“It is a very civilized way to end your life, and I don’t understand why the legal position in this country doesn’t allow it.” (New York Times )
Tag Archives: Suicide
Mugged by our genes?
Grave of Sylvia Plath
“Last Monday, Nicholas Hughes, son of poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, killed himself. His mother was one of the world’s most famous suicides, and news stories have mentioned the tendency of suicide and depression to run in families. But this tragic inheritance is just part of a more complex story in which our lives are shaped by genes, environment — and unexpected connections between the two.” via International Herald Tribune opinion
Japan’s ‘suicide forest’
“[He]bought a one-way ticket to the forest, west of Tokyo, Japan. When he got there, he slashed his wrists, though the cut wasn’t enough to kill him quickly.
He started to wander, he said. He collapsed after days and lay in the bushes, nearly dead from dehydration, starvation and frostbite. He would lose his toes on his right foot from the frostbite. But he didn’t lose his life, because a hiker stumbled upon his nearly dead body and raised the alarm.
[His] story is just one of hundreds logged at Aokigahara Forest every year, a place known throughout Japan as the “suicide forest.” The area is home to the highest number of suicides in the entire country.” via CNN.
[thanks to Boing Boing]
Suicide notes not messages
“Out in the culture, suicide notes are often romanticized, quoted as poetry or as laugh lines. But… suicide almost always rises from psychic distress that distorts thinking, distress that might have passed if time allowed. Maybe one day there will be a cryptographer who can decipher the notes left behind and figure out how to stop the next one.” via Chicago Tribune.
A largely incoherent article about an intensely poignant subject. Mental health professionals are all about deciphering messages that arise from distressed distorted thinking, which does not appear to have occurred to the writer of this article. Hard to understand in what possible sense suicide notes are not messages.
Related:
- Suicide hotline calls up in MA (wbru.com)
- The “final” chapter (disappearingjohn.blogspot.com)
- I Wanted to Die Last Night (thesplinteredmind.blogspot.com)
- Soldier Attempts Suicide, Then Charged With Defacing Wall With Suicide Note (dvorak.org)
- Teenager killed himself as ‘Christmas present’ to avoid burdening parents (telegraph.co.uk)
A Strange Rush for the Exit
Are we in the midst of a suicide epidemic? And, if so, what is it about modernity that lies behind this contemporary death wish? via Standpoint.
Related:
- suicide nation (rebeldoctor.blogspot.com)
- A Good Death (basilandspice.com)
Army Suicides At Highest Rate Since 1980 : NPR
“In January, 24 U.S. soldiers are believed to have committed suicide — seven confirmed cases and 17 more awaiting confirmation.
By comparison, last January there were only five suicides in the Army.
Last month’s total is not just the highest monthly total since the Army started counting in 1980; it is more deaths than were sustained in combat last month by all branches of the armed forces combined. via NPR.
And:
- 4 recruiter suicides lead to Army probe (msnbc.msn.com)
Florida Teen Live-Streams His Suicide Online
‘A Florida teenager who used a webcam to live-stream his suicide Wednesday was reportedly encouraged by other people on the Web site, authorities told ABCNews.com.
Authorities say approximately 1,300 people watch as the boy takes his life.
"People were egging him on and saying things like 'go ahead and do it, faggot,' said Wendy Crane, an investigator at the Broward County Medical Examiner's office.
Abraham Biggs, 19, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., had been blogging on an online body-building message board and had linked to his page on Justin.tv, a live video streaming Web site, where the camera rolled as he overdosed on prescription pills, according to Crane.
Biggs, who had reportedly been discussing his suicide on the forums, also posted a suicide note on a body-building forum, which has since been taken down, in which he wrote, "I hate myself and I hate living." ‘
via ABC News
Army suicide rate could top nation’s this year
“The rate of suicides among-active duty soldiers is on pace to surpass both last year’s numbers and the rate of suicide in the general U.S. population for the first time since the Vietnam war, according to U.S. Army officials.
Officials attribute the rise in suicides to anxiety and stress from increased operations and more deployments.
Officials attribute the rise in suicides to anxiety and stress from increased operations and more deployments.
As of August, 62 Army soldiers have committed suicide, and 31 cases of possible suicide remain under investigation, according to Army statistics. Last year, the Army recorded 115 suicides among its ranks, which was also higher than the previous year.
Army officials said that if the trend continues this year, it will pass the nation’s suicide rate of 19.5 people per 100,000, a 2005 figure considered the most recent by the government.” (CNN)
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