Wil's Rant

In what I can only describe as another warped application of the Internet, suicide clubs are growing in popularity. In Japan, there have been several cases of groups of people meeting to commit suicide together. This is a very tough one. I support a persons' right to take their own life if they should choose, but I believe the rest of us should do our utmost to convince them not to. There are exceptions. The terminally ill are one. Why should they be forced to suffer needlessly. However, I find the concept of groups of young people meeting to kill themselves highly disturbing. I find the presence of internet sites promoting it even more so. It is one thing to provide advice to someone on how to successfully kill themselves, and another to form groups of people to do it together. Would not this make it easier for a person to make the decision to end their lives if they knew they wouldn't be alone. Does this not make the site share in the responsibility of young persons needlessly taking their own lives.

Legally, this is a very difficult one to handle. Any law designed to end this will certainly step on personal rights. I would be interested to hear of an approach to the problem that would help without doing more harm than good.