[WikiEN-l] "Suicide methods" atricle: Epilogue

[Dick Clark]

This is another example of emotion-driven hyperbole. This is an encyclopedia
project. People who are interested in spending their time contributing to an
anti-suicide cause may do so, but this is not it. The Wikipedia coverage of
this topic, like any other, should be value-free, and should offer an
informative, non-judgmental view. It is not the job of encyclopedia editors
to direct customers/clients to any particular "suicide hotline," and it is
not the job of encyclopedia editors to either chastise or egg on suicidal
readers.

To assert in the lead of the article that something is "wrong" with suicide
(in the normative sense) is as clear a violation of the Neutral Point of
View as I can imagine. Some people assert the existence of a right-to-die,
while others deny this. Both of those views are already discussed in various
articles, including:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_die
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_intervention
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-harm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_views_of_suicide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_views_of_suicide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_views_of_suicide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_suicide

That's why the infobox is there, after all.

DickClarkMises


Message: 12
> Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:50:27 -0400
> From: Marc Riddell <michaeldavid86 at comcast.net>
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] "Suicide methods" atricle: Epilogue
> To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID: <C24E91C3.36D4%michaeldavid86 at comcast.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> on 4/20/07 3:26 PM, Matthew Brown at morven at gmail.com wrote:
>
> > I don't think that's appropriate in an encyclopedia in any case.
>
> Please stop with what is or isn't "appropriate for an encyclopedia". The
> small act of placing a phone number on a page could actually prevent a
> death.
>
> Marc
>
>

-- 
Dick Clark
http://www.CitizenClark.com