r/TooAfraidToAsk Founder & Mod May 17 '22 Wholesome Seal of Approval 1 Silver 2 Helpful 5 Faith In Humanity Restored 1

Ignorance of the rules is not a defense - Telling a user a method to commit suicide will result in a permanent ban. Meta

Edit: this is not up for debate

Your job before using a Subreddit is to be familiar with the rules to ensure you do not end up having your content removed (mild) to being on the receiving end of a ban (severe).

Given the nature of the offense, this type of infraction is not liable for a warning nor is it liable to the defense of “but I didn’t know!”

This stance has zero to do with personal belief regarding assisted-suicide, which would imply the use of a medical provider operating within evidence-based approaches to help with end-of-life. This stance is in regards to largely uninformed Redditors, of unverifiable credentials, offering “advice” with methodology that is not evidence-based nor generally is it without risk.

Were medically-assisted suicide pan-legal across every single State, it would still not be allowed for users to give methods to others on how to kill themselves.

Your individual beliefs have nothing to do with this discussion, has nothing to do with adhering to rules in order to participate within a sub and further has no bearing on your ability to support medically-assisted suicide, of which a Reddit comment is not, across various discussions.

However, If you tell a user a method to kill themselves, you will be banned and your comment will be escalated for additional review by Reddit admins.

You should know better than to provide someone potentially suicidal with methods to kill themselves, and if you can’t have that inherent moral compass then you should be able to gander at the multiple places our rules are plastered before engaging within this sub.

Thanks to the rest of you with enough common sense that this message will seem ridiculous, keep on keeping on.

1.7k Upvotes

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136

u/PickleEmergency7918 May 17 '22

Even if telling someone to kill themselves is not explicitly against the rules in a given space, DON'T FREAKING DO IT. No one is perfect and we are all on our own journeys to become better people, but telling someone to commit suicide is NEVER ACCEPTABLE.

25

u/Fortyplusfour May 17 '22

It's also a potential violation of David's Law, in the US. May get a knock on your door for seemingly encouraging suicide (especially of a minor) online.

19

u/ThEtZeTzEfLy May 21 '22 Silver

Why? I legit don't get this. it does not have to do with journeys or perfection. if I wanted to kill myself, I would appreciate someone giving me an efficient method. it does not mean that if someone doesn't, I will no go along with a worse, shittier, mote painful method.

It's just you imposing your point of view on the matter of someone else's life and death, because you somehow know better. And if you have this freedom, why shouldn't someone of the opposite conviction be able to express their strong point of view that 'Hey, this is an effective method to do the deed'?

12

u/ZeldaNut93 May 21 '22

It's not though. It's not just a matter of personal choice. These people are in a bad place mentally. Most of them want to live but see no reason to keep trying. They're spent. How do I know? I'm going through depression myself. I've seen people at that point. But these issues in life can be solved. Happiness can be achieved in... like 98% of cases. If I was at that point, I wouldn't want people telling me "Oh hey, use this method. It's more effective." I'd want them to help me out of that situation. Sit with me until the thoughts pass, help me back up.

People don't inherently want to die. But in so, so, so many of these cases it's seen as the only option because living is suffering.

16

u/RadiantHC May 22 '22

But these issues in life can be solved.

Not always. And even for the ones that can be solved, a lot of the time it isn't easy.

7

u/ZeldaNut93 May 23 '22

Hello horrifically toxic person number 2.

... Yes. Most of them can. And "easy" is beside the point. Nothing in life worth doing is easy. But fucking killing yourself is virtually never the answer.

16

u/RadiantHC May 23 '22

How is it toxic? All I'm saying is that you should have control over when you want to end your life. You aren't entitled to someone else being alive.

5

u/Idontsuckcompletely Jun 19 '22

Depression is a potentially treatable condition which renders you incapable of making informed decisions about your future while in a major depressive episode. Thus, offering advice for someone on how to kill themselves, without first recommending treatments to help them regain their capacity for medical decision making is unethical. Hospice and palliative care doctor here, big believer in autonomy and physician assisted suicide in terminally ill patients who DO have the capacity to decide . For the most part depression is a relapsing and remitting disease and should be treated. Oh and by the way when I was a regular family doc, no one asked me to kill them more often than women in labor . I also asked them to be patient before offering physician assisted suicide

18

u/eazeaze May 23 '22

Suicide Hotline Numbers If you or anyone you know are struggling, please, PLEASE reach out for help. You are worthy, you are loved and you will always be able to find assistance.

