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 Background: (repeated)Information about how to commit suicide is a delicate topic.
- On the one hand, guarantees of freedom of speech in the U.S. and Canada
permit dissemination of a wide range of speech and writing that deal with unpopular
and controversial topics
like this one.
- On the other hand, suicide is often a permanent solution to a temporary
problem. Many persons who commit suicide are depressed and without hope. Yet
depression can often be lifted with medication, support, and therapy. Circumstances often
change to give people hope. If committing suicide is facilitated by
disseminating how-to information, a person might
kill themselves instead of choosing to stay alive, atruggle with the depression and hopefully lead a long worthwhile life.
Some argue that suicide is defensible for one group of individuals: those
with a terminal illness who are in intractable pain or who are experiencing a
permanent loss of autonomy that they find unacceptable. With the state of health
care in North America and in particular the state of pain management for
terminally ill patients, some have argued that suicide can be a rational choice
to avoid having to continue a life that is intolerable to them.
We consider putting pets and farm animals "to sleep" to be an act of kindness. But
we do not allow humans to be treated in the same way. They must engineer their
own suicide. They cannot obtain assistance in dying. Physician Assisted suicide
is illegal in all of Canada and almost all states in the U.S. There are victims of disease for whom every hour remaining alive is another
60 minutes of agony. If they wish to commit suicide they must arrange it
themselves. Some want access to sources of information on suicide. However, there are legislators and governments that attempt to keep
this type of information from becoming generally available. They are concerned
that knowledge will lead to more people seeking suicide as a permanent solution
to a temporary problem. The term "cybersuicide" has been coined to refer to suicides or assisted
suicides that have been triggered, facilitated, or otherwise influenced by
Internet web sites.  Wikipedia article on suicide methods:Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia available on the Internet.
As of 2012-JAN, they had over 3.8 million articles in their English section.
One of Wikipedia's more unusual features is that its articles
are written and edited by the general public. 1 Their article on suicide methods describes the various
methods that people have used to end their lives: firearms, exsanguination (bleeding to death), drowning, suffocation,
electrocution, explosives, hanging, jumping in front of
vehicles, intentionally creating a motor vehicle collision,
jumping, ingesting poison, self-immolation by fire, seppuku (a
traditional Japanese ritual method of suicide by sword),
starvation, beheading, indirect suicide by placing oneself in a
dangerous situation, and "death by cop:" provoking a police
officer into shooting. The article is short on specifics. It is
not a "how to" manual. It is primarily a list of methods that have
been commonly used by people to end their life. The Wikipedia article has been criticized by at least two
conservative Christian news sources:
-
World Net Daily (WND) article:
WND interviewed a spokesperson for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline who said:
"A site detailing the different methods someone could
use to kill themselves could definitely be harmful to
the public."
However, as we noted above, details are generally missing from the article. Also, the
article actively discourages suicide by describing how the different methods
often fail and can leave the individual alive but disabled.
WND interviewed
Jay Walsh, head of communications for the Wikimedia Foundation who said that
"The Wikimedia Foundation operates the software and maintains the servers
that power Wikipedia; however the entire Wikipedia project is maintained
exclusively by volunteers. No paid staff make edits to content, rather
members of the volunteer community will add or remove information at their
discretion and within the auspices of the editorial pillars of Wikipedia,
which generally include: non-censorship, neutral point of view, no original
research and, to a similar extent, addressing the question of 'notability'."
WND stated that:
"Wikipedia also links to suicide strategy books at the bottom
of the article such as 'Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and
Assisted Suicide for the Dying,' 'The Peaceful Pill Handbook' and 'The Complete
Manual of Suicide' for further reading." 2
WND conducted a poll of their readers, asking "What do you
think of Wikipedia publishing suicide instructions?" They gave 13 possible
responses from which to select. 2,141 of their visitors voted. It is probable that the makeup of the
visitors to WND is heavily conservative and thus not typical of the general population.
Most of the top eight responses seemed to have a negative view towards Wikipedia:
- 28%: "Wikipedia's
lack of credibility combined with its lack of any moral compass make it one
of the worst websites."
- 16%:"Wikipedia is completely immoral and evil."
- 10%: "Wikipedia has to be among the most irresponsible sites on the Internet."
- 9%:
"Knowing the reliability of Wikipedia's information, the suicide methods are probably inaccurate."
- 8%: "Information on killing yourself has been around for years, so Wikipedia is not doing anything
new."
- 7%: "It's Wikipedia's First Amendment right to publish anything it wants."
- 7%: "Does anyone at Wikipedia have a conscience?"
- 6%: "Wikipedia is unsafe for children and other living things."
-
One News Now (ONN) article: ONN interviewed
Rita Marker of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and
Assisted Suicide who said:
"...in some countries there have been attempts to stop this from being
provided in their countries. It hasn't been successful. But there are
the ghoulish who have done this, and it's flown under the radar for a
very long time." ... Unfortunately it's the sort of thing like the
other how-to books: how to be an assassin, how to build your own nuclear
bomb, how to do this, how to do that," she notes.
Marker noted that very little can be done about the Wikipedia article,
because of constitutionally protected free-speech rights. 4
-
Christian Web News repeated parts of the WND article. 8
 Study of suicide and the Internet:Lucy Biddle, a research fellow at the Department of Social
Medicine in the University of Bristol, and colleagues conducted
a study of suicide information on the Internet. They noted that
media reports of suicide and inclusion of a suicide in TV
programs known to have triggered suicides by others. Noting that
the Internet is an "increasingly popular source of information"
they decided to study:
- How easy it is for the average person to find suicide sites on the
Internet, and
- The information that they contain.
