Out-of-towners are traveling to New York City with the specific aim of killing themselves in a phenomenon researchers are calling "suicide tourism," a Manhattan public health expert reported Monday.
Just as people travel to specific cities for sightseeing or to remote regions of the world for complex, but low-cost surgeries, others are seeing New York City as their final destination — in life.
Research reported in Washington, D.C., at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association suggest that one in 10 suicides committed in Manhattan alone since 1990 have involved nonresidents.
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Examining coroners’ reports, Vlahov and colleagues could determine that people had traveled from out of town, and had come from faraway states and elsewhere in the world.
What leapt surprisingly from the coroners’ files, like a recurrent theme, were specific places chosen to commit the act. The Empire State Building ranked high, as it has for decades among residents. But Times Square and the George Washington Bridge were commonly selected by nonresidents.
When live hand you lemons, you make lemonade. And if other’s lives are full of lemons, I say you should still make lemonade.
New York City could build an advertising campaign around the whole "suicide tourism" thing (since "I Heart New York" is soooo 1970s). Something like, "Come to New York! More tall buildings per square mile than any other place in the world!"
Tourist agencies could offer "suicide specials", i.e., "Before you off yourself, see an off-Broadway show! Special one-way airline ticket discounts available!"
C’mon, capitalists. Get crackin’!