a large majority of them over the course of an entire career) to seek treatment for it without losing their job.
When I have students go in for a medical, even if they're just gonna be run of the mill private pilots, I tell them "Answer every question with as few words as possible. If the AME (medical examiner) asks you if you've ever been sad, say "No". 'What about when your dad died?' Say no. When you got that diagnosis for cancer five years ago? Wasn't sad. Puppy died as a child? Wasn't sad. Never sad. Never anxious. Never depressed. Never anything. Just cool like Steve McQueen. If it's not in your medical records then it never happened.
then I get asked who the hell is Steve McQueen.
It's outright irresponsible to not take into account the chilling effect this is going to have on seeking treatment for mental health problems.
There are depressed people in every single aspect of human society, including the scary critical ones people like you fear.
Unfortunately, people like you who think this is an actual talking point make it impossible for the people who need help in critical positions to get that help by stigmatizing the existence of the issue in the first place.
People like you who cherry pick the negative outcomes of mental health disorders while ignoring that most suffer in silence for the "safety" of others like you are the problem.
The overwhelming majority of people experiencing mental health issues are only a danger to themselves (worst case).
The differences in suicide rates compared to murder-suicide rates back this up but per usual extremely rare cases or murder-suicide grab headlines while the 125 suicides per day on average in the US are completely unknown to anyone other than the people personally impacted by them.
Not only are murder-suicides sensational, the “murder” component bypasses the otherwise standard media practice of not reporting on suicides because of the data on upticks in additional suicides due to reporting.