Girl Commits Suicide - Parents Blame Message Board

Icarusintel

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http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/04/suicide.internet/index.html
Thought this was an interesting article, especially concerning free speech on the internet. Basically this 19 year-old girl decided she was going to commit suicide and went to an internet board dedicated to suicide to find out more and post her plans. Her parents are upset that the board exists at all and at the possible fact their daughter was helped in her suicide by the people on the board.
This is kind of a tough one, but, obviously the girl had it in her mind that she was going to kill herself, so I don;t think the site influenced that at all. On the other hand, the site has a list of the best and worst ways to kill yourself, which certainly isn't helpful. I believe that the right to life is something everyone has and if they want to kill themselves that's their prerogative. Definitely sucks for the parents, but something tells me they were probably a bit out of touch with their kid if they didn;t see this coming, since she was talking about it for 9 weeks on the site. Admittedly she was at college, but I still talk to my folks around once a week while i';m here at college.

What do you guys think?
 
Some how I feel partially responsible for many teen suicides...
But maybe that's just me.
"Geo" is another ASH member. He was the same age as Suzanne when he joined the group last year and thinks suicide groups like ASH actually keep people from committing suicide.

In fact, "Geo" credits ASH with saving his life.
Wow....stupid.
 
If she hung herself with a cord from Home Depot are you going to blame them for her decision to kill herself? If she shot herself with a Smith & Wesson are you going to blame them for her decision to kill herself? Committing suicide is not brain surgery or rocket science. She could have easily jumped off a building. All it did was provide the knowledge of how to do it quickly, cleanly, and relatively painlessly. This is not a case of "brainwashing" (as the father calls it). It's not like she started off as a perfectly normal person, went to HalfLife2.net looking for information on Half-Life 2, was subsequently bombarded by KILL YOURSELF messages, and suddenly decided to off herself. She actively seeked out the information on suicide. You usually don't just accidentally meander over to a suicide web site... much less newsgroup (which is harder to access). Now, I'm not trying to encourage people to commit suicide... but, as long as sites like that try to discourage the people from committing suicide, I don't have a problem with them existing. I'd imagine cyanide at least wouldn't be as bad of a way to go as drowning, hanging, or shooting yourself.
 
Hey, speaking of suicide... what ever happened to KngHenry... did he ever go through with it?
 
aside from the obvious options, how can you really decide which are the best/worst methods?

i've heard being burned alive isn't really that bad because the fire destroys your nerve endings and you dont feel it...how much truth is in that i don't know
 
Sad, but blaming a message board isn't going to improve the situation.

*Edit*- had to delete the last sentence
 
I don't understand how you can just say "BAH! Damn people blaming internet/games/computers again!"... It seems really plausable that she was encouraged to kill herself on that message board, and it did show her how to do it and with what. I guess your pride has got too much of a grip on your reasoning.
 
The internet is the devil.

she would have killed herself anyway, most likely, just in a more hackneyed manor.
 
Something like that happened recently in the UK, there was a kerfuffle about it on the news, and now its old news really.

Unfortunate that these sites exist, I'd prefer people to actively help than suggest methods of suicide, but I don't believe in censorship.
 
If I was the message board's lawyer, I'd just say "Girls don't exist on the internets."

And win.
 
I don't see how a suicide message board would be able to keep any regular members
 
Dumb bitch committed suicide and the internet sped up the process of natural selection.

Where's the problem.
 
How can the forum sustain itself at all if all the members want to commit suicide?
 
i agree with taking some humour in any cituation, but don't be a ****in cock face, i mean god damn people
 
Absinthe said:
Dumb bitch committed suicide and the internet sped up the process of natural selection.

Where's the problem.
For once I agree with you 100%.
 
Seriously. If you're thinking about suicide, just do it. Don't whine about it or write a song and get rich.
 
Here's a question...


Wouldn't that forum have like, the lowest member count of any on the internet?
 
Raziaar said:
Here's a question...


Wouldn't that forum have like, the lowest member count of any on the internet?
No, because the people there just advise other people to kill themselves, they don't do it theirselves. And come on, nothing as good as spending an afternoon yelling at teenagers over the internet to bring them over the edge :D

(The last sentence was a joke and shouldn't be taken seriously.)
 
Beerdude26 said:
No, because the people there just advise other people to kill themselves, they don't do it theirselves. And come on, nothing as good as spending an afternoon yelling at teenagers over the internet to bring them over the edge :D

(The last sentence was a joke and shouldn't be taken seriously.)

Mine was a joke, too.
 
who the hell could make a suicide website?
 
Not all suicide constitutes purification of the gene pool.

More pursuant, what's wrong with arming people with knowledge of how to opt out of life? I garner some security from knowing that I don't have to be surrounded by idiots for 80 years.

Also, people ought not to be parents unless they can DEAL WITH IT. You know who's really a pansy? Romeo's mother. What kind of fool goes off and dies because she thinks her son is dead? (But at least she had the decency to die instead of go on a rampage through the Capulet estate.)
 
OvA said:
Seriously. If you're thinking about suicide, just do it. Don't whine about it or write a song and get rich.
QFT
I hate all those little emo kids that say they're gonna kill themselves and don't... I always just wanna give them a hand so it can be over with faster
 
Use chainsaws, not razor blades. That way you can't chicken out after you make some dainty cut on your wrist.
 
I lol at Absinthe's website as well.

I'm not sure suicide message-boards should exist. I don't think so... do murderer message boards exist?
 
CHECK OUT MY BUM

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Apparently you don't understand the music, Jelly. :|
 
yeah it sucks, but that's life. parents cannot control their kids actions a 100% of the time. And I bet those parents were the micromanager type, who needed to know every little detail about what their kids are doing, who, what, when, where, etc...
 
el Chi said:
How can the forum sustain itself at all if all the members want to commit suicide?

hmm..u were joking right?
beause if not...then the article claims that members are pro-choice try helping others who join/need help.
 
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