Suicide Contagion is REAL and Assisted Suicide is part of the problem

The following article was published by the Patients Rights Council.

The New York Times investigative team talks about a disturbing discovery on an episode of The Daily podcast titled “Kids Are Dying How Are These Sites Still Allowed?” and a companion article called “Where the Despairing Log On, and Learn Ways to Die”

The podcast is about websites that exist online where people can access information about how to kill themselves. This information includes methods and recipes for lethal cocktails published by proponents of assisted suicide laws. According to the New York Times reporters, the websites function like social media platforms where users can interact and, tragically, encourage each other.

Some of the stats listed in the episode are astounding. For example, the investigators report that one of these websites gets six million global views per month. That is four times the traffic of the National Suicide Prevention website. The reporters also mention that nearly half of the users on the website are under the age of 25. 

Jackie’s Story

Shawn Shatto, one of the young people mentioned in the written article, took her own life in 2019 at the age of 25. She used a recipe published on the website discussed in The Daily episode, a recipe which was written by assisted suicide proponents.

Shawn’s mother, Jackie, says “Talking about assisted suicide is very dangerous, especially when you have the younger kids on there and the vulnerable that feel lost and are in pain. I believe when Shawn went on that website and she saw the way they were talking about ending their lives saying ‘Well, you know, it’s okay to kill yourself over a terminal illness.’ She probably thought ‘Yeah, I’m in pain and I’m dealing with this, why can’t I die like that too?’” 

How Can We Prevent Suicide When it is Promoted as ‘Heroic’?

Assisted suicide laws are dangerous to vulnerable people. The highly publicized assisted suicides that proponents promote and call “heroic” are having a contagion effect. Proponents, in their uni-focused drive to legalize, throw caution to the wind by glamorizing assisted suicides and calling it “courageous,” contrary to all media guidelines for reporting on a suicide published by suicide prevention advocates. They know that acceptance of their dangerous public policy drops dramatically if they don’t use their euphemisms and just call it what it is: suicide. Promoting suicide accelerates suicide rates and preys on vulnerable people, people like Shawn. It needs to stop.

Assisted suicide website led to daughter's suicide death.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

On May 22, 2019; Jackie Bieber found her daughter Shawn Shatto on her bedroom floor unresponsive and cold. She attempted CPR but in vain. 

Initially she did not realize that Shawn had died by a suicide. What she would soon learn was that her daughter, who had been dealing with depression and anxiety, was provided lethal directions and encouraged to die by suicide through an assisted suicide website.

An article written by Jennifer Passmore, published by Moms.com explains:

Shawn had been dealing with depression and anxiety for years, and had been seeing a therapist and took medication. Originally, Bieber didn't think her daughter took her own life. That is, until she had found several disturbing things on her daughter's cell phone, including messages from a website that teaches people how to commit suicide.

Shatto's aunt, Elizabeth Hoffman said, "They were cheering her on to the finish line of a suicide." On the post, various people were telling her what kind of drugs to mix in order to kill herself. Then they had the audacity to wish her 'good luck' and 'safe travels.' Bieber believes if it was not for that website, her daughter may still be alive today.

Jackie responded by wanting to protect people like her daughter by working to get Shawn's Law (House Bill 1827) passed. Passmore states:

Ever since the day Shawn took her life, Jackie has been advocating for "Shawn's Law," which "strengthens penalties against anyone who assists in a suicide, but especially anyone who is under the age of 18 or has a mental disability." Bieber would like to see Shawn's Law signed by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf. She doesn't want anyone to feel as lost and hopeless as her daughter did the day she died.

So far, Shawn's Law has passed the House, and is now in the Senate. If you are interested in helping in getting this law passed, you can call your local senator and ask them to vote in favor of the law.

Shawn's law is a proactive way to protect people from assisted suicide and websites that instruct and encourage suicide. 

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition urges the Pennsylvania Senate to pass Shawn's law and Governor Wolf to sign it into law.

Shawn Shatto is not the first person who was struggling with depression and anxiety to come across an assisted suicide website that provided instructions and encouraged suicide.

Don't believe the assisted suicide lobby when they say that suicide and assisted suicide are different, when the assisted suicide lobby is also involved with peddling suicide.

If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

• Pennsylvania House passes Shawn's law (Link).
• Suicide promotion website linked to euthanasia activist (Link). 
• Assisted suicide groups linked to suicide promotion websites (Link).