Argentina: +5402234930430

Australia: 131114

Austria: 017133374

Belgium: 106

Bosnia & Herzegovina: 080 05 03 05

Botswana: 3911270

Brazil: 212339191

Bulgaria: 0035 9249 17 223

Canada: 5147234000 (Montreal); 18662773553 (outside Montreal)

Croatia: 014833888

Denmark: +4570201201

Egypt: 7621602

Finland: 010 195 202

France: 0145394000

Germany: 08001810771

Hong Kong: +852 2382 0000

Hungary: 116123

Iceland: 1717

India: 8888817666

Ireland: +4408457909090

Italy: 800860022

Japan: +810352869090

Mexico: 5255102550

New Zealand: 0508828865

The Netherlands: 113

Norway: +4781533300

Philippines: 028969191

Poland: 5270000

Russia: 0078202577577

Spain: 914590050

South Africa: 0514445691

Sweden: 46317112400

Switzerland: 143

United Kingdom: 08006895652

USA: 18002738255

You are not alone. Please reach out.


I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically.

3

u/Bobinska May 23 '22

Good bot

5

u/ZeldaNut93 May 23 '22

You see why there's a bot for this? You see how much people care? ... Fuck how are you this insensitive? You're a disgusting person. You don't fucking encourage it. "Entitled to someone else being alive" you fucking dunce. This isn't about me. This is about them. Would you provide me with methods of suicide because guess what jackass, I've been there!! Have you? Do you have any experience in this at all? Or is this just your uneducated self-righteous opinion? I'm done with this. Thanks for showing the world how uncaring you are. I hope you never have any close friends. For your own sake.

3

u/[deleted] May 23 '22

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2

u/[deleted] May 24 '22

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3

u/Penisdestroyer7mil Jun 19 '22

To be honest it sounded very plausible they were speaking from experience and from wishing stuff like that for themselves. It seems like a bad idea to call them a disgusting person and wishing they never have close friends when we can't be sure what their situation is like

Don't know if the deleted messages from this thread may change my opinion

9

u/JrForgetFull69 May 23 '22

How is he being horrifically toxic when he’s just putting his input? Stfu you dick. And go ahead and call me horrifically toxic too

1

u/shooteen Jun 09 '22

To me it's the answer if u don't feel like dealing with it at all

7

u/[deleted] May 29 '22 edited May 29 '22

98% is an… optimistic… estimate. What about the ones that can’t be solved?

It’s something of a safety valve - “just in case”. That’s what tempts people to go online scouring for ways to kill themselves.

To be clear, I understand the reasoning behind not giving people suicide methods online. I’m just saying, do you really think that 100% of cases of people who want to die have solvable problems? How? Seriously asking - what’s your reasoning for thinking this?

2

u/Penisdestroyer7mil Jun 19 '22

Ah that safety valve analogy resonates a lot with me. When I first went around scouting around how to do the deed I felt really hopeless when I realized I most likely wouldn't be able do it (due to various phobias). Before that I had always thought "well at least if it gets too bad I can do it". Afterwards I felt very trapped

1

u/Mittysgirl Jun 23 '22

I find that when the idea of suicide gets fixed in my head, a single sleeping pill and going directly to sleep work best for me. While I sleep, the negative spiral of thought shuts down. I wake feeling better and generally glad I didn’t give in to my demons. My psychiatrist knows I do this and supports me. I’d never waste my precious sleeping pills in an attempt to end things. My stomach would just get pumped, the prescription revoked, and I’d never sleep again. That’d be far worse than death.

3

u/BibleBeltAtheist Jun 09 '22

Knee jerk, reactionism at its finest.

1

u/Mittysgirl Jun 23 '22

You cannot know that people do not inherently want to die. People who actually do aren’t as likely to blather about it anywhere. They’ll just do it. Sharing the desire to die is the hallmark of one who doesn’t really want to. A suicidal person stopped mid-attempt is at most danger of actually committing suicide well after, when they seem “fine,” because at that point they’ve come up with a plan.

9

u/RadiantHC May 22 '22 edited May 22 '22

I don't get why people are entitled to others being alive. It's selfish to force people to suffer.

5

u/fyrnael May 29 '22

That's not the point. The point is the vast majority of people who are suicidal don't actually want to die, they're just in a desperate and potentially psychotic state. If they live and get past that, they won't want to be dead, but if you help them be dead then they'll never get there.

The way to be helpful is to help them get past this situation, not to help them die.

