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Previous Volume 329:1508-1510 November 11, 1993 Number 20 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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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 studies³. 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-injury⁴ 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 Humphry⁵. The book discourages the use . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Methods

Classification of Suicides

Measure of Exposure

Medical Illness and Psychiatric History

Toxicologic Analysis

Statistical Analysis

Results

Suicides before and after the Publication of Final Exit

Exposure to Final Exit

Characteristics of the Suicides

Discussion

Address reprint requests to Dr. Peter M. Marzuk, Department of Psychiatry, Cornell University Medical College, 1300 York Ave., New York, NY 10021.

References

Related Letters:

Suicide by Asphyxiation after the Publication of Final Exit
Humphry D., Marzuk P. M., Tardiff K., Hirsch C. S.
Extract | Full Text  
N Engl J Med 1994; 330:1017, Apr 7, 1994. Correspondence

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