Suicide

There was an interesting Moral Maze last night. Usually I find the programme unlistenable to, generating far more heat & shouting than light. This time the contributors were interesting & for the most part showed great restraint.

Nigel Hawkes also wrote a very helpful piece in yesterdays Times, which presented the evidence which ought really to make the press understand that their reporting does contribute to the spread of a suicide cluster, & therefore that they really should exercise restraint in their coverage

The Moral Maze discussions were largely focused on the question of whether life is always worth living. Turning the question round – Is life worth ending? – gives a different slant & brings in the hard question of method

It is one thing to have an over-romanticised teenage fantasy about death by firing squad, quite another to imagine, confidently, how one might bring it about by direct action oneself. This is part of the reason why 'copycats' are important - someone has proved that the method works

Methods depend heavily on what is available of course & vary over time & place. Swallowing paraquat & self immolation have figured in previous outbreaks which I remember

It struck me that hanging is not mentioned by either Langston Hughes or Dorothy Parker in their mid-20th century American ditties on the subject, but I was wrong in the latter case.

Related posts: De mortuis
Dulce et decorum
Christina Rossetti