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Old 11-14-2007, 10:36 PM
Alobar Alobar is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2003
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Default Re: Adults dupe teen into MySpace-assisted suicide

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yeah exactly. Sometimes the "choice" that GOT thinks people are making, they arent actually making, because they don't see any other options to choose from. It annoys me when people who are of a different mental state cast their own mental state onto someone else. Sure its obvious to us that she chose to kill herself because we can easily see not doing it, or the girl who goes back to the BF that beats her is choosing to do so, because to us, she obviously doesnt have to. But that doesnt mean they see it as a choice, they are suffering from mental illness or the trauma of extreme abuse, who the [censored] knows whats going on in their brain, its not like she calmly and rationally went "gee this really sucks, I feel humiliated now, guess I better go kill myself".

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If you agree (not saying you necessarily do) that people should be morally responsible for their own actions except in cases of mental illness or severe emotional instability, then how does the blame suddenly shift over to the last person to impact their psyche (seems borderline arbitrary; straw, camel, etc)? Why wouldn't it logically be shifted to the chemical imbalance itself?

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I'm not saying they arent responsible if they have a mental illness or whatnot, I just think there are circumstances and instances where whats a clear choice to those of us who are stable, might not even register as a choice to the person its happening to. I don't think the blame just shifts over to the last person to interact with them, or some incident that sets them off. If I call you ugly and you snap and kill yourself, I don't really think im the cause. But thats not what happened here. The fact that this was an elaborate and lengthy premeditated plot to bring this girl crumbling down, knowing full well she was suffering and being treated for a mental illness makes this situation much different, and I think what they did to her is enough to place blame on them for being responsible.

Say I don't like you, and I decide I wanna cause you some emotional duress. I come up with this big elobarate plot that takes me weeks to prepare where I convince you that aliens have taken over the town and are going from house to house systematically torturing everyone in the most painful way possible and there is no escape. Say I know you are bit crazy and are fearful of aliens taking over the world and that you go to therapy for that reason. Well you end up killing yourself in your basement because you dont want the aliens to torture you. Am I not to blame for that at all? My intent wasnt for you to kill yourself, only to cause you some anguish at the thought of your fears coming true. And since you chose to kill yourself, im not at all responsible.

What if I know you have a weak heart and take medication for it, but I decide to play a mean prank on you were I explode a huge firecracker under your bed while you are asleep, the adrenaline dump causes you to have a heart attack and you die. I shouldnt be to blame because it was your heart condition that killed you?
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