3

u/shooteen Jun 09 '22 edited Jun 09 '22

tbh that sounds about right for most situations, yet I still consider your life to be your own responsibility so if you feel like kys, allowing it also sounds right. Idk, even though I'm pretty happy rn I don't consider it to be as bad as some try to put it, I even respect it in some scenarios

4

u/Ferbuggity Jun 10 '22

People who are severely mental ill or mood disordered aren't in a place to make clear decisions for themselves. This is why the law allows it for people to get sectioned for suicide attempts, against their will.

Assisting ill people to harm themselves is manipulative and wrong, and could quite rightfully end up in a murder or manslaughter charge, depending on where they live.

If you, and the others here saying "let them do it" really, actually cared about these people's wellbeing and true wishes, you'd guide them toward means of getting help for their mental and emotional health rather than supporting the harmful illness that is trying to kill them.

1

u/Mittysgirl Jun 23 '22

The majority of people who TELL someone about it don’t want to die.

2

u/Cautious-Damage7575 Jun 07 '22

entitled to others being alive

I'm not following this phraseology. Does it mean "being responsible for" others being alive?

1

u/Penisdestroyer7mil Jun 19 '22

They mean it like "being entitled to women's bodies" or other phrases like that. Like that you get to decide what to do with something or are owed something. Got this definition from googling it:"believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment."

3

u/tacbacon10101 Jun 14 '22

I agree with you that it is imposing a view and a morality on others. But i think it is a wonderful view to impose. Religious or not, atheist or not, the truth is we don’t know what happens when you die. All we know is your life is over, your decisions are over. That was the last one you’ll ever make. So it is a very good thing to try to stop someone from killing themselves. Because their situation may change, and they may be able to make something better of their life. But if they were dead, it’s no longer possible.

1

u/Cautious-Damage7575 Jun 07 '22

I would appreciate someone giving me an efficient method

Isn't this something you can get from Google in, like, 5 minutes? Why bring it to a public forum, millions of people, unless it's a cry for help?. It's not like you can get recommendations from people who were successful at it.

2

u/[deleted] May 17 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

87

u/Hospitalities Founder & Mod May 17 '22

what about telling someone HOW to do it painlessly and cleanly

What is it about "any suicide methodology will result in a permanent ban" that is unclear?

6

u/Orangebeardo May 19 '22

How do you even draw a line on this?

It is obviously encouraging suicide if I were to encourage someone to drink bleach. But all activities have a risk of death, drinking bleach just approaches 100%. What about telling someone to swim with aligators (90%)? What about something with 80% chance of death? 50%? 20%? 5%?

Full disclosure: I'm obviously not telling anyone to do any of these things.

16

u/Hospitalities Founder & Mod May 19 '22

Pretty easily actually -

Is the OP asking for methods to commit suicide? If yes, does your comment endorse a method for them to commit suicide? If yes, ban.

1

u/Steerider May 29 '22

Funny concidence, I'm going swimming with alligators this afternoon. They're domesticated pet alligators, so there's 60% chance I'm 100% safe

1

u/Ferbuggity Jun 10 '22

Have you got like, zero things better to do with your day?

-19

u/Jade_CarCrash May 17 '22

Aye he was just asking, your post was unclear. I was under the impression that you were talking about trolls coming in and saying 'lmao kys!!!'

I didn't realise it was people actually seeking painless methods (which is a whole other moral ball game)

In any case, I'll follow the rules, just defending a relatively fair question.

52

u/Hospitalities Founder & Mod May 17 '22 edited May 17 '22

It's unclear from the title of "telling a user a method to kill themselves" means that telling a user a method to kill themselves will result in a ban or is it unclear from the several times I specifically state that telling someone a method to kill themselves will result in a permanent ban?

What's unclear for you?

3

u/GoshDarnit02496 May 17 '22

To be fair, I read the title really fast and I thought it said "telling a user to kill themselves". Had to reread the title again after the post lol

43

u/vendettaonreddit May 17 '22

No it wasn't. The post was incredibly clear and in depth, you clearly just didn't actually read it.

-5

u/Jade_CarCrash May 17 '22

Alright fair enough

1

u/[deleted] May 17 '22

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u/Cautious-Damage7575 Jun 07 '22

telling someone to commit suicide is NEVER ACCEPTABLE.

I thought the violation was offering recommendations to people soliciting a suggested method?

0

u/[deleted] May 17 '22

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u/[deleted] May 17 '22

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u/[deleted] May 17 '22

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