Suicide methods

A suicide method is any means by which a person purposely kills him- or herself. Examples of methods that have been used to commit suicide are listed below.

Bleeding

Exsanguination is a method of death which is caused by blood loss. It is usually the result of damage inflicted on arteries. The carotid, radial, ulnar or femoral arteries would be targeted.

Cutting wrists

This entails cutting through the wrists and may damage the tendons, ulnar and median nerves which control the muscles of the hand, which can result in temporary or permanent reduction in sensory and motor ability (if one survives). Wrist slitting is usually not fatal.

Cutting the carotid artery

Cutting through the throat is one method of exsanguination. Damage is inflicted to the carotid artery which carries blood to the brain, and it takes no longer than a few minutes to lose enough blood for death to occur, although death could also be caused by blood clogging the trachea. People who do this often cut the recurrent laryngeal nerve, the nerve that goes up to the voicebox and larynx, and lose their voices.

It was also practiced as a ritual suicide method in Japan called jigai, by noble women for the same purposes as seppuku was used by men.

Carbon monoxide poisoning

A particular type of asphyxia involves inhalation of high levels of carbon monoxide.

Death usually occurs through hypoxia. In most cases carbon monoxide (CO) is used because it is easily available as a product of incomplete combustion; for example it may be released by cars and some types of heaters.

Carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas, so its presence cannot be detected by sight or smell. It is harmful to humans since the CO molecules attach themselves irreversibly to hemoglobin in the blood, displacing oxygen molecules and progressively lowering the body's oxygenation, eventually resulting in death.

In the past, before air-quality regulations and catalytic converters, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning would often be achieved by running a car's engine in a closed space such as a garage, or by redirecting a running car's exhaust back inside the cabin with a hose. Motor car exhaust may have contained up to 25% carbon monoxide. However, catalytic converters can eliminate over 99% of carbon monoxide produced.

The incidence of suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning through burning charcoal within a confined space appears to have risen.

Drowning

A homeless girl contemplates drowning herself.

Suicide by drowning is the act of deliberately submerging oneself in water or other liquid and staying there long enough to prevent breathing and deprive the brain of oxygen. Due to the body's natural reflex to come up for air, one often ties a heavy object to oneself to circumvent this reflex and increase his or her chances of drowning. As with other deaths by one, if the drowning is stopped before death, oxygen deprivation can cause brain damage.

Suffocation

Suicide by suffocation is the act of holding one's breath, causing asphyxia to kill the suicidal person. Another method is to put a plastic bag tightly sealed over the head, or trapping oneself in a room without oxygen. This is usually not very effective, as the suicidees usually pass out from lack of oxygen before they can die, or, as well known, at the last minute tears at the plastic bag or other device, resulting in not death, but a grisly continuance, with a diminished brain capacity. These attempts usually involve using depressants to make the user pass out, preventing him from changing his mind and finding a way out. The best well-known and accepted method in terminally ill or sincere "want-to-die" candidates is to use a gas, such as nitrogen or helium.

Drug overdosing

Suicide by pharmaceuticals ("overdosing") is a method which involves taking medication in doses of several times greater than the indicated levels, or in a combination which will enhance each drug's effect. Due to the unpredictability of dosing requirements, death is uncertain, and an attempt may leave a person alive but with severe organ damage (which may prove eventually fatal itself). Drugs taken orally may also be vomited back out before being absorbed.

Analgesic overdoses are among the most common due to easy availability of over-the-counter substances. Overdosing may also be performed by mixing medications in a cocktail with one another or with alcohol or illegal drugs.

This method may leave confusion over whether the death was a suicide or accidental, especially when alcohol or other judgment-impairing substances are also involved.

Electrocuting

Suicide by electrocution involves using a lethal electric shock to kill oneself. A high enough voltage can overcome the high resistance of the skin and pass a sizable current through the body. A large alternating current through the body can seriously disrupt nerve signals and can cause the heart to go into fibrillation.

Explosives

Suicide by explosives involves putting explosives in bodily orifices or otherwise setting off explosives in near proximity. A sufficient quantity of explosive would cause death almost instantaneously by blowing the body into so many pieces that life would end instantly. Shattered organs, broken bones, internal bleeding from the blast wave and burning would be the causes of death in other cases.

Hanging

Main article: Hanging

Suicide by hanging.

The traditional death penalty of hanging by gallows consists of a rope tied to some fixed object (i.e. the gallows), with one end tied into a hangman's noose and put around the neck. The person falls through the release of a trap door (or jumps, in the case of suicide) from a height, and death is instantaneous due to breaking of the neck. If the neck is not broken, asphyxiation due to the obstructed trachea may cause loss of consciousness and ultimately lead to death. Many people who attempt to hang themselves strangle themselves instead, with risk of brain damage from lack of oxygen if the attempt does not result in death. However, hanging is still the suicide method with the highest success rate.

Vehicular impact

Jumping in front of a fast-moving vehicle, especially a large one, such as a truck or train, can prove fatal. A classic example of suicide involves one tying himself to railroad tracks in order to be run over by an oncoming train. The self control required to stay on the tracks as the approaches can be quite immense, and the result quite traumatizing to the driver of the train. Suicide is also sometimes attempted by driving a motor vehicle into a wall or other sturdy object at high speeds.

Jumping

See also: Defenestration

Jumping from a great height can shatter organs and tissues. If a person jumps from a tall bridge into water, the person may die by impact rather than by drowning. Such jumpings off the Golden Gate Bridge, of which there have been 1,300 between 1937 and 2006, were depicted in the documentary film The Bridge.

