Free Republic

UCLA medical school’s psychiatry department hosted a talk earlier this month that glorified self-immolation as a form of "revolutionary suicide," raising concerns from prominent doctors and deepening a public relations crisis that has embroiled the elite medical school. The talk, "Depathologizing Resistance," was delivered on April 2 by two psychiatry residents at UCLA, Drs. Ragda Izar and Afaf Moustafa, under the auspices of the department’s diversity office and UCLA’s Health Ethics Center, according to slides and emails obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The remarks centered on the suicide of Aaron Bushnell, the U.S. serviceman who set himself on fire...

Warning: Disturbing video: A horrific scene occurred on Friday outside the Manhattan courthouse where the trial of former President Donald Trump is underway. A man doused himself with a flammable liquid before setting himself on fire near the courtroom on day four of the criminal trial, just moments after a full jury of 12 was impaneled. The video captures distressing images of a man twitching on the ground while engulfed in flames. Another individual rushed in with a fire extinguisher to help, as law enforcement stripped off their jackets and took other measures in an effort to extinguish the flames....

I wonder if there is ever a moment while DHS Secretary Mayorkas is claiming that America’s borders are entirely secure and blaming “climate change” for the influx of tens of millions of illegal aliens into the United States when he thinks, “Wow, I am really full of BS. I mean, it is simply amazing how much BS I shovel down the American people’s throats every single day.” The notion that powerful people lie to the public is certainly not new. You can go back through the centuries and find essays, songs, drawings, and folktales that all attest to the timeless...

Attempted suicide rates among people who identified as transgender more than doubled after receiving a vaginoplasty, according to a peer-reviewed study published in The Journal of Urology.The study analyzed the rates of psychiatric emergencies before and after gender-altering surgery among 869 males who underwent vaginoplasty and 357 females who underwent phalloplasty in California from 2012 to 2018.Researchers found the rates of psychiatric emergencies were high both before and after gender-altering surgery, with similar overall rates in both groups. However, suicide attempts were markedly higher in those who received vaginoplasties.“In fact, our observed rate of suicide attempts in the phalloplasty group...

An Oklahoma district attorney declined to file charges in connection with the death of nonbinary teenager Nex Benedict, officials said Thursday. Benedict, a 16-year-old student at Owasso High School near Tulsa, died by suicide on Feb. 8, one day after a fight in a high school bathroom. "Based upon the investigation of the Owasso Police Department, I am in agreement with their assessment that the filing of juvenile charges is not warranted," Tulsa County District Attorney Stephen A. Kunzweiler said in a statement. "From all of the evidence gathered, this fight was an instance of mutual combat," Kunzweiler wrote.

"I ain't scared but if anything happens to me it's not suicide." "I know that he did not commit suicide. There's no way. He loved life too much. He loved his family too much. He loved his brothers too much to put them through what they're going through right now." "And he basically told you not to believe it?" "Yep."

The death of a nonbinary teen who collapsed a day after an altercation at a high school in Owasso, Okla., has been ruled a suicide, according to a one-page summary report released Wednesday by the state’s chief medical examiner. Nex Benedict’s death last month triggered vigils not only in that Tulsa suburb but across the country because the sophomore, who used they/them pronouns, had told family that other students were bullying them in school. The fight happened Feb. 7. The 16-year-old collapsed at home the next morning and died within hours at a Tulsa hospital. The medical examiner’s report said...

Carter Brantley Love, a senior photo editor at The New York Times, died Tuesday in his Brooklyn apartment. Love, 41, started his career at Women's Wear Daily and later worked for W magazine. Love took his own life, according to his uncle Ben Brantley. "He had just been very unhappy lately. He was a paradoxical guy. He was very, very sunny to most people that he worked with and that he knew."

