Suicide

Arne G Carlsten (agc@PINE.CSE.NAU.EDU)
Tue, 25 Oct 1994 20:34:33 -0700

>From agc Tue Oct 25 20:31:07 1994
From: agc
To: Warren Sproule <Warren.Sproule@SOCIOL.UTAS.EDU.AU>, Multiple recipients of list ANTHRO-L <ANTHRO-L@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Subject: Re: Suicide
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 1994 20:31:07 -0700

Bobby Sands isn't a very good example of suicide. He and the other Irish
prisoners/POWs starved themselves to death, granted, but as a protest
against what they felt was illegal and immoral treatment; the hunger strike
could've been ended at any time by the British agreement to treat them as
POWs. Dying was not the hoped-for or even expected outcome of the strike.
Death was however an accepted possible end; a better way to describe it would
be along the lines of an extremely dangerous military action where not
coming back was a very likely outcome.

Arne Carlsten
Northern Arizona University