Suzanne Gonzales, age 19, killed herself. but its not just that, she first talked to people on a newsgroup, a newsgroup about suicide and different methods for doing it. so the whole issue is, is it the fault of the people on this newsgroup for her death, or not? just to help it along a bit, I found the newsgroup on google groups: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.suicide.holiday?lnk=lr
right now of course all the topics are by people who read about it on cnn and went to talk about this issue. but go back a hundred pages or so and you’ll get to the real topics.
so I’m just wondering about your stand on this…was it their fault for telling her how to do it? and perhaps more importantly, not stopping her from doing it? I have my opinions about it, but I want to hear what you have to say first.
A suicide forum? What a jolly place that must be. Imagine what their equivalent of most replies is like…
I shouldn’t worry too much about the rights and wrongs of such a forum,their membership should be steadily decreasing. And surely those with the best advice aren’t really in the best position to give any.
I think that many of us have been through feelings of angst and pain associated with just growing out of childhood into adulthood (except the youger folks here). Sometimes these feelings may be indulgent and consuming and result in fantasies about taking one’s own life. These fantasies may or may not be “normal” (ask a psychologists about that), but in even marginally psychologically healthy people, these thoughts pass as we work through the funk, or grow up.
The danger of the this particular internet group, in my opinion is, that it offers a framework that could be and is sometimes preceived as peer pressure to realize these destructive fantasies, thereby lending an altogether inappropriate amount of approval to the fantasies. This interrupts the normal and healthy psychologocal mechanisms for healing.
Peer pressure is powerful. It can be good or bad. Reading the posts from teenagers on this forum I sense we have a lot of strong and independently minded young adults who use their own and best judgement in responding…or not… to pressure from their friends. Keep it up!
Anyhow. Thanks for the post on the difficult subject matter. I hope you get a wide array of thoughtful responses!
Because suicudal thoughts are dangerous and reflect a precarious state of being, one should seek the help of a professional, not a bunch of strangers on the web.
If you think you’re having a heart attack, you should call 911, not log onto the chatroom, right?!
i think all the people (not here but in general) blaming these groups, or wanting them shut down or anything like that are all idiots. i can understand their anger, but at the same time there’s free speech issues and the fact that the person would have sought the same info in other places.
i think these communities can be helpful, in that they give advice in general, not just on how to best off yourself. knowing that you aren’t alone in your messed up feelings can be extremely comforting and possibly give someone a sense of normalcy to use to work through their depression.
I do not think it was their fault for telling her how to do it. The idea was already in her head. If she wanted to kill herself, she would have found a way. The newsgroup also have a website, kind of archiving the newsgroup I guess. It tells of the Church of Euthanasia approved ways. It outlines the positives and negatives of each method as well.
I think that had she not found the news group, she’d probably still have died. But that is partly because of my belief that when it’s time to die, you are going to die somehow. So maybe she wouldn’t have killed herself, but she would still be dead. As morbid as that sounds.
One of their pages says, that they are providing information so that the person contemplating taking their life will be able to make an informed decision. You see all these pages to try and stop someone killing themself, but when it comes down to it, is it really going to help?
In general I uphold people’s right to free speech. For instance there are forums for people with anorexia, telling them the best ways to avoid detection and how to starve themselves more successfully.
However, I think that suicide is different. It’s a bit final.
Most people have negative thoughts sometimes but people who try to kill themselves generally do so because they see no hope for the future. This may be because they have such an aweful life, but is generally because they are thinking negatively or are having trouble problem solving and need help. I think that most people who fail a suicide attempt go on to live happy lives and to be glad that they did not succeed.
Most suicide attempts are done on impulse and are based on what is available. For instance, when the amount of paracetmols you could buy in 1 packet was reduced to 16 (in the uk), the suicide rate dropped.
So this girl was obviously really serious about it, to give it time and consideration and planning and research suggests that this kind of attempt is more likely to be followed by another attempt. However the forum probably made it more likely that she succeed and thus not gain help that she might have done had she attempted and failed. So I think, all in all the forum probably made it more likely that she succeeded in killing herself and therefore I think they should be banned.
All well and good, but if you are depressed and hopeless, the information that you processed is going to be biased and negative and you are probably incapable of making a truely ‘informed’ decision.
Well, anorexia has been known to lead to death. My cousin had anorexia (she’s pretty much gotten better now), but while she was in hospital, she met this girl. That girl is dead now, because of her eating disorder.
This is true, but are they really going to read all the positive stuff people have to say? And actually believe it, I mean?
1.You’re right, it’s not as sudden. It still leaves as many questions though. And the family then has to watch their child/brother/sister/cousin/whatever die. Watching anyone die is not very nice.
One huge problem that I see with the site itself is that it’s not actually written by like-minded people is it? I mean, like minded people wouldn’t be around to post, surely. So the people posting are advising other people how to kill themselves and they could be exploiting the distressed for kicks or anything. Ugh.
sorry, I kind of forgot about this thread so I forgot to post my own opinion…
I think that people should be allowed the right to kill themselves, it shouldn’t be against the law. but I think if they want to, it should be their own decision and other people totally shouldn’t help. If other people know about this person’s intentions, then they should actually try to help the person figure out the troubles in their life, not help the person kill him or herself, thats just wrong.
I don’t know about that, it certainly limits your options.
Apparantly people in all cultures commit suicide but no other animals do. It is part of human nature and unique to us. Dispair is part of what makes us human.