Oklahoma 16-year-old Nex Benedict died by suicide, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday by the state's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Benedict, a member of the 2SLGBTQ community, died one day after getting into a physical fight with several other students at Owasso High School. Benedict was nonbinary and went by they/them pronouns, according to Benedict's family. 2SLGBTQ includes Two Spirit, an umbrella term used to describe a third gender in Native and Indigenous communities. Sue Benedict, their mother, is a registered member of the Choctaw Nation. [snip] The Department of Education has opened an investigation into Owasso...

ARLINGTON, VA — In response to mounting public criticism of its quality standards, aerospace corporation Boeing proudly announced it has fixed its malfunctioning whistleblower. The longtime industry leader in commercial aircraft manufacturing had been in hot water following a string of highly publicized malfunctions and accidents involving its planes, leaving the company desperate to find a solution to its problems. "That should take care of everything," a Boeing spokesman said. "After extensive investigation into the recent engineering and design quality issues, we determined that many of these problems could be traced back to this whistleblower. We are proud to announce...

A prominent Boeing whistleblower who reported on safety and quality control concerns in the company’s production line was found dead Saturday, according to South Carolina authorities. John Barnett, 62, died of an apparent self-inflicted wound on Friday, the Charleston County Coroner’s office said. He was found in his truck at his hotel’s parking lot.

A Time magazine article analyzing self-immolation as a form of protest drew comparisons between Christians who were burned alive for their faith during the Roman Empire and the U.S. airman who set himself on fire last month to protest the Israel-Hamas war. A Feb. 26 Time magazine article details how self-immolation has been used as a form of protest throughout history, including during the Vietnam War and the Arab Spring. Aaron Bushnell, 25, an active-duty U.S. Air Force member, filmed himself dousing his body in a clear liquid before lighting himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington on...

If you had told the average person that an anarchist or an airman had set himself on fire to protest Israel’s campaign against Islamic terrorists, you would get two very different reactions. Unsurprisingly the media led with the data point most likely to produce a favorable reaction. And Aaron Bushnell cynically played the same game, wearing (the wrong) uniform to his Hamas suicide attempt rather than the Antifa red in which he had been previously photographed. The Washington Post gets around to admitting that Bushnell was an “anarchist”. Less than two weeks before Aaron Bushnell walked toward the gates of...

Presidential hopeful Nikki Haley, who recently lost the primary in her home state of South Carolina, believes choosing former President Donald Trump as the nominee “is like suicide” for the United States, pointing to Trump’s various legal cases. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Haley refused to commit to supporting Trump as the eventual nominee, telling the outlet, “What I will tell you is that I have serious concerns about Donald Trump.” “I have more serious concerns about Joe Biden,” she said.

Severe penalties for countries that refuse to take them.. The EU has passed a migration pact dubbed “the suicide of Europe” which could lead to the continent being flooded with as many as 75 million new migrants. The European Parliament’s LIBE committee passed the act on Wednesday, which formalizes the distribution of migrants to member states and punishes those that refuse to take them. Because cultural enrichment and diversity is “our greatest strength,” countries that try to maintain their national identity without being subsumed by migrants will be hit with severe financial penalties. Marine Le Pen, the leader of National...

Wesley J. Smith wrote an excellent article that was published by the Epoch Times on February 5, 2024 on how states that have legalized assisted suicide have almost universally passed new expansive legislation, including the removal of state residency requirements that permit suicide tourism. For instance, Oregon and Vermont have removed their state assisted suicide residency requirement, permitting people to travel from anywhere to die by assisted suicide in those states. A recent court case is challenging the New Jersey assisted suicide law residency requirement, and an assisted suicide expansion bill in Colorado seeks to permit suicide tourism in that...

Canadian lawmakers recently introduced legislation to delay a planned expansion of their Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program for three years. Without this delay, the rapidly increasing Canadian suicide rates will explode as those suffering from mental health conditions will be allowed to commit suicide with the help of a medical professional. Not to be outdone, some Colorado legislators seem eager to expand the culture of death outside the womb and constitutionally enshrine a nonexistent “right” to death inside the womb. They are making the expansion of death a “hill to die on.” House and Senate legislators have introduced the...