The 68.6 meter plunge from the Golden Gate Bridge has proven to be fatal in 98% of cases. The jumper would hit the water at 120 km/h (about 77 mph). Most die of internal bleeding due to broken ribs which pierce the heart, lungs, liver or spleen. Survivors, who generally have hit the water feet-first, have often had their femurs shattered.

Authorities have tried to prevent jumping suicides by building fences or other barriers in potential areas, such as high towers and bridges. In some areas authorities have also installed telephones which link directly to suicide prevention hot lines.

Poisoning

Suicide can be committed by using fast-acting poisons, or substances which are known for their high levels of toxicity to humans. For example, the people of Jonestown, in northwestern Guyana, all died when the leader of a religious sect organised a mass suicide by drinking a cocktail of diazepam and cyanide in 1978. Adolf Hitler bit into a cyanide capsule while simultaneously shooting himself in the head with a firearm. Sufficient doses of some plants like the belladonna family, castor beans, and others, are also toxic.

Self-immolation

File:Thich Quang Duc - Self Immolation.jpg

Thích Quảng Đức pictured during his self-immolation.

Simply put, self-immolation is suicide by immolation (fire). It has been used as a protest tactic.

Seppuku

Main article: Seppuku

Seppuku (colloquially "harakiri") is a Japanese ritual method of suicide, practiced mostly in the medieval era, though some isolated cases appear in modern times. For example, Yukio Mishima committed seppuku in 1970 after a failed coup d'etat intended to restore full power to the Japanese Emperor.

Unlike other methods of suicide, this was regarded as a way of preserving one's honor. The ritual is part of bushido, the code of the Samurai.

Dressed ceremonially, with his sword placed in front of him and sometimes seated on special cloth, the warrior would prepare for death by writing a death poem. With a selected attendant (kaishakunin, his second) standing by, he would open his kimono, take up his wakizashi (short sword), fan, or a tanto (knife) and plunge it into his abdomen, making first a left-to-right cut and then a second slightly upward stroke. On the second stroke, the kaishakunin would perform daki-kubi, when the warrior is all but decapitated, leaving a slight band of flesh attaching the head to the body, so as to not let the head fall off the body and roll on the floor/ground; which was considered dishonorable in feudal Japan.

Shooting

Methods of suicide among persons aged 15-19. The use of a firearm is the leading method in the United States.

This method involves using a firearm to cause a fatal injury to oneself. It is used more frequently in countries where firearms are easier to obtain, and is the leading method in the United States. This method may still be used in countries where firearms are harder to obtain, in particular by people who use firearms in their work, for example soldiers or police officers.

Some studies have shown that in Western nations, men tend to use this method of suicide more often than women, which has been cited as one potential reason for the higher suicide success rate among men. Though most men shoot themselves in the head, women tend to shoot themselves in the heart.

Because the requirements of renting a gun are not as strict as those for buying one, many people commit suicide at gun ranges. [1] Some gun ranges have countered this by requiring that those who do not already own a gun cannot rent one without being accompanied.

Further information: Multiple gunshot suicide

Suicide attack

Main article: Suicide attack

The term "suicide attack" is somewhat of a misnomer, as the psychological motivation is not chiefly hatred of the self but of others.

A suicide attack is an attack in which the attacker (attacker being either an individual or a group) intends to kill others and intends to die in the process of doing so. In a suicide attack in the strict sense the attacker dies by the attack itself, for example in an explosion or crash caused by the attacker. The term is sometimes loosely applied to an incident in which the intention of the attacker is not clear though he is almost sure to die by the defense or retaliation of the attacked party.

Such attacks are typically motivated by religious or political ideologies and have been carried out using numerous methods. For example, attackers might attach explosives directly to their bodies before detonating themselves close to their target, or they may use car bombs or other machinery to cause maximum damage (e.g. Japanese kamikaze pilots during World War II). Some sources refer to this as a "homicide attack", to emphasize the idea that killing other people is usually the primary purpose of such an attack. However, this usage is ambiguous since the word "homicide" already refers to unlawful killing and the key aspect of a suicide attack that distinguishes it from other forms of homicide is the death of the perpetrator.

Islamist extremist terrorists have engaged in suicide attacks numerous times in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and also against the West at other times. Perpetrators believe that the gains to others, or to a religious, political or moral cause, outweigh their personal loss and/or that they will be rewarded in the afterlife.

The September 11, 2001, attacks by Al-Qaeda using civilian aircraft on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon are examples of suicide attacks.

Suicide by cop

Main article: Suicide by cop

The term "suicide by cop" is used to describe a situation in which an individual behaves in a manner intended to provoke an armed law enforcement officer into use of lethal force against them. Common methods used involve charging at officers with a weapon (or even anything that closely resembles a weapon at a distance, such as a toy gun), repeatedly refusing lawful orders in threatening situations, or driving a vehicle at officers.

To prevent suicide by cop, some officers are trained to determine whether the suspect is truly dangerous, or have resorted to less-lethal methods, such as pepper spray.

Further reading

• Humphry, Derek. Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying. Dell. 1997.
• Stone, Geo. Suicide and Attempted Suicide: Methods and Consequences. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2001. ISBN 0-7867-0940-5
• alt.suicide.holiday
• The Complete Manual of Suicide

External links

• "How-to" Euthanasia Books, Annotated Bibliography - list of books on suicide methods by Derek Humphry, author of Final Exit