[wallace_f]

Interestingly, at the end of WWII, when Tojo was captured by the Americans, he shot himself in the abdomen--creating referencss fo seppuku--and apologized that "I am taking so long to die."

Not long after, he was tried for war cimes and executed by hanging.

I'm sure he would have rather have died from the gunshot.

Whether right in some cases and wrong in others, I think it's difficult to say cultural norms are simply and plainly wrong.

[kbenson]

I'm not sure comparing a case where the person has a high likelihood of dying anyway is necessarily appropriate based on what I was referring to. I don't fault the skydiver that failed to pack their parachute correctly and causes it to fail for committing suicide before hitting the ground, I do fault a system that would cause the person responsible for re-checking the parachutes to commit suicide because of the death.

I also didn't say the cultural norm was wrong, just that it was stupid and counter-productive. I meant stupid as an enhancement to counter-productive, and I meant counter-productive in relation to actually advancing a society to the point where the problem that caused the suicide in the first place is less common.