Bill Zeller was a PhD Candidate at the Center for Information Technology Policy, which is part of Princeton University‘s Computer Science program. Last Sunday he took his own life and left a detailed suicide note explaining his rationale. If you’d like to learn a little more about Bill, you can visit his personal site (for as long as it remains up), read his Twitter stream, and see his Flickr gallery.
Although the outward signs of Zeller’s life might seem normal enough, he was apparently battling a raging fire of torment inside caused by sexual abuse as a child. Something he shared with no one until his death. It goes to show you how terrible that kind of abuse can be, and what should be done to the perpetrators.
It also raises the questions about the morality of suicide. As Bill puts it:
“People say suicide is selfish. I think it’s selfish to ask people to continue living painful and miserable lives, just so you possibly won’t feel sad for a week or two. Suicide may be a permanent solution to a temporary problem, but it’s also a permanent solution to a ~23 year-old problem that grows more intense and overwhelming every day.”
Personally, I believe that people should be able to not only determine how they want to live their life, but also how they want to end it. It reminds me of the story of the elderly British couple who committed suicide together.
And now, the final message from Bill Zeller (set aside some time, its over 4,000 words):
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