They used the four most popular search engines: Google, Yahoo,
MSN, and Ask. They entered twelve search terms: suicide; suicide methods;
suicide sure methods; most effective methods of suicide; methods of
suicide; ways to commit suicide; how to commit suicide;
how to kill yourself; easy suicide methods; best suicide methods;
pain-free suicide; and quick suicide. Only the top ten hits were
studied. These typically form the first page of results. It is generally known
that few people go beyond the first page of results from the search engine. They found:
- 19% (90 of the 480 hits) led to dedicated suicide sites. Half were
judged to encourage, promote, or facilitate suicide.
- 13% (62 hits) were for sites that offered support or emphasized suicide
prevention.
- 12% (59 hits) were for sites that forbade or discouraged suicide.
- 9% (44 hits) linked to pages that provided information about suicide
methods factually (24), partly joking (12) or completely joking (8).
They concluded:
"This research shows it is very easy to obtain detailed technical
information about methods of suicide, not just from the suicide
sites that have caused recent concerns but also from information
sites such as Wikipedia. ..."
"Contributors to chat rooms may exert peer pressure to commit
suicide, idolize those who have completed suicide, and facilitate
suicide pacts. Such discussion may lessen any doubts or fears of
people who are uncertain about suicide."
"The Internet may also have beneficial effects on suicide. Some
sites advise people where to seek help and provide information
and links to sources of help. Such sites also allow people to
express and share their distress and so may have a positive
function. Several websites provide information, screening
questionnaires, advice, and encouragement about seeking help and
treatment. Internet based interventions have been used to help
cope with depression, and supportive message boards and web rings
exist to allow people to share coping strategies, normalize
experiences, and empower people who self harm by enabling them to
tell their stories and reach out to others." 5
 Suicide pacts via the Internet:Suicide pacts involve an agreement among two or more people to commit suicide
together, typically using the same method, time, and perhaps location. A closely related
phenomenon is murder-suicide where one person kills a second and then commits
suicide. The term dyadic death covers both phenomena. During 2004, Sundararajan Rajagopal, a consultant psychiatrist at St. Thomas's
Hospital, in London UK noted two suicide pacts in Japan: one involving seven
young persons and the other two. He suggests:
"The recent suicide pacts in Japan might just be isolated events
in a country that has even previously been shown to have the highest rate
of suicide pacts. Alternatively, they might herald a new disturbing trend
in suicide pacts, with more such incidents, involving strangers meeting over
the Internet, becoming increasingly common. If the latter is the case then
the epidemiology of suicide pacts is likely to change, with more young
people living on their own, who may have otherwise committed suicide alone,
joining with like minded suicidal persons to die together."
"General practitioners and psychiatrists should continue to remain
vigilant against the small but not insignificant risk of suicide
pacts, especially while encountering middle aged depressed men
who have dependent submissive partners. While assessing risk, one
may specifically ask whether a depressed patient uses the
Internet to obtain information about suicide." 6,7
 Webmaster's comments:I noticed that even on the pro-suicide web sites that endlessly described
methods of committing suicide, there is a strong deterrent effect. There are
many references to suicide attempts that failed. Some didn't work; others
had a disastrous outcome. e.g. a person:
- standing in front of a train, being badly injured and paralyzed, but not
killed.
- jumping from the roof of a building, landing on a person at sidewalk
level, and killing the latter. The perpetrator survived and was charged with
manslaughter.
- jumping from a roof, having their fall deflected by a tree, and being
permanently paralyzed when landing but not killed.
- attempting death by Carbon Monoxide poisoning in a garage, using a car
with a catalytic converter which filters out much of the gas, receiving
sufficient gas to destroy part of his brain, and living -- sort of.
- trying to shoot themselves through the head, pulling away at the last
moment, destroying much of his face, and living.
- trying to hang themselves, being discovered later and cut down. Their
brain function was partly destroyed, but they lived with diminished
capacity.
- crawling into a bag filled with an atmosphere containing
no oxygen, going into convulsions, tearing the bag apart and
living.
- Slashing their wrists, panicking at the flow of blood
and calling 911 for help.
Currently, there does not seem to be a simple way
of committing suicide with any kind of a guarantee that the
process will work and not cause some dreadful outcome. That may
well be enough to discourage the suicidal ideation in many persons.  References used:The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
-
Wikipedia's main page is at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/
-
Chelsea Schilling, "Wikipedia publishes suicide
instructions From beheading to electrocution, site becomes
manual to kill self," World Net Daily, 2008-JUL-28, at:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/
-
"DEATH BECOMES THEM What do you think of Wikipedia
publishing suicide instructions?," World Net Daily,
2008-JUL, at:
http://forums.wnd.com/
-
Charlie Buts, "Concern over Wikipedia's 'how-to' section on
suicide," One News Now, 2008-AUG-01, at:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/
-
Lucie Biddle, et al., "Suicide and the Internet," BMJ Group, BMJ
2008;336(7648):800 (12 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.39525.442674.AD, 2008-APR-12, at:
http://www.bmj.com/
-
"Editorial Suicide pacts and the internet: Complete strangers may make
cyberspace pacts," BMJ 2004;329:1298-1299 (4 December),
doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7478.1298, 2004-DEC-04, at:
http://www.bmj.com/
-
"Nine die in Japan 'suicide pacts' ," BBC News, 2004-OCT-112, at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
-
"Assisted Suicide Courtesy of Wikipedia ," WENEWZ, 2008-JAN-08, at:
http://cwnewz.com/content/
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 Copyright © 2008 to 2012 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
First posted: 2008-AUG-12
Last update: 2012-JAN-24
Author: B.A. Robinson

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