# Suicide By Index Finger **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 3, 2016, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596 "2016-10-03T21:07:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/1 "2016-10-03T21:07:10Z")
(Disclaimer: I am not going to try this at home, and I am not going to commit suicide in any way, shape, or form. I’m just curious.) Factually, do you suppose this is a valid method? Let’s say I was in a prison cell, and I wanted to off myself. One night, in my bunk, I use my index finger to gouge out one of my eyes. I am determined, and I get it out. If I were to jam my index finger into the opening, could I reach/pierce my brain? If I could, would that kill me? If that didn’t work, and I ran my finger inside the toilet bowl, picking up some nasty microbes and bacteria, then jammed my finger into my eyeless socket, might I cause some kind of brain infection that would kill me? Curious, is all. Happy Halloween. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/2 "2016-10-03T21:16:27Z")
If you’re just soliciting the simplest way to kill yourself in prison using an index finger, you could use your index finger to point at the biggest, baddest convict in the place, followed by giggling and a refusal to answer his subsequent enquiries. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/3 "2016-10-03T21:24:01Z")
I think in the first case, you’ll only manage to give yourself a frontal lobotomy. In the second case you’d get medical treatment. In the **Riemann** case you’d just become Bubba’s bitch. ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/4 "2016-10-03T21:34:44Z")
If you check images of human skulls, you’ll see that there is only a small opening at the back of the eye socket, which allows the optic nerve to pass through. It’s not a big entry to the brain cavity. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/5 "2016-10-03T21:41:59Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > If you’re just soliciting the simplest way to kill yourself in prison using an index finger, you could use your index finger to point at the biggest, baddest convict in the place, followed by giggling and a refusal to answer his subsequent enquiries. Your middle finger will work much faster. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/6 "2016-10-03T21:43:14Z")
> [@Kiwi\_Fruit](#): > > If you check images of human skulls, you’ll see that there is only a small opening at the back of the eye socket, which allows the optic nerve to pass through. It’s not a big entry to the brain cavity. I was kind of thinking that evolution might be ahead of me on this. Limiting the geometry of things. I can hear evolution laughing at me: Hah! Your finger will never reach your brain! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/7 "2016-10-03T22:25:28Z")
Even if you could get through the [orbital fissure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_orbital_fissure) (which is quite narrow) and reach your brain, poking a small hole in your frontal lobe probably wouldn’t kill you. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/8 "2016-10-03T22:46:10Z")
An index finger is a frequent method of suicide; it pulls the trigger. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/9 "2016-10-03T22:51:07Z")
If you bit off one of your fingers, would you then bleed to death? ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/10 "2016-10-03T23:08:07Z")
You could point your finger at a cop and hope that he thinks it’s a gun and shoots you to death. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/11 "2016-10-03T23:16:28Z")
> [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#): > > You could point your finger at a cop and hope that he thinks it’s a gun and shoots you to death. **Moderator Note** Let’s avoid political and professional jabs in General Questions. No warning issued. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![KaylaLynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@KaylaLynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KaylaLynn)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/12 "2016-10-04T05:34:33Z")
Stand in water and put your finger in a light socket. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/13 "2016-10-04T05:57:38Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > If you bit off one of your fingers, would you then bleed to death? Probably not, but you could probably contrive to inhale the severed finger and choke to death on it. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/14 "2016-10-04T06:02:36Z")
Use index finger to induce vomiting. Attempt to drown in your own vomit. ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/15 "2016-10-04T10:32:26Z")
It has been reported people have died from nose bleeds after excessive nose picking. Less reliably it has been reported a Japanese man died while picking his nose in his car while waiting at traffic lights. A light rear end crash impact from the car behind supposedly speared the finger far enough up his nostril he had a heavy bleed although (if my memory serves me well) that triggered a fatal heart attack. TCMF-2L ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/16 "2016-10-04T22:22:25Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > I was kind of thinking that evolution might be ahead of me on this. Limiting the geometry of things. I can hear evolution laughing at me: Hah! Your finger will never reach your brain! I shudder to imagine the number of times this would have to (accidentally?) happen for it to be a significant selection event in the length of a finger… ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/17 "2016-10-04T23:22:33Z")
My mother told me she knew a woman who pulled a hair out of her nose (granted, using her thumb as an auxiliary to her index finger) and it got infected and she died. In those days there were no antibiotics/ Not a reliable method, but it worked at least once. I’ve toyed with that kind of death many times, with no ill effects. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-by-index-finger/767596/18 "2016-10-05T00:01:13Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > My mother told me she knew a woman who pulled a hair out of her nose (granted, using her thumb as an auxiliary to her index finger) and it got infected and she died. In those days there were no antibiotics/ An infection from a hair follicle is called furunculosis, and yes, an infection in the nasal cavity from such a cause can spread into the base of the brain and be lethal.