Online Debate - Suicide or Self-murder?

When a teenage girl committed suicide after being relentlessly hounded by other students, authorities responded by arresting 9 of the mostly underage students. Oddly enough, Ann Althouse, a lawyer who blogs, was indignant. The suicide was a means of getting back at her hecklers.

While some of her readers agreed, there were others for whom reality is more profound. And less legally sterile.

From Cedarford,

Now, no matter what your love of the Sacred Parchment is or if hounding a person to death still is not "outside Rule of Law" - clearly the bullying has changed in recent decades into a sadistic, lasting thing conducted remorsely in and out of school and done by an organized group - and it violates by leaps and bounds what society wants to tolerate.

Read his entire post. Very thoughtful.

As is this one. And this angry poster. And this poster who respectfully disagreed: "I disagree with Methadras and mesquito, and by extension I disagree with you, Professor. Barring information that suggests the girl was unusually fragile, then the bullying must have been vastly beyond the norm."


This analogy was compelling.

if you force a man with a cardiac condition to run ten miles at gunpoint -- and he drops dead -- aren't you guilty of murder/manslaughter, even if you didn't shoot him and were completely ignorant of his heart disease?

This quote alone doesn't do justice to the argument. Read the whole thing.

Sarcastic, but an effective argument.  While most were happy to argue with each other, others disagreed with Althouse. here

What is most interesting is that while Altwood refers to suicide as "self-murder" and characterizes as an act of violence against others (the bullies) and the case as "proprietorial excess", those who disagree with her seem to be mostly male.

Unable to link because it is too far down the list, but Sheep said...
Let me get this straight, you can't treat an arrested felon (or terrorist) the way those kids treated her but there's no crime committed?

I don't think so.

3/31/10 10:28 AM

Best response to Sheep: "Normally, there would be a huge difference, but the state requirement to attend school, even under these conditions with them doing nothing about it, makes your point cogent."