THE internet may be fuelling an increase in suicide pacts. In the past two months, 26 people in Japan have killed themselves after meeting online and planning their deaths using websites containing instructions for committing suicide.
These how-to websites, which contain information about, for instance, the lethal doses of paracetamol and other common drugs, may be fostering pacts between young, solitary strangers, says Sundararajan Rajagopal of St Thomas’ Hospital in London (British Medical Journal, vol 329, p 1298).
“These websites tell people the lethal doses of paracetamol and other common drugs”
Earlier, suicide pacts were typically formed between older,…
