Increase in Suicide by Asphyxiation in New York City after the Publication of Final Exit

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 329; no. 20; pp. 1508 - 1510
• Main Authors: Leon, Andrew C, Stajic, Marina, Hartwell, Nancy, Marzuk, Peter M, Hirsch, Charles S, Tardiff, Kenneth, Portera, Laura
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, MA Massachusetts Medical Society 11.11.1993
• Subjects: Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Asphyxia - mortality; Assisted suicide; Biological and medical sciences; Chromatography; Death & dying; Female; Humans; Illnesses; Literature, Modern; Male; Mass Media; Medical examiners; Medical sciences; Methods; Middle Aged; New York City - epidemiology; Personal communications systems; Poisoning; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Suicide; Suicide - statistics & numerical data; Suicide, Attempted - statistics & numerical data; Suicides & suicide attempts; Television news; Terminal illnesses; Vital statistics; New York; United States; North America; America; New York City; United States > US; USA, New York, New York; Human; Psychopathology; Asphyxia; Suicide; Statistical study; Book
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJM199311113292022

Coverage of suicides in the news media has been linked with a subsequent increase in suicides, 1 , 2 but there has been some controversy about these studies 3 . Recently, Dr. Jack Kevorkian and others who advocate assisted suicide for the terminally ill have received widespread publicity. However, the effects of publicity about lethal methods of self-injury 4 and assisted suicide, as opposed to media reports of actual suicides, are not known. In March 1991, the Hemlock Society, which advocates voluntary euthanasia, published Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying, by Derek Humphry 5 . The book discourages the . . .