There has been much comment about the recent decision to broadcast a man committing suicide courtesy of Dignitas. A story that has received rather less attention was another filmed suicide, that of a young, depressed man whose suicide was filmed live on the internet. The teenager took an overdose, egged on by people posting comments telling him to get on with it and police were only called by some concerned viewers after he collapsed. The streaming video stopped after police and paramedics broke into his house.
One comment urging him to end his life read: "You want to kill yourself? Do it, do the world a favour and stop wasting our time with your mindless self-pity."
This tragedy shows the real story behind suicide, what may drive a person to end their life and what it involves. At the heart of such an act lies loneliness and despair, not compassion. The lies the euthanasia movement tout fall apart when people are confronted with this ugly reality, so far removed from love, dignity and personal autonomy that it is almost obscene to use such language in this context. Commentators who self-righteously claimed in defence of the assisted-suicide documentary that people need to 'get to grips' with the reality of suicide may have a point. The public need to lose the sentimental image the euthanasia movement has given to suicide, of a person dying peacefully and contentedly in the arms of a loved one. They need to see suicide for the unbearable tragedy it is.
