# suicide is painless? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 5, 2001, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-is-painless/91585 "2001-11-05T11:35:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-is-painless/91585/1 "2001-11-05T11:35:11Z")
Just out of curiosity but what is the best way of killing oneself? It obviously should be painless, quick and not too messy for ones loved ones, easy to arrange, not need a doctor, and have no chance of backfiring e.g. leave you in a coma or paralysed for twenty years. I should say that I have no plans to do anything ! but find the question interesting in the abstract yours morbidly ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-is-painless/91585/2 "2001-11-05T11:48:59Z")
Some questions which are quite welcome “in the abstract” are not likely to get a thoughtful legitimate answer from longtime posters or mods or admins. For a whole lot of reasons, not many people are going to be prepared to respond to this thread with factual information. I know it sounds harsh, but there are som questions which only people who’ve been around here for a while can ask “in the abstract” - this is one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-is-painless/91585/3 "2001-11-05T11:58:15Z")
I know of one way that seems painless and not messy at all, of course I would never do it but everyone has though about it. I mean, if you’re bored enough you eventually think of everything. I won’t post it until this thread gets a green light from the mods though. ---
**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:** [November 5, 2001, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-is-painless/91585/4 "2001-11-05T12:03:02Z")
Posting questions like this one is a kind of suicide in itself. Countdown to Moderator intervention: 10…9…8… ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-is-painless/91585/5 "2001-11-05T12:03:03Z")
hmmm, maybe it was a poor question. I am quite happy to withdraw it if I knew how? ---
**Author:** ![OneChance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/74df32/32.png) [@OneChance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneChance)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-is-painless/91585/6 "2001-11-05T12:04:16Z")
I know of a way to do it painlessly and cleanly using helium. If the mods let me, I’ll post the link. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-is-painless/91585/7 "2001-11-05T12:07:03Z")
Hi **scm1001**! Let me clarify a bit: most of us aren’t going to answer this kind of question for fear that you (or someone else) might actually DO it! After all, you could be someone who is very depressed and is looking for a foolproof way to do yourself in, and we wouldn’t want to be involved in that… You said “I have no plans to do anything ! but find the question interesting in the abstract”… I hope so, but, with all due respect, how do we _know_ that? I, and most of the others, I’m sure, don’t want to say ‘the suicidee should do X’ and then see in the paper the next day that YOU did X! Anyways, welcome!🙂 ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-is-painless/91585/8 "2001-11-05T12:31:47Z")
Thanks **Astro** , I was trying to think of a way to explain “the rules” without making it sound like there really is an SD **clique** or **cabal**. None of us want to be sitting here in GQ having given factual answers to people we don’t “know” (at least from the boards) if they might use those answers to hurt themself or someone else. Yes, I do realise that it sounds a little hypocritical - people could always search here or elsewhere for the answers if they really wanted them. But we’re a funny little community in one respect - we like our members to hang around longterm. Guess you’re stuck with us now 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suicide-is-painless/91585/9 "2001-11-05T13:01:48Z")
We’re not going to do this here. This thread is closed. > [@](#): > > hmmm, maybe it was a poor question. I am quite happy to withdraw it if I knew how? For future reference, you can e-mail a moderator to take care of it for you. bibliophage moderator GQ