I have a question for you all….. I just remembered that my camera can record hi-def video…. so I have spent the last couple of hours, recording some segments intended for family and friends. My question is this….
Should I record the actual act??? Is that ethical?? Is there ethics in suicide? My whole life I’ve documented…. that’s what the camera is for… documenting my trips and different places and times in my life…. shouldn’t I also document my death?? I can do it easily enough… have the equipment the know how, etc…. my only question is should I???Â
Will appreciate your opinion no matter what it is.
15 comments
i would say no, that would be too much for them. i had the same thought, and even thought, even if i hated everyone who would see it, i still wouldn’t. i feel it should be a private thing, until the obvious descovery.
I’ve been kind of leaning that way (not to)….. probably why I didn’t even think of the possibility on Saturday….. but then I had this “journalist” thought that everything should be documented…..
What is your goal–to hurt people? If so, by all means record your suicide. But please know that is extremely selfish of you. You deserve to get help and have a life.
Look up photographs of gore on the internet and judge how they make you feel. Now imagine those images in video. Then imagine those being people you know. It is a terrible idea.
Also, suicide is illegal, and recording your suicide is like an admission of guilt and could lead to your family suffering legal repercussions.
well… it’s not like I’m shooting myself in the head or anything…. but I get your drift…. uh… mind explaining how and what legal problems they might face? I don’t understand that…..
Here’s an idea…
Don’t commit suicide.
I still don’t think you should kill yourself until you’ve had a chance to get to the coast & publish your writings 🙂
But about recording your death….. I know the feeling. I have the same obsession with recording everything. I have 2 hard drives full of videos documenting all the important (and a ton of not-so-important) events in my life. It’s like you said, being a “journalist” or something.
I don’t expect my friends or family to see it, but I’m thinking mainly of the historical record. I don’t expect anyone to “care” about me… it’s more like leaving forensic evidence for police, historians or ppl who want to study how death happens.
Ever see the documentary “The Bridge”? It’s about ppl committing suicide off the Golden Gate. It has a lot of footage of people jumping to their deaths. It’s an excellent documentary. The scenes are not sick or disgusting… they’re just very sad and eye-opening. It actually made ne think twice about dying. Anyway if a suicide vid can help someone think twice about killing themselves, I’m all for it.
That said, FTSie, take that rope down from your garage, throw it away & video yourself reading your poetry like Jim Morrison did. Now there’s a historical record the world should see.
— “I don’t expect my friends or family to see it, but I’m thinking mainly of the historical record. I don’t expect anyone to “care†about me… it’s more like leaving forensic evidence for police, historians or ppl who want to study how death happens.” —
This is exactly what I was thinking…. just in case something happens and the cops or doctors tell my family, “we don’t know exactly …”
at least there will be a record of exactly what happened…. it can be studied and most things will be able to be explained….
I don’t think I’ll do it….. there have been some really strongly felt comments against it…. but I posed the question because I could see both sides and was having difficulty making the decision…… so with the help of comments from others, I don’t think I will record it….
Yeah, publish my writings…… that will be for those like you to do after I’m gone….. the coast is a wonderful idea, but just isn’t going to happen.
I do like the idea of reading some of my poetry to the camera before I go…. I may read a couple for them…. but they are all available once I’m gone….
It doesn’t matter whether or not the act is gorey. People are uncomfortable being around dead bodies, imagine how they’d feel watching someone they know die.
Suicide is illegal. The cost to remove your body, if you killed yourself in some illegal way (though if you’re in your room, that is unlikely)… basically any cost to handle you after the fact gets placed on your parents or guardian. You’re already on the internet, research the legalities of suicide.
Also, no one will publish anything you write after you’re gone; that is something you have to do yourself. Why would you expect anyone to make that effort if you won’t do it yourself?
my writings were never meant to be “published”…. what I was saying was, if that’s what someone wants done with them, that’s up to them….
all my writings are, is a way for me to express feelings that I can’t express in any other way…. I always felt that after I was gone, it might give some others insight into me….
When I was still working in a hospital 2 years ago as an RN, I was assigned in ICU to a patient who tried to commit suicide by hanging, it broke his cervical spine rendering him paralyzed from neck down and his respiration depending on a mech. ventilator…. I remember seeing him deteriorate day after day. I never know what happened next to him but I know he is dead, I saw his relatives and friends in their utmost dispair and I will never forget thoes faces.
There was also this patient, a man who slit his left wrist and severed his tendons and damaged his radial nerve. He survived of course, he tried to commit suicide as a form of revenge. But his left hand is permanently damaged.
So I decided if I’m gonna kill myself I’ll make sure it’s not a way to gain attention, revenge, or make it as messy as possible. I want it simple and clean, and a sure-kill. Don’t give your love ones a hard time and the medics a difficult job.
^ That’s how Emily Dickinson did it. She just wrote for herself. After she died someone found her 2000 poems & published them. I still think there’s nothing wrong with trying to get published while you’re alive… just to see how the world reacts… you never know, if you realize you’re helping others it may give you the will to keep writing. Although this site isn’t exactly the NY Times best seller list, your poetry is helping a lot of us here.
wow…. 2000 …. I only have 200…. 🙂
thanks Scooby,
the only reason I posted the first one here was because you asked…. now after reading others comment…. I’ve posted others…. but truly…. all they ever were, was a means for me to try to deal with feelings…. I always felt they were too personal to let ANYONE see them…. but, I realize that here, they might actually help someone…. I have no desire to be famous…. rich maybe…. but not famous…
Look this is something i have thought about, but it really can’t happen. Over the last few months i have realised that even the word suicide is enough to strike the fear of god into most. Meaning the actual visual accounts that exist garner such extreme reaction as to really endanger those that are left behind.
From what i understand if you are thinking about making your suicide public the best would be a written memoir, with the absolute raw emotion of what your feeling and your emotion to those around you.
I believe explanation makes it easier for others to understand.