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Amélie Boukhobza (Clinical Psychologist)
Taking advantage of the vulnerability of certain people to make them commit the irreparable: this is the credo of a website specializing in “suicidal encounters.”
Finding a suicide buddy through the services of a website? While it could be a bad joke, this morbid website did exist and “helped” many individuals to commit mass suicide. It is even said to be responsible for nearly 130 deaths in the United Kingdom alone.
A macabre site where Internet users organized their “collective suicide”
According to a BBC investigation, more than 700 Britons interacted on the website and more than 500 comments were posted by users from around the world.
A success, which lies in the concept – rather macabre – of this web page: it put in touch the different members of forums, eager to unearth the rare (or rather black) pearl. In other words, a “suicide partner”.
This is how a 28-year-old man from the Midlands committed suicide alongside a Scottish woman he met on the site. Yet another woman committed suicide with a complete stranger she met on the forum. Both had died lying side by side.
But the site’s services didn’t stop there: users also shared instructions on how to commit suicide and encouraged others to do the same. Finally, it was possible to find a suicide partner near you, in your region, or abroad.
Faced with these abuses, the British authorities decided to close the website – already responsible for 130 deaths in the United Kingdom.
A good thing, according to our psychologist, Amélie Boukhobza, who judges the approach of this site “totally immoral“.
“The existence of such a website is not only disturbing but also extremely dangerous, since it has been linked to hundreds of deaths already! It still raises urgent questions about the responsibility of these platforms and the need for legal and ethical intervention. These sites must be banned. Deciding to end one’s life is a deeply individual decision, taken in a state of extreme distress. Encouraging or facilitating this process through a website is not only irresponsible, it is completely immoral.“, deplores the expert.
An incentive to self-destruction
Suicide, by its nature, is an act of total unbinding—like a bicycle chain coming off the rails.
“Nothing is going well, and all connection with the outside world seems lost. So this act is not shared, is not encouraged! A site that allows you to find a “suicide partner” only fuels this feeling of despair and loss of meaning. It is a form of incitement to self-destruction, comparable to the coercive influence of a sect encouraging mass suicides”, warns the psychologist.
Result: by allowing people in distress to find each other, these sites do not “to worsen their isolation“.
“By encouraging someone to join this path, one encourages an act that, without this external influence, might never have happened. Such a site then becomes a catalyst for tragedy, an incitement to irreversible action. It is a perverse form of manipulation where the individuality of choice is erased in favor of a decision influenced, shared, but not necessarily desired by all participants,” alert Amélie Boukhobza.
The expert recalls that suicide is a real state of crisis.which requires individual and sensitive support“. “People who are considering ending their lives need support, listening and empathy, not encouragement towards death. To encourage someone to commit suicide because you yourself are at that point of despair is to deny the other person the possibility of finding another way, of holding on to hope,” she continues.
Therefore, allowing the existence of such sites poses a “serious question of social responsibility“.
“Rather than normalizing or facilitating the idea of taking one’s own life, it is crucial to direct those in distress to help services, helplines, therapists, and support groups that can provide the help and understanding needed to navigate these times of crisis,” the practitioner explains further, before concluding : “Rather than encouraging the end, we should find ways to offer a glimpse of a future, even when all seems lost. Suicide prevention must remain a public health priority, a commitment to protect the most vulnerable among us.”