Suicide methods

This is a list of a number of common suicide methods that are used by people who wish to commit suicide.

Burning oneself (self-immolation)

Main article: Self-immolation

Self-immolation is the act of setting oneself on fire, often practiced as a form of protest against a particular government or regime. Burning to death can take several minutes to several days, making this a painful way to expire. Self-immolation is not foolproof; if done in public, a suicidal person might be stopped by people nearby. Death may result from smoke inhalation, shock, or after a period of days, systemic failure. A person who survives self-immolation may still suffer extensive burns. An accelerant such as gasoline is frequently used to hasten death.

Car collision

Also known as autocide, suicide by deliberately driving a car into another, usually imobile, object (e.g., a concrete barrier). Occasionally, the other object may be another vehicle, although this poses a risk to the people in the other vehicle. The distinction between a genuine accident and a vehicle suicide can be very difficult. It is also possible to commit suicide by intentionally crashing an aircraft.

Drowning

This method risks permanent brain damage if rescue arrives after the brain has been deprived of oxygen for several minutes. Suicide by drowning is deliberately submerging in water and staying there long enough for it to fill the breathing channels. This might be done by walking into water with heavy objects attached to the body to prevent buoyancy or escape. One might drive into water or jump off a ship or boat.

If a car is driven into water, it will usually stay afloat for quite some time before sinking. After submerging, the pressure outside the car will be greater than the pressure inside, preventing its occupants from opening the doors until the interior fills with water and the pressure has equalized. This does not, however, prevent the occupants from manually rolling down the windows.

Suicide by drowning could also be done by jumping from a bridge; see the section on Jumping.

Electrocution

Suicide by electricity. Electricity through the body can seriously disrupt nerve signals and cause death if the current is strong enough and affects enough of the body.

Water is often involved, as water is a good conductor of electricity. A common method is to sit in a bathtub full of water and throw in an electrical device that is plugged into an outlet. Fuses installed in the electrical device can potentially thwart this method when a short-circuit occurs.

As with other forms, electrocution is not always fatal and can result in brain damage or other neurological impairment.

Hanging

Main article: Hanging

Suicide by hanging.

Hanging is typically performed in the one of the following three ways:

1. Drop hanging. After putting a noose around the neck and tying the other end to some fixed object, a person jumps or drops himself from a height with the aim of breaking the neck.
2. Vertical position. A person strangles himself using his own weight. This is slower than the previous method. Strangulation is usually performed by standing on an easily-movable object such as a chair, putting a noose around one's neck and attaching the other end to a fixed object above one's head, and then kicking the object away.
3. Horizontal position. This is usually done when conditions do not allow for other means. The person puts a noose around his neck and attaches the other end to something that sticks out (e.g., a doorknob or water tap) and then uses his own force to push away from it, or establishes himself in a position where gravity can help. Due to prolonged asphyxiation, blood may pool in the eyes before death. Note that a violent seizure might occur causing unexpected disturbance.

Jumping

1. Jumping from a tall building or from a bridge. The impact can shatter organs and tissues. If a person jumps from a bridge into water, the person may die by drowning rather than by impact, especially if the bridge lies low over the water.
2. Jumping off the stern of a ship. This is done by jumping off the stern of ship into cold water and ultimately drowning. The chances of rescue are small since hypothermia sets in rapidly; it is also difficult to turn a ship around in time for any serious rescue attempt. This method occurs on cruise ships, cross-channel ferries and so-called "love-boats."
3. Jumping under a train, tram or car. The damage done depends on the speed and type of the vehicle. Being struck by a vehicle takes less damage and is less lethal than being run over. Nevertheless, just an arm or a leg may get under the wheels, and the person may survive maimed.

Lethal injection

Injection of a harmful chemical substance, drug or air into the bloodstream. Injecting enough air into a vein causes an air embolism and acute heart failure. The effect of drugs or other chemicals injected into the bloodstream depends on the chemical and quantity injected. This method is not always effective or lethal.

Overdosing

This method involves taking a large dose of medication, such as sleeping pills, antidepressants, painkillers. Due to the unpredictablity of dosing requirements, death is uncertain and an attempt may leave a person alive but with severe organ damage. Drugs taken orally may also be vomited back out before being absorbed. Overdosing may also be performed by mixing medications with one another or with alcohol or illegal drugs. This method may leave confusion over whether the death was a suicide or accidental.

Painkiller overdoses are among the most unpleasant things for medical personnel to deal with. Often these are teenagers taking over-the-counter substances such as paracetamol (acetaminophen) in a 'cry for help', believing that these everyday drugs will not cause too much damage. Paracetamol overdoses cause very painful liver failure over a period of days, so it is common for people to regret their choice in hospital when it is too late to do anything about it: there is currently no medical treatment for liver failure except a liver transplantation. People who overdose on paracetamol may have no serious adverse symptoms for days afterwards; the effect of a paracetamol overdose can be reversed if medical treatment is sought within a few hours of taking the drug.

Plastic bag method

A plastic bag is used for this method, often combined with sleep-inducing drugs, a near overdose or other ingredients such as glue which is inhaled with a view to causing hallucinations or drowsiness. Unconsciousness or sleep sets in as a result of lack of oxygen to the brain and the use of drugs. Since the combined use of drugs often results in a deep sleep or unconsciousness, the person may eventually suffocate during sleep without being aware of this. This method is particularly dangerous since the person has no further control over his or her will after becoming unconscious or falling asleep. On the other hand, there is a risk of brain damage should this method be rendered incomplete.

