Should I discourage my friend from suicide?

[justinh]

If a friend was contemplating blowing his head off, should I advise him on what caliber pistol to use? or do anything I could to keep him from doing it? If I refuse to answer and he goes elsewhere for the knowledge then am I better off that if I had given him the right caliber? If I suggests a certain caliber and he uses it then am I contributing?

He doesn't want to die he just wants to play russian roulette because he loves the thrill. but if he does "lose" then he doesn't want to be left a vegtable. He calls it his choice on leisure activity and I call it suicide.

[magdalene]

This is outside the parameters of a great debate, but how old are you and your friend?

Unless we were talking about someone in the end stages of a painful terminal illness, I would refuse to advise a friend on suicide methods.

I would ask the friend what is so thrilling about Russian Roulette.

I would talk to a counselor, family, friends, and do everything in my power to get this friend into therapy.

[tiny ham]

Russian Roulette is LEISURE? Cripes, I think it's a good way to clean out your bowels.

[magdalene]

Unless we were talking about someone in the end stages of a painful terminal illness, I would refuse to advise a friend on suicide methods.

It's not even noon on Monday, and I'm already quoting myself. I want to say, even if this were the case for my friend - terminal illness, pain, etc. - I would still encourage the person to talk to doctors, family, friends, counselors and see about pain management techniques.

Your friend has some major issues, justin, and laughing it off as "leisure" or thrill-seeking is scary. You are right to think that it's suicidal behavior. Please talk to someone about it, okay?

[Fionn]

If a friend of mine were comtemplating shooting himself for any reason, I would do my best to talk him out of it. This would include removing the gun and having him confined, if that's what it took.
Would Russian Roulette with blanks just not be scary enough?

[Mr. Billy]

The correct answer to the question, "Should I discourage my friend from suicide?" is YES.

[justinh]

well actually this is " should I discourage my friend from doing something that I think is suicide and he thinks is "his right".

suicide was my definition. he is not doing the activity to kill himself. he just wants to have fun

[beagledave]

Originally posted by justinh
well actually this is " should I discourage my friend from doing something that I think is suicide and he thinks is "his right".


Well..both are true..it is his right, and it is suicide. I think a friend would seek professional help for someone who was seriously contemplating russian roulette as a leisure activity

[Esprix]

Originally posted by Ballybay

Would Russian Roulette with blanks just not be scary enough?

Sure it would, since you can also die from point-blank firing of blanks - see one of the Lee boys and the actor with the hair from that 80's television show. Yeah, yeah, cites, I know, I'm lazy, it's Monday, give me a break, you all know who I'm talking about.

Esprix

[tiny ham]

Originally posted by Esprix
Originally posted by Ballybay

Would Russian Roulette with blanks just not be scary enough?

Sure it would, since you can also die from point-blank firing of blanks - see one of the Lee boys and the actor with the hair from that 80's television show. Yeah, yeah, cites, I know, I'm lazy, it's Monday, give me a break, you all know who I'm talking about.

Esprix


of course you mean the gorgeous, talented and dead Jon Erik Hexum

[mswas]

Originally posted by Esprix
Originally posted by Ballybay

Would Russian Roulette with blanks just not be scary enough?

Sure it would, since you can also die from point-blank firing of blanks - see one of the Lee boys and the actor with the hair from that 80's television show. Yeah, yeah, cites, I know, I'm lazy, it's Monday, give me a break, you all know who I'm talking about.

Esprix

In lieu of having that answer I'll say, "Brandon Lee"

Anyway, I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with suicide. The Japanese consider it very honorable. However it sounds like this is a kid that needs attention and wants help, so I would say try and help him. Though I have given people advice on what to do if they truly ARE serious and that seemed to be cathartic for them at times.

Erek

[Jibby7]

More of a wondering statement here than cited evidence, but can't you be held legally liable by recommending anything to someone who is going to play Russian Roulette, particularly if you are recommending something MORE LETHAL?
Could this fall within manslaughter?

[Mangetout]

not long ago, one of my friends was desperately suicidal, she had attempted suicide and was now being watched around the clock by friends and family, she told me that she intended to pretend to recover, then when their guard was dropped, she would slip away and quietly do the deed using some tranquilisers she had stashed away.

All of my efforts to persuade her failed, all of my attempts to show her that there might be hope on the horizon fell on stony ground.

I told her husband of her plan, I told him to search for the pills.

She hated me for it and attacked me with enormous venom.

She's now on the road to recovery, starting to enjoy life again and is now grateful that I intervened in the way I did.

[dalovindj]

I'd go with a .357 Magnum. A .38 would do the trick most times, but I've heard storys about guys taking one of these to the head and living. A .45 is better than a .38, but again, I've heard stories of .45 shells glancing off of someones skull. I've never heard of anyone surviving a .357 to the head.

Oh, and your friend is a retard (no offense to mentally handicapped folks out there).

This reminds me of an old comic I saw in Mad magazine. 6 guys in a row sitting in chairs. They start a game of Russian Roulette. The guys closest to the gun look nervous. The rest, espeically the last guy, look relieved they are not first. It proceeds down the line with everyone who is getting closer getting more nervous, and everyone who has done it looking very relieved. It finally get's to the last guy who has gone from looking like he was on top of the world, to knowing he is about to die. In the last frame, instead of shooting himself, he turns the gun and shoots the guy behind him and the bullet travels through all 5 of the other peoples heads. Now that's comedy.

DaLovin'Dj

[Fionn]

Originally posted by Esprix
Originally posted by Ballybay

Would Russian Roulette with blanks just not be scary enough?

Sure it would, since you can also die from point-blank firing of blanks - see one of the Lee boys and the actor with the hair from that 80's television show. Yeah, yeah, cites, I know, I'm lazy, it's Monday, give me a break, you all know who I'm talking about.

