Online suicide ——–
p2pnet.net News:- Papyrus, founded in 1997 by parents who’d lost children through suicide, says Britain’s 1961 Suicide Act should be amended to make it illegal to publish material online meant to help people kill themselves,
"At the moment, the law says it is illegal to aid, abet, counsel, procure or incite someone to commit suicide, but to be successfully prosecuted the individual has to have knowledge and participated in the suicide," says the BBC.
But many of the sites are hosted abroad and UK law doesn’t apply to them, says Papyrus, going on that it’s recorded nearly 20 Net-related suicides cases in the UK in the last five years.
"Papyrus said typing ‘I want to kill myself’ into an internet search engine offers access to 5m sites, many of which give information on how to commit suicide or were chat-rooms where techniques are discussed," says the story, with a spokeswoman saying, "The sites take no responsibility for the advice they give, do not identify themselves and generally create an atmosphere where suicide is normal, acceptable and to be encouraged."
Also See:
BBC – Call to ban pro-suicide websites, September 9, 2006
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September 11th, 2006 at 8:44 pm
I think it would be more sensible for applications such as net nanny to filter these types of Websites. In my opinion, if someone wants to commit suicide and has thought it through it’s their right to take their own life. The problem is that impressionable kids might come across these sites.
It’s sad that these parents lost their children but I don’t think these people should be held responsible.
September 12th, 2006 at 12:13 am
Not the first time “think of the children” has been used as a pretense for outlawing acts between consenting adults.
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Suicide has touched me personally, and more than once. I know as well as anyone should know that assisting a suicide is something deserving of the highest moral and rational scrutiny.
Papyrus, for its part, contributes greatly to this rational endeavor. They are an excellent source of free, highly relevant, thought provoking literature and counsel to young persons and families in darkest crisis.
Nevertheless, we have to remember that in a cultural democracy, the only lasting counter to bad information is good. Papyrus needs not conscript the justice system into making their positive message louder than the rest by threat of thoughtpolicing and imprisonment. The right tool for this job is called outreach… something they should be adept at by now.
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Topical play/film recommendation: _’Night,_Mother_ by Marsha Norman. Gripping, sincere, and so very real, in a way only a product of a cultural democracy can be.
September 12th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
If it were up to these people, suicide would be illegal, which is of course ridiculous.
If I, or anyone else, has evaluated what life holds, what the present and future holds, and concludes that life is not for them, then said person should be allowed a pain free death.
Without the information to carry out the act in a pain free way, said person would have to resort to extremely painful and unpleasant “heat of the moment”/compulsive methods such as hanging or self-stabbing.
Aside from the matter of free will and choice, restricting knowledge for the public’s “own good” (who is to say what is good for every individual?) this wreaks of Orwellian style legislation (sorry to use an over-used term).