Student's apparent suicide linked to webcast of sexual encounter

PreachersWife2004 said:

You've obviously have not had anyone close to you commit suicide. It's easy to say things like that, and it's easy to believe them, until someone you loved does it.

Yes, people do actively decide to take their own life, but it's rarely some cut and dry issue where they could've decided easily to go the other route. Some don't actively decide...they have mental issues that cause them to kill themselves. I have two quite crazy cousins who would probably kill themselves because the voices told them to, if they were not locked up and under heavy medication.

Point is, you can't know what was in this kid's mind. I don't think it's fair to say that the other kids caused him to kill himself, but I certainly think it's fair to say that the video probably had a hand in helping him along.

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armyman_83 said:

I haven't, thank God, had anyone take their own life that was close to me. I understand that some people do have serious disorders which cause them to want to harm themselves, it just seems that this person doesn't fit that bill. He was a talented violinist attending Rutgers. If he isn't of a sound mind, I don't know who might be.

And I agree with you point, its not fair to say the other kids caused him to take his life. Did the invasion of privacy help, no doubt.

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armyman_83 said:

I haven't, thank God, had anyone take their own life that was close to me. I understand that some people do have serious disorders which cause them to want to harm themselves, it just seems that this person doesn't fit that bill. He was a talented violinist attending Rutgers. If he isn't of a sound mind, I don't know who might be.

And I agree with you point, its not fair to say the other kids caused him to take his life. Did the invasion of privacy help, no doubt.

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As to him being 18, well--if he is legally recognized as an adult (of sound mind), and can vote then I think he should be held accountable for any act of suicide.


Sound Mind--
"That state of a man's mind which is adequate to reason and comes to a judgment upon ordinary subjects, like other rational men.

The law presumes that every person who has acquired his full age is of sound mind, and consequently competent to make contracts and perform all his civil duties; and he who asserts to the contrary must prove the affirmation of his position by explicit evidence, and not by conjectural proof."--'Lectric Law Library'

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My personal feeling of anyone who commits suicide to escape life's problems is a coward, and I'm not going to apologize for that comment.

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Art Vandelay said:

I think certain words don't fit into this sentence as a description of suicide. To 'escape' would imply not only that one leaves one's problems behind in the past, but that there is a point of relief (in the present or future) at which one would could say that they have 'escaped'. This comes with the feeling of relief to have escaped a particular averse situation. Suicide yields no such outcome, thus 'escape' would seem an inappropriate word to describe it. There is also an issue surrounding the use of 'life's problems'. Having met some people who've exhibited suicidal ideation they do not see suicide as a response to 'life's problems', but as a response to life being the problem. This of course only describes some people's thought processes. Once life becomes framed as 'the problem' the obvious solution that comes to mind is the opposite of life: death. In a mind plagued by suicidal ideation this equation is robust and rational, and it is very difficult to employ conventional reason as a means of persuading them otherwise. To them it's not about cowardice. In their mind it would be cowardly to live a life (that they judge) not worth living.

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