Facebook's effort to stop suicides reveals a gap between tech and healthcare

businessinsider.com

15 pointsdanso2 comments

I have a friend who believes that it is genuinely possible for a life to be net-negative expected utility, making suicide the right answer sometimes, and that he either is or may eventually be in such a scenario.

He is too afraid to talk to anyone about this except under an online pseudonym, because he is too afraid that if he actually talked to a psychiatrist about this, he would be immediately and involuntarily hospitalized for suicide risk.

He is terrified that he will soon not have even the option to commit suicide - even if it is truly better than continuing to face a life not worth living - because of precisely this kind of well-meaning ubiquitous monitoring and predictive warning. I'm really worried that he might just try and kill himself pre-emptively while he thinks he still has a chance.

He's right to fear this. I've seen it happen. someone can be locked up real quick if they say they will kill themselves. And, he/she will be stuck with a truly astronomical medical bill after it as well, so then they're doubly screwed.

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