Kid dies while his friends watch

[Wulfere]

Well said Melusine. I was saddened not only by this story, but also by the reactions I was reading. Of course I have been judgemental in the past and I am most certainly no saint, but come on people. A human being is dead. People watched and cajoled him to continue. It is terrible, ugly and all too common. Maybe this is why I don't watch TV news or read papers any longer. They rarely print anything good or uplifting. It's all too depressing.

[The Hierophant]

Originally posted by Melusine: Yep. And so, based on speculation and our nice ingrained prejudices, we can pat ourselves on the shoulder satisfiedly and say "HE DESERVED TO DIE". Sorry, I don't work that way. I wasn't trying to excuse his behaviour, I was trying to show people you cannot judge a person you don't even know that quickly, let alone make a judgement about their right to live.

Mel (and Masklinn, Leonis, Wulfere, Attalus and everyone else) I see where you're coming from, and it's a beautiful place [img]smile.gif[/img] You guys are showing alot of compassion and consideration here, for which I'm sure we're all thankful. But thinking this guy was an idiot and thinking he deserved to die and two entirely different things. For one, it does not seem that he was trying to commit suicide, it seems that he was trying to show off to his so-called internet buddies about how many drugs he could take and how 'hard-core' that made him. I just can't feel warmth toward such people. He was 21, I'm a year younger than he was and I already know how pathetic and childish those sorts of macho show-off games are. If he was sad and depressed and contemplating suicide (and of course, how would I know that he was not contemplating these things. Well, call it a hunch) then I would be right there with you in the 'compassionate consideration' line of thought on this one. A young lad lost his life, it's a horrible thing, but I can't feel the same amount of sympathy for this case as I would for someone who was generally distraught and took their own life in private. He didn't deserve to die, but I (personally) don't think he deserves any more than the standard amount of respect/sympathy for the dead either.
But thank you for putting all of us macho show-offs in our place about the callousness of our posts [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 02-04-2003, 07:35 PM: Message edited by: The Hierophant ]

[Animal]

Originally posted by Dagorion: This makes me think that if you're dumb and weak minded enough to do that, you deserve to die... although if you're dumb enough to say "pass out in front of the camera so we can see you" then I want to know who this person is and where they live so I can go and CHOKE HIM! Grrrrrrrr. And here I was beginning to think that people in the world were getting smarter, thank god there will always be Americans. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Drug addiction is as very much an illness as any other and needs to be treated as such. To say that he deserved to die is akin to saying that cancer patients deserve to die, it's unfounded and quite frankly ignorant.

[LordKathen]

I think your all reading way to much in this. We dont know his motives. We can assume a lot of things to emphasize our own opinion, but we dont know the true, or whole, story.
What we do know, is he died, from an irresponsable act. We do know that he was "bragging" about his high tolerance, and typed the last words, "I told you I was hardcore". This is pure egotism, and that is what killed him. As far as the chat room goes, its irrelevent. They were his audience. He could have one found elsewhere.

MY opinion is that he killed himself by accident with his OWN stupidity.

[/)eathKiller]

Originally posted by The Hierophant: At the risk of sounding callous, I'd say that THIS is a top contender for this year's Darwin awards. What a pathetic idiot...

Can a guy who'se taken 20 hours of Psychology courses hand one of those out? I'd do it [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Harkoliar]

all of you views are valid and true... it truth i think there is so many opinions and ideas what had happened but in the end, a person has died and dead is dead. one thing is for sure.. i hoped those cyber so-called-friends would learn the lesson and let thier conscience (if they have one) haunt them for the rest of thier life.

[Seraph]

If anyones interested, heres a copy of the chat room log.
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/oea/logs.html

The logs are gone now, if you didn't see them, sorry.

[ 02-06-2003, 12:08 AM: Message edited by: Seraph ]

[Melusine]

Phanty,

I wasn't really referring to your "pathetic idiot" but to the people who felt this kid deserved to die. Don't think I don't see where you're coming from. I have lost my uncle to suicide, and I still don't fully get it, though I have some understanding for why he did it. That this kid was so completely careless with his life incenses me. But I know that I can't judge about someone I don't know, and cannot truly know the mindstate he was in. So I would never even THINK he deserved to die. And though I know others disagree with me, I find the notion that someone's stupidity makes them deserve death utterly inhuman and despicable. Like Leonis said, we are all stupid sometimes, but none of us deserve to die, and moreover, NONE of us has the right to say someone else deserved to die. Just MHO.
But yes, I am outraged also at how easily this life was lost, and wish the kid would have been smarter.

[The Hierophant]

Originally posted by Melusine: Phanty, I wasn't really referring to your "pathetic idiot" but to the people who felt this kid deserved to die. Don't think I don't see where you're coming from. I have lost my uncle to suicide, and I still don't fully get it, though I have some understanding for why he did it. That this kid was so completely careless with his life incenses me. But I know that I can't judge about someone I don't know, and cannot truly know the mindstate he was in. So I would never even THINK he deserved to die. And though I know others disagree with me, I find the notion that someone's stupidity makes them deserve death utterly inhuman and despicable. Like Leonis said, we are all stupid sometimes, but none of us deserve to die, and moreover, NONE of us has the right to say someone else deserved to die. Just MHO. But yes, I am outraged also at how easily this life was lost, and wish the kid would have been smarter.

Well Mel, I concur [img]smile.gif[/img]

And Seraph, thanks for the link. Quite informative as to what happened that night. By the looks of things there were alot more people telling him not to do it and showing concern than there were those doing the opposite. Some people just don't want to take responsibility for the world around them, sad but true. But fortunately, most people do.

[Jim]

Man, that chat room log really disturbed me

I hope this smoke2k guy realises what he has done. He was pushing him to take more and calling him a ■■■■■ when he had already had a lethal overdose. I've also heard that there will be no further police investigations! This is assisted suicide!! Not sure what the laws are in the states on this but some of these guys must be partially responsible for this.