Bisbee daily review., 1911-11-05
sy WILLIAM s. COUCH.
Is suicide a private, personal snai


 The American Academy of Medi- cine. says 1t is in an official report of committee unanimously adopted in 6 recent San Francisco convention of the eountry's best-known physicians and surgeons.
 Suicide is a private and personal affair" the report reads There is no more justification for the publica- ton Of suicide accounts than for pub fishing other private matters. If however. the members of the press are still skeptical of the fact that they are TOW accessories to the crime. We suggest that they assist in the study of the conditions that promote it. The committee emphat- ically requests the American press to refrain from further publication Of suicIde reports, because:
 "tl) The rapid increase h the sui eide death rate in the United States Is due Co the suggestion innoculated by newspaper stories of other sui cides. t2l Your committee finds alienists practically unanimous in the opinion that suggestive published de tails of suicides are a powerful factor In the causaticn of suicides among susceptible men (3D Newspapers re ply that it is their province to pub fish the news Attempts 10 prevent such publications are invssions of the liberty of the press. They say the people demand the news and it must be given them. t4j Attempts at re form legislation are practically use less, unless preceded by popular edu- cation. C5J We must appeal, then. to the doubtful conscience Of Ameri- can newspapers, if they have one. in the present decadent condition of the press Of the United States"
 'l am frank 10 say" said Judge Warren W. Foster, New York's bench expert criminologist, that there would be no profit to any man taking sides in any controversy between medical and newspaper men. His would be the fate of grain crushed be tween two millstones
 Out Of my study of crime I have concluded that the press would better help social reform by playing up dis coveries of new means 10 1t than by emphasizing crime itself Still. l have no press experience on which to base advice as Co how newspapers should be run"
 Ask for Suppression of News.
 "The law makes attempted suicide a fafr.pw and am .ooe.-----, 41, s..g.ga a~ |, felon, too. maximum sentence oi two years and a maximum fine of $1.OO0 are the same in both cases Several prisoners have been jailed you will find from the records, for en couraging other persons. particularly their wives. to kill themselves. TC get a burial permit in a death case . physician is. Of course. required b, Jaw to report on the cause of death which includes suicide After theil charges. it Is worth notice that those medical men add frank appeal t' the newspapers for help to suppress suicides
 In the homicide bureau of Distric Attorney Charles s. Whitman's offic' 1t was said. Suicide cases are not s' important a problem in this office a you might think. We get a few sul eide reports each year. but the nun bers are insignificant and almost un noticed by us as compared 10 more I'm portant crimes. A discussion of Wheth CT suicides are suggested by newspa per reports of other cases would re quire a careful study of our books an the newspaper reports for many year: We are frank to say that we couidn' help your controversy on either sid if we dug through our books Sever and successful prosecutions Of al tempted suicides. or their accessoriei when played up fin the press. hay usually reduced suicide reports. A DO of our stan would probably show ths 1acst of us believe prosecutions