Suicide pact in Okinawa
body count: 3 method: hanging

A ban on ball-point pens would be the next logical step
Some doctors in Britain are calling for a ban of pointed kitchen knives. They are apparently the weapon of choice since guns are highly restricted over there. This goes to show that banning objects does not really change how people relate to one another.

A 24 year old in Japan has been arrested for trying to coordinate a suicide pact which would have involved himself and two 15 year olds.

It's almost funny
U.S. inmate Michael Ross on death row has waived all further appeals of his sentence and has been recently executed. Despite his having been found competent by the courts, attorney Polan and some others claim that his willingness to accept death indicates, in and of itself, that he was insane. Also, opponents of the death penalty predict that the execution will trigger a chain reaction in the area that will "break down" barriers against capital punishment. It's not clear to me how an inmate accepting his death sentence is going to encourage juries and courts to impose the death penalty on a more regular basis; supposedly those upright citizens are all sane and of sound morality, so if they find the sentence repugnant and only impose it as punishment for the most heinous of crimes, it's doubtful that the frequency of that sentence is going to increase unless, that is, more people commit such crimes. But it's incredulous to think that someone who is determined to die would choose this as a method; it's much less trouble to jump off a bridge or hang. And if someone was so twisted as to rape and kill other people with a view toward getting a free lethal injection for himself, perhaps the kindest thing a person could do for him and for society as a whole would be to grant his wish, preferably before he could do either of those things.

YASPIJ
body count: 5
The usual method was employed

YASPIJ
body count: 3
Interestingly, while the police decline to give a statement as to how these three people may have known each other, the news story very helpfully points out that a number of suicide pacts have been made over the web in that country. They also point out that news of groups suicides seems to spark copycat incidents.

So, should the journalists who wrote up this story be held responsible for the next group suicide?

Two separate suicide websites based in Taiwan have been shut down by the local police. Coincidentally both had also posted the complete contents of a suicide manual written by Tsurumi Wataru (whose name was mispelled in the article written in English that was edited by a person named Elmarie Jack). Since the owners of the sites are being charged with helping other folks suicide rather than with copyright infringement, we can be reasonably sure that the RIAA is not involved .

BTW, Tsurumi's book, "The Complete Manual of Suicide", is a bestseller in Japan.

It seems that most adults in the U.S. favor physician-assisted suicide.

ISPs in Japan are being pressured to provide information on individuals to the police on request when the police think that person is involved in a suicide pact. In the past, when the police have approached the ISPs about such things they have been asked to provide a search warrant before they'll be given the information, but since declaring one's intent to participate in a suicide pact isn't a crime, the search warrant can't be issued.

UK woman charged with manslaughter for not intervening on her husband's suicide.

A Canadian man is on trial for assisting the suicide of his wife.

Another group suicide in Japan, but this time it appears to be a woman and three children. Since only one of the people involved was an adult, i'd hesitate to call this a suicide pact.

The CDC lists the following as risk factors that increase the likelihood of a person committing suicide:

• Previous suicide attempt(s)
  
• History of mental disorders, particularly depression
  
• History of alcohol and substance abuse
  
• Family history of suicide
  
• Family history of child maltreatment
  
• Feelings of hopelessness
  
• Impulsive or aggressive tendencies
  
• Barriers to accessing mental health treatment
  
• Loss (relational, social, work, or financial)
  
• Physical illness
  
• Easy access to lethal methods
  
• Unwillingness to seek help because of the stigma attached to mental health and substance abuse disorders or suicidal thoughts
  
• Cultural and religious beliefs—for instance, the belief that suicide is a noble resolution of a personal dilemma
  
• Local epidemics of suicide
  
• Isolation, a feeling of being cut off from other people
  

Now, don't those risk factors cover just about every person in the U.S.of A. if not the world? And if an "unwillingness to seek help because of the stigma..." is a risk factor, perhaps the CDC should add another factor to their list, namely:

• Unwillingness to seek help because of the risk of being drugged and incarcerated against one's will.

Not having access to the resources required to study suicide 'scientifically', I can only guess as to how many people have killed themselves because they did not want to lose control over themselves the way a person loses control when he is the object of a forced intervention. But I do know that there are people who have done that. And until the Mental Health Profession is willing to explicitly examine the ways in which it actually encourages suicide, it is going to fail to fully understand the reasons why people suicide.

According to Madelyn Gould, who conducts research at the New York Psychiatric Institute, "some school officials are worried about being blamed if students harm themselves after taking a survey [that asks them if they are suicidal]". In other words, one of the reasons discussion of suicide is taboo is that people are concerned that merely mentioning it will provoke it, even though the evidence suggests otherwise.

But what does happen to a teenagers identified by such a survey as being suicidal? Do they get counseling that actually helps them to cope with their day to day existence? Are they respected as human beings or are they forcibly drugged and/or tossed into a mental ward until their morale improves?

Suicide pact reported in Korea. Evidently the couple met online.

In the case of Laura Rhodes, it seems that the school officials blamed her for being bullied. I guess that's because it's easier to blame the victim than to actually do something about it.

I wonder how these same officials would feel if Laura had turned around and bombed the school instead of committing suicide.

Insert joke about light here.

China tries to banish sites that discuss suicide. But then, censorship is almost a way of life over there, so that shouldn't really surprise anyone.

YASPIJ
Body count: 5
Evidently there are over 100 sites to choose from in Japan should a person want to participate in a suicide pact.

Ask him if he really cares.

Caraway of Iowa did a long-distance intervention on a woman in Florida who informed him via the net of her intention to suicide.

"I'm not sure we'll talk again. I know she's mad at me for calling the police, but I don't really care," Caraway said. "I'm just glad she's OK."

And how, exactly, does Mr. Caraway know that she is now "OK"?