advocacy of suicide

Confucianism holds that one should give up one's life, if necessary, either passively or actively, for the sake of upholding the cardinal moral values of ren (altruism) and yi (righteousness).{{citation|url=http://arts.hkbu.edu.hk/~pclo/e5.pdf |author=Lo, Ping-cheung |title=Confucian Ethic of Death with Dignity and Its Contemporary Relevance |journal=The Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics. Society of Christian Ethics (U.s.) |year=1999 |volume=19 |pages=313–33 |publisher=Society of Christian Ethics |doi=10.5840/asce19991916 |pmid=11913447 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716110845/http://arts.hkbu.edu.hk/~pclo/e5.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-16 }} Which is referred as "Death with Dignity" dying for a greater cause.

Seppuku was a Japanese practice of ritual suicide by disembowelment. The Japanese military during World War II encouraged and glorified kamikaze attacks, and Japanese society as a whole has been described as "suicide-tolerant" (see Suicide in Japan).

Advocacy of suicide has also taken place over the Internet. A study by the British Medical Journal found that Web searches for information on suicide are likely to return sites that encourage, and even facilitate, suicide attempts.{{citation|url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=4D4415E7-0BB5-F377-FCD222D85009C84B|title=World Wide Suicide: A Self-Termination Community Grows on the Web|date=April 14, 2008|publisher=Scientific American}} While pro-suicide resources were less frequent than neutral or anti-suicide sites, they were nonetheless easily accessible.{{cite journal | pmid = 18494533 | volume=69 | title=Googling suicide: surfing for suicide information on the Internet | year=2008 | journal=J Clin Psychiatry | pages=878–88 |vauthors=Recupero PR, Harms SE, Noble JM | issue=6 | doi=10.4088/jcp.v69n0601}} There is some concern that such sites may push the suicidal person over the edge.{{citation|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Health/Depression/story?id=4630504&page=1|title=Death by Chat Room?|author =Hunter, Aina|work=ABC News}} Some people form suicide pacts with people they meet online.{{citation|title=Teens die after logging into 'suicide chat rooms'|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/teens-die-after-logging-into-suicide-chat-rooms-415386.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090119083511/http://independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/teens-die-after-logging-into-suicide-chat-rooms-415386.html |archive-date=2009-01-19 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|author =Jonathan Owen|date=10 September 2006 | work=The Independent}} Becker writes, "Suicidal adolescent visitors risk losing their doubts and fears about committing suicide. Risk factors include peer pressure to commit suicide and appointments for joint suicides. Furthermore, some chat rooms celebrate chatters who committed suicide."[https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&se=gglsc&d=5008899471 When Kids Seek Help On-Line: Internet Chat Rooms and Suicide Journal article by Katja Becker, Martin H. Schmidt; Reclaiming Children and Youth, Vol. 13, 2005]

William Francis Melchert-Dinkel, 47 years old in May 2010, from Faribault, Minnesota, a licensed practical nurse from 1991 until February 2009, stands accused of encouraging people to die by suicide while he watched voyeuristically on a webcam.{{cite news|last=Davey |first=Monica |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/us/14suicide.html |title=Online Talk, Suicides and a Thorny Court Case |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 13, 2010 |access-date=June 26, 2010}}{{cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/article973900.ece |title=Nurse may be linked to multiple suicides, tracker says |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |access-date=June 26, 2010}}{{cite news|url=https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/631689 |title=Nurse urged 5 to commit suicide, U.S. police say |newspaper=The Toronto Star |date=May 9, 2009 |access-date=June 26, 2010 | first=Robyn | last=Doolittle}}[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7107061.ece "William Melchert-Dinkel charged with encouraging suicides]{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, The Sunday Times He allegedly told those contemplating suicide what methods worked best, that it was okay to die by suicide, that they would be better in heaven, and/or entered into suicide pacts with them.{{cite news|url=https://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/594553 |title=Teen urged to commit suicide on webcam |newspaper=The Toronto Star|date=February 28, 2009 |access-date=June 26, 2010 | first=Robyn | last=Doolittle}} Dinkel was charged with two counts of assisting suicide, for allegedly encouraging the suicides of a person in Britain in 2005 and another person in Canada in 2008.{{citation|title=Did he encourage suicide online?|url=https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/did-he-encourage-suicide-online-417930|work=NDTV|first=Monica|last=Davey|date=May 14, 2010}}

Suzy's Law would, in the US, ban sites that provide information on suicide methods or otherwise assist suicide.{{citation|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/24/mourning-parents-hit-advice-sites-for-suicide/|title=Mourning parents target suicide sites|author =Kara Rowland|work=The Washington Times|date=July 24, 2008}} There have been some legal bans on pro-suicide web sites, most notably in Australia, but arguably such bans merely increase awareness of such sites and encourage site owners to move their sites to different jurisdictions.{{citation|title=Legal bans on pro-suicide web sites: an early retrospective from Australia.|pmid=19527159|publisher=Suicide Life Threat Behav.|date=April 2009|vauthors=Pirkis J, Neal L, Dare A, Blood RW, Studdert D|doi=10.1521/suli.2009.39.2.190|volume=39|journal=Suicide Life Threat Behav|issue=2|pages=190–3}}

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• alt.suicide.holiday
• Sanctioned Suicide
• Altruistic suicide — a suicide that is done for the benefit of others
• Church of Euthanasia
• Human extinction
• Philosophy of suicide
• Right to die
• Suicide prevention
• Suicide is Painless
• Blue Whale Challenge

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Category:Suicide