On Sept. 8, a mother and her young son were found dead in a house in Jeju. Police said the perpetrator was the mother, a woman in her 40s who worked as a head nurse at a nearby hospital. She allegedly stole medical drugs from work, injected them into her 7-year-old son, then administered the same substance to herself. She had long suffered from depression.

On Aug. 26, three women, a mother in her 40s and her two teenage daughters, fell to their deaths from an officetel in Seoul's Gangseo District. No suicide note was found, but investigators discovered memos related to debt.

Until recently, suicide was the leading cause of death among people in their teens through their 30s. Last year, it also overtook cancer as the top cause of death for those in their 40s. One in five deaths in this age group, 26 percent, were suicides. The suicide rate for people in their 40s was 36.2 per 100,000, up 14.7 percent from a year earlier. A social disaster named suicide is spreading faster than cancer among the generation that carries much of the national economy.

Not every death can be explained by social factors. Still, for people in their 40s, often raising children while supporting aging parents, economic hardship is likely a major driver of suicide.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, prolonged low growth has brought financial pressure and emotional isolation. Debt that swelled during the pandemic has become a tightening noose amid weak consumption and high interest rates. People in their 40s carry the heaviest debt burden of any age group. As of late June, their per capita household debt reached a record 121 million won.

Debt keeps rising as income falls. In the third quarter of last year, households headed by people in their 40s saw business income drop 13.1 percent from a year earlier, the steepest decline on record. For many living on the edge, a sudden crisis -- an accident, illness, job loss or divorce -- can trigger overwhelming financial, physical and psychological stress, leading to choices they should never make.

Suicide rates have often climbed after economic shocks. In 1998, the year after the Asian financial crisis, suicide deaths jumped 42.3 percent. During the credit card meltdown of 2002 and 2003, suicides rose 24.5 percent and 26.7 percent year over year. Since 2003, South Korea has recorded the highest suicide rate in the OECD. Last year, the rate was 26.2 per 100,000 -- 2.4 times the OECD average of 10.8 -- and far above No. 2 Lithuania at 18.0. In 2023 alone, 14,872 people died by suicide in South Korea, an average of 40.7 a day.

Against this backdrop, President Lee Jae-myung's government aims to provide a safety net through the "New Leap Fund," a kind of bad bank meant to prevent social disasters. The program would forgive debts of up to 50 million won for vulnerable borrowers and self-employed workers who have been delinquent for more than seven years, covering an estimated 1.134 million people.

South Korea should also consider a measure similar to Britain's "Breathing Space" program, which gives struggling borrowers temporary relief. It halts seizures and debt collection for up to 60 days and suspends repayment obligations. For those suffering from depression or other mental health crises, protection can be extended until treatment ends. For people pushed to the brink, such breathing room can be lifesaving.