The research is clear and unequivocal - suicide has elements of "contagion". Posting the content of suicide notes carries a serious risk of causing the deaths of other people. Writers have a responsibility to not cause harm and the least they should have done is to include suicide helplines prominently at the start of the article.
And it's full of lousy, lazy, unresearched information.
> and was more true to the typical format of a suicide letter,
Well, no. Research on real suicide notes shows people making requests and showing concern for those left behind rather than making any comments about how the person is feeling or why they made this decision.
> Better yet, we can deal with the threat of suicide, which is increasingly pervasive around the world as we move deeper into the 21st century.
Is suicide "increasingly pervasive around the world"? And the article only mentions finding people at risk of suicide. It makes no mention of what we actually do with these people when we find them.
Sorry for the grumpy tone of this reply. It's a topic I'm particularly sensitive about. Your idea is potentially a good one, and I wish you luck. But please please get some expert opinion on it too!
your reply wasn't really grumpy, and i understand it's a touchy subject for many people. the content of the article wasn't what interested me so much as the topic of it. it had never really occurred to me that the movement of potential suicide notes to digital media allows the opportunity for prevention.
The research is clear and unequivocal - suicide has elements of "contagion". Posting the content of suicide notes carries a serious risk of causing the deaths of other people. Writers have a responsibility to not cause harm and the least they should have done is to include suicide helplines prominently at the start of the article.
And it's full of lousy, lazy, unresearched information.
> and was more true to the typical format of a suicide letter,
Well, no. Research on real suicide notes shows people making requests and showing concern for those left behind rather than making any comments about how the person is feeling or why they made this decision.
> Better yet, we can deal with the threat of suicide, which is increasingly pervasive around the world as we move deeper into the 21st century.
Is suicide "increasingly pervasive around the world"? And the article only mentions finding people at risk of suicide. It makes no mention of what we actually do with these people when we find them.
Sorry for the grumpy tone of this reply. It's a topic I'm particularly sensitive about. Your idea is potentially a good one, and I wish you luck. But please please get some expert opinion on it too!