painless suicide
Bart N. Locanthi
an interesting question, that of discovering a truly painless method
for suicide. but it raises more questions, the most obvious being
what metric to judge pain by. it seems to me that the most useful
one would be some kind of pain-time product - ripping a band-aid (tm)
off quickly is instantaneously more painful then pulling it off slowly,
yet the pain fades quickly enough that most (brave) folk with hair
elect for the quick rip method.
then of course there is the matter of anticipation. opening a blood
vessel can't be very painful but you have to watch all your blood
flow out and go through the various stages of wooziness. is that
painful? jumping off a building isn't at all painful (unless you
develop nausea on the way down) and the fact that impact must hurt
like hell should be mitigated by the shortness of the event. and
depending on your makeup, the fall could be exhilarating (how many
people do you suppose thought it would be a once-in-a-lifetime (sic)
thrill only to realize on the way down they could have done it with
a parachute?). is that exhilaration a fair balance for the ensuing
pain?
maybe someone should interview failed suicides to get a reading on
just how much pain they endured. i'm sure the information would be
useful, even though 1) most living suicides haven't tried several
methods and therefore would not be able to compare results, 2) "living
suicide" being an oxymoron, one can't really find out about the pain
level of dying without actually dying, 3) a failed suicide may be too
embarrassed to report honestly, and 4) one who is unbalanced enough to
attempt suicide may not be able to give a rational analysis of the
experience.
Gene Ward Smith
>
>an interesting question, that of discovering a truly painless method
>for suicide. but it raises more questions, the most obvious being
This discussion is kind of sickening, as well as dangerous. The method
*I* would recommend would be to pick up the phone and call the suicide
prevention hotline.
ucbvax!brahms!gsmith Gene Ward Smith/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720
ucbvax!weyl!gsmith "Are you by any chance from South Africa?" - RR
Sean Casey
Buy a pistol. Load it. Put the barrel under your chin, close to your
neck, pointing upward and slightly backward. Pull the trigger. By the
time the nerve impulses reach your brain you won't have one. Now wasn't
that painless?
(The positioning of the gun with this method almost insures that you won't
screw up and cripple yourself)
Sean
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sean Casey UUCP: se...@ukma.uucp CSNET: se...@uky.csnet
University of Kentucky ARPA: ukma!se...@anl-mcs.arpa
Lexington, Kentucky BITNET: se...@ukma.bitnet
"Remember, no matter where you go, there you are." - BB
William Swan
>vessel can't be very painful but you have to watch all your blood
Out of (morbid?) curiosity, does anyone know how long this takes? The only
mention I've heard of this was in a work of fiction, and the description
there implied _hours_. Surely it doesn't take that long! Plenty of time
for rescue.. hmmm..
--
Tim Smith
of a nuclear bomb very near myself. The only problem I can see with
this is that it might be over so quickly, that I wouldn't notice the
fact that I am dead! :-)
--
Tim Smith sdcrdcf!ism780c!tim || ima!ism780!tim || ihnp4!cithep!tim
bradford wilson
> >(The positioning of the gun with this method almost insures that you won't
> >screw up and cripple yourself)
>
> it.
>
> -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
> The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe)
> Citicorp(+)TTI
> 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. Geniuses are people so lazy they
> Santa Monica, CA 90405 do everything right the first time.
> (213) 450-9111, ext. 2483
> {philabs,randvax,trwrb,vortex}!ttidca!ttidcc!hollombe
This reminds me of a story I read a few years back concerning a
bank robber, a cop, and a .44 magnum. Evidently, the police officer appeared
in the middle of the heist, and confronted the thief. Things got nasty so the
cop shot the thief in the head with his .44, and the thief went down
like a sack of potatoes. What the cop didn't know was that the bullet, in
one of those "one-in-a-million" type situations, had bounced off the robber's
skull, only grazing him (!!!!) When the thief, who was pretty tough, staggered
to his feet, the policeman screamed and ran. The thief escaped, with a huge
headache :-) This just goes to show the uncertainty involved in dealing with
killing.
DIRE wolf
aka h-sc1!wilson_3@harvard
M. Rossner
The Bobby Caldwell (on St. Elsewhere) method of pushing currare through
an I.V. seems pretty painless and sure-fire to me.
Smith
> >[...] opening a blood
> >vessel can't be very painful but you have to watch all your blood
> >flow out and go through the various stages of wooziness. [...]
Wrong very painful. You have to cut deep to get a good vein.
> Out of (morbid?) curiosity, does anyone know how long this takes? The only
> mention I've heard of this was in a work of fiction, and the description
> there implied _hours_. Surely it doesn't take that long! Plenty of time
> for rescue.. hmmm..
> --
It depends on how much pain in cutting your self you can put up with and
how much blood you have to loose. If you do a resemble job at both wrists
figure about 60 minutes for every 50 pounds of weight. (a very good job
on wrists and ankles (ie. almost hacking them off) < 15 minutes.)
--
J. S. Smith AT&T IW
There are lots of opinions around this place, but these
are mine and no one else's.
ihnp4!ihu1e!jss
nor...@alice.uucp
> how much blood you have to loose. If you do a resemble job at both wrists
> figure about 60 minutes for every 50 pounds of weight. (a very good job
> on wrists and ankles (ie. almost hacking them off) < 15 minutes.)
Interesting. Does this mean that the various well-advertised diets and
weight-reduction courses are really courses in quick suicide?
William Swan
>>[...]
>>figure about 60 minutes for every 50 pounds of weight. (a very good job
>>on wrists and ankles (ie. almost hacking them off) < 15 minutes.)
>
>Interesting. Does this mean that the various well-advertised diets and
>weight-reduction courses are really courses in quick suicide?
Not if you include the time you spent on the diet!! :-)
--
Matthew P. Wiener
>The only way to go ( so to speak ... ) in my opinion would be to set
>of a nuclear bomb very near myself. The only problem I can see with
>this is that it might be over so quickly, that I wouldn't notice the
>fact that I am dead! :-)
Do you read Shopenhauer? That is the reason, after all his depressing
philosophy and depressing view of life, he recommends against suicide.
And he was serious.
ucbvax!brahms!weemba Matthew P Wiener/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720