Poisoning

Use of known poisons. Effectively the same as overdosing; however, the chance of success is higher though the dosage required still varies from person to person. Because the most potent poisons are usually inaccessible to the general public, this method was traditionally used by people in power, such as politicians or military leaders.

Seppuku

Main article: Seppuku

Japanese ritual method of suicide, practiced mostly in the medieval era, though some isolated cases appear in modern times. The most widely-known part of seppuku in western society is probably the slashing of the stomach; however, the ritual is far more complex than that. Dressed ceremonially, with his sword placed in front of him and sometimes seated on special cloths, 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, a ritual in which the warrior is all but decapitated (a slight band of flesh is left attaching the head to the body). In the case that a fan is used (usually when the person is very young or particularly evil) the kaishakunin would perform the daki-kubi the moment the fan touched the person's stomach.

Shooting

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

This method involes using a firearm on oneself. It is used more frequently in countries where firearms are easier to obtain. It is debatable, however, if that increases the number of suicides in general; it might be that it just increases the number of people choosing this method. In countries where firearms are harder to obtain, this method is sometimes still used, especially by people who use firearms in their work (e.g., soldiers or policemen).

The lethality of the method depends on where the shot is aimed, usually the side of forehead or the mouth (both ways ultimately aimed at the brain). In some cases the heart is chosen as a target, but it is harder to aim correctly. A shot to the stomach will cause a slower death, which will be caused through blood loss rather than organ trauma. Brain or heart damage kills a person more quickly; however, the gun must be powerful enough for that to succeed.

As in other shootings, shooting suicides have a high mortality rate but occasionally result in seemingly miraculous survivals where the bullet causes little or no damage to life-critical faculties. Some studies have shown that in Western nations, males tend to use this method of suicide more often than females, 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 to do less facial damage.[1]

Slashing throat

Cutting through the throat. Here, death is caused by blood loss or blood clogging the trachea. It was also practiced as a ritual suicide method in Japan, used by noble women for the same purposes as seppuku was used by men. This method cuts the major artery which leads to the brain and it takes no longer than a few minutes to lose enough blood for the wound to be fatal. It is almost impossible for someone to stop the person from dying.

Slashing wrists

Cutting through the wrists until the one of the arteries is reached. People choosing this method die because of blood loss. This method is also frequently used as self-harm, and it is not an immediately lethal method; therefore, not all people who slash their wrists intend suicide.

It is generally difficult to die by slashing the wrists since the arteries tend to try to spasm shut in response. Bleeding to death by veins is even harder and rarer. It can take a few hours or even more to finally die from the blood loss, depending on body weight, clotting problems (such as alcohol or aspirin in the blood), etc.

Slashing wrists may damage tendons which could cause partial loss of the one's ability to control their hand.

Sometimes someone who is cutting their wrists, may not mean to cut as deep as they do, resulting in an accidental suicide.

Starving to death

This type of suicide, known as Upwas to Hindus and Jains, is considered the only legitimate suicide method, because it cannot be done impulsively and the person spends the time beforehand detaching themselves from the world, in meditation.

It takes a long time and is rare in western society. Also, when a person collapses due to starvation, it is still possible in most cases to save them by injecting nutrients intravenously.

Suffocation by Carbon Monoxide (CO) Poisoning

Suffocation by enough of a gas which disrupts the body, usually through failure of the respiratory system. In most cases carbon monoxide (CO) is used for this, as it is easily available as a product of combustion; for example, it can be released by cars and some types of heaters. Carbon monoxide is colourless and odourless, so breathing it is almost unnoticeable. However, CO molecules attach themselves to hemoglobin in the blood, displacing oxygen molecules and denying sufficient oxygen levels to the body, eventually resulting in death.

There was a euthanasia device invented on this principle where a person using it would have to breathe out of it a few times and then could die.

CO Poisoning by Car Exhaust

In the past, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning was usually achieved by running a car's engine in a closed space such as a garage, or by connecting the car's exhaust pipe to the inside of the car with a hose. Air-quality regulations have begun to rule out suicide by this route though, as catalytic converters were designed to clean up the exhausts and remove all but a trace of CO.

CO Poisoning by Burning Fossil Fuel

When carbon monoxide poisoning via car exhaust has become less of a suicide option, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning — that of burning fossil fuel within a confined space began to rise. Such incidents have occurred in connection with group suicide pacts in both Japan and Hong Kong. (See Also: Wikipedia’s suicide pact entry, which includes an extensive discussion of “Internet Suicide Pacts”.)

Suicide by Police

Main article: Suicide by cop

The practice rates for suicide by police have increased over the years. It entails the act of someone purposely behaving dangerously in front of a law enforcement officer or other armed officer so that the officer would use his weapon to kill. Sometimes people simply use toy weapons so as to appear as a threat.

Controversies

Works detailing the ways in which one can commit suicide are known as suicide manuals. The morality of suicide manuals has been a controversial issue for many years and it continues to be a subject of intense debate. For instance, a suicide manual entitled "Final Exit: The practicalities of self-deliverance and assisted suicide for the dying" generated controversy in 1991. The book spent many weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list and its publication/sale was banned in multiple countries. [2]

A popular argument in favor of suicide manuals is that a person has the right to end his/her own life in an effective manner, thus minimizing the probability of a "botched suicide". A common argument against suicide manuals is that they can entice a reader to commit suicide.

Further reading

• Stone, Geo: Suicide and Attempted Suicide. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2001. ISBN 0-7867-0940-5
• In the domain of verse, the difficult quest for a satisfactory method of suicide was mordantly assessed in the well-known short poem "Résumé" by Dorothy Parker (from Enough Rope (1926)):