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From: barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold)
Newsgroups: net.suicide
Subject: Suicide vs Martyrdom (& some grisly details)
Message-ID: <1897@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Apr-85 01:29:57 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcrdcf.1897
Posted: Tue Apr  9 01:29:57 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 10-Apr-85 06:17:24 EST
References: <320@cmu-cs-cad.ARPA>
Reply-To: barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold)
Organization: System Development Corp. R+D, Santa Monica
Lines: 35
Summary: 

Some miscellaneous musings....

Most religions I am acquainted with frown on suicide but approve of
dying for a good cause (in the defense of one's ideals, protecting the
innocent, trying to kill off someone loathsome like Hitler).

Someone who wanted to die in an acceptable way could always look over
the possibilities for heroic but highly dangerous deeds offered by hiser
environment (walking the park at night in search of victims to rescue from
muggers/rapists, perhaps).  Of course, after awhile of that, one might
find more in life to interest one; and possibly get distracted from the
goal of death.

(warning:  graphic details follow, which some may find disgusting)

In any case, dying like that with an endorphin/adrenaline rush would
probably be a lot more pleasant than the way most suicides go.  A friend
once told me about a friend of hers who'd tried to commit suicide with
barbiturates.  They knocked out her body, but her mind stayed aware the whole
time.  She vividly remembered the feeling as she lost control of her urine
and feces, as she began to breathe less and less, hearing the sound
of people entering her room and commenting on her, being taken to the
hospital, feeling her stomach pumped.  She advised everyone NEVER to
try committing suicide via drugs.

That's grisly but not as bad as the story I heard from a policeman who was
called up by a hysterical woman Halloween night to investigate the Thing
at her doorstep.  It turned out to be someone who had tried shooting his
brains out and mis-aimed...slightly.  He'd only shot out the forebrains,
performing a sort of lobotomy.  His eyes had fallen out and were dangling
from the eyesockets.  My policeman friend had to take a leave of absence
after bundling the living body of a former human being off to the mental
hospital where it would stay for the rest of its life.

--Lee Gold