Successful suicide edition

Oh look, a blog that hasn't been updated in almost a month. Heh.

When it comes to suicide, you've got a fairly standard list of methods to work with: firing a bullet into your head, consuming copious amounts of highly toxic drugs/chemicals, jumping in front or off of something, hanging your neck from something, slicing your wrist (vertically, of course), and drowning. Then you have the weird approaches to offing yourself, which is where I come in.

Sauvageau A, Yesovitch R. Choking on toilet paper: an unusual case of suicide and a review of the literature on suicide by smothering, strangulation, and choking. Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 2006 Jun;27(2):173-4.

Y'know when you get a bit of kleenex in your mouth and it dries out your cheek/tongue/gums and then gets stuck and feels really gross? Imagine that times a thousand while choking to death. Fun times.

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Lunetta P, Ohberg A, Sajantila A. Suicide by intracerebellar ballpoint pen. Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 2002 Dec;23(4):334-7.

I like how they didn't figure out the dude had a friggin' Bic stuck in his head until they cut him open at the autopsy.

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Ellis PS. Fatal gunshot injury caused by an unusual projectile--a barrel-cleaning brush as a tandem bullet. Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 1997 Jun;18(2):168-71.

Somebody was sure in a rush / To kill themselves with a brush

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Blanco Pampin JM, Lopez-Abajo Rodriguez BA. Suicidal hanging within an automobile. Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 2001 Dec;22(4):367-9.

So much for seat belts saving lives.

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Murty OP. Unusual self-electrocution simulating judicial electrocution by an adolescent. Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 2008 Jun;29(2):167-9.

Not just electrocution, but judicial electrocution. Might as well do it up right before you go out, just sticking a wire in a socket is kind of lame.

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Lin Z, Kondo T, Sato Y, Ohtsuji M, Takayasu T, Ohshima T. An autopsy case of suicidal strangulation with four looped rubber bands. Nihon Hoigaku Zasshi. 1997 Jun;51(3):231-4.

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Prahlow JA, Doyle BW. A suicide using a homemade carbon monoxide "death machine". Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 2005 Jun;26(2):177-80.

Chemistry for the suicidal: formic acid + sulfuric acid -(closed room)-> drifting slowly off to an unending sleep

More like this

Suicide being acceptable or not, is completely subjective point of view, defined by one's views of life. No one can ever know certainly what moves in other's thoughts. Like speedwell wisely notified, unsuccesful suicide attempts can be easily more tragic than plain death.

Unless need for suicide is removed altogether, hiding information how to do it properly is nothing more than hypocritical cowardness at the best.

By heathensfeel (not verified) on 06 Apr 2010 #permalink

I suppose you've left it up to your readers to point out the missing essential ingredients in the above recipes for self-annihilation... namely, luck and skill. I was once told by a psychology professor that suicides fail a lot. Like a LOT. And the results are often more tragic than a nice clean death would have been.

By speedwell (not verified) on 24 Jun 2008 #permalink

"Oh look, a blog that hasn't been updated in almost a month. Heh."

*cough*

I keep coming back to this blog over and over but never find anything new. Chris, have you given up on us?

:)