Esprix

I remembered the Brandon Lee case when I answered, but I don't have any handy stats on death by blanks. Would this still not be preferable to an actual bullet in the head?

IIRC correctly, Brandon Lee didn't die as a direct result of being shot with a blank. According to the TV newsmagazine that ran a few years ago, he died because blanks and dummy bullets had been fashioned out of real bullets and used in the same gun.

[Gatopescado]

i agree with mangetout. if this person is your friend, show them something more fun than russian roulette. take them to the ballgame, or get them laid-- anything other than playing with guns. its a big world out there and something for everyone. some folks need help finding thier "thing". death sucks (just ask any dead person)

if your friend wants to try something REALLY exciting, why not get into motorcycle racing? very dangerous- could get you killed just as quick, but when you do it right (and, often when you dont!) man, is it a THRILL!

RIDE SAFE, HAVE FUN, LEARN TO LIVE WITHOUT THE GUN!

[Mangetout]

Slightly shocked British (i.e. not gun-hardened) Doper here...

So your friend has so little regard for his life that he'd risk it in a game of chance with (I'd say) not very favourable odds?

Does he have equally poor regard for the lives of those around him?, if so, I'd be very concerned about what else he might fancy doing with that gun when he's bored.

[Captain Amazing]

Not to be a cynic, but you're not trying to make a thinly veiled "no condoms in school" argument here, are you?

[mswas]

Originally posted by Jibby7
More of a wondering statement here than cited evidence, but can't you be held legally liable by recommending anything to someone who is going to play Russian Roulette, particularly if you are recommending something MORE LETHAL?
Could this fall within manslaughter?

I suppose it could, but who's gonna tell? Anyhow, what I was referring to was more of a, 'This is how you can tell whether you are really serious or not.', or 'slitting your wrists is a pretty bad way to go, there are easier ways.' kind of approach.

Erek

[Enderw24]

If this guy truly wants to kill himself and your only question is "what caliber gun should I advise him to use," I have to wonder why you're even bothering to ask us the question at all.

Oh, and here are two fun fun facts for you:

The "winner" of Russian Roulette can be charged with Murder 1.
You can be charged with accessory to murder.

Maybe that will provide some incentive to at least attempt to do the right thing.

[justinh]

Russian Roulette is not necessarily the game of putting a gun to your head. The point of this thread is the morality of advising a person on a minor technical point while ignoring the main question. It is indulging in an activity that can result in permanent damage or death and whether I should concentrate on the activity or just let a person "do what he has to do".
They used to call this "common sense".


Captain Amazing,
you are the man!

[Mangetout]

Originally posted by justinh
..."common sense"...

I've got news for you; it ain't as common as we first thought.

[Darqangelle]

2 things:

1) Regarding the Brandon Lee incident, we actually covered that in a thread about magicians and their "bullet catching in the teeth" trick. You can also look it up in Snopes.

2) My view on suicidal individuals is this:
If a person is truly intending to kill themselves, then you'll find a body and wonder how it got there.
If a person is talking about their intention to kill themself, they're looking for attention or professional assistance, and if you're not a psychologist or psychiatrist or a professional counselor with experience in suicidal tendencies, professional assistance is what you should give them.

As for your situation, this guy does seem to be a few fries short of a happy meal if he's seriously intending on playing russian roulette for the "thrill". But then I'm also of the mind that if he's intending on contending for a Darwin award, then let him. But stay FAR away, don't offer assistance, or a calibre, or anything. Just make a call to the local authorities so that you can say "Hey, I did call the police/local psych ward!" And the onus is off you.

[kabbes]

In case you're interested, dalovin', in the example you describe each participant has the same chance (1/6 or 0.1667) of dying, even though some of them have to try the gun before others.

This is because it is an example of sampling without replacement - once person A has survived his 1/6 dice-with-death, the next person then is up to a 1/5 chance of being killed. This means that at the start of the game person B has a 5/6 x 1/5 = 1/6 chance of being killed, the same as person A. If you follow this through for all participants, you see that at the start of the game they all have a 1/6 chance of being killed.

If, however, barrel of the gun is respun after every attempt then the chances of death for each participant are as follows:

A: 0.2506
B: 0.2088
C: 0.1740
D: 0.1450
E: 0.1208
F: 0.1007

so, as you can see, participant A has a much higher chance of death than participant F - over 2 1/2 times as high a chance.

You can try it for yourself, though I'd recommend using a die rather than a gun. Dice are less lethal.

pan

[Tr8rJake]

Tell your candy-ass, "don't really care if I die", attention seeking friend that I said put up or shut up.

.22 hollow point, in the mouth. Sure, really good chance that he'll end up a vegetable, but with the low calliber-hollow point combination; he's least likly to harm someone else.

I watched my prematurely born son die at 2 months old and my 21 y/o wife die of lupus. Both were desperatly clawing onto the meager chances of survival only so I can listen to an account of this pathetic F**k.

DO IT, COWARD! I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU! IF I HAD A DOG I WOULDN'T LET HIM LICK YOUR FEEBLE BRAINS OFF THE FLOOR. (Please refer your friend to this post, thank you.)

[phouka]

So, Tr8trJake, because you have endured two heartbreaking tragedies, you're going to encourage one sick young man to put those who love him through the same pain and heartache that you've gone through? I suspect that you need help just as much that boy.

[Beltane]

I will say, emphatically, YES you should do all in your power to discourage him. As someone who lost a sister to suicide, a year ago today, I can tell you that if you really give a crap about this guy, if you do not do all within your power to stop him(and maybe even then) and he does kill himself, you will have a hard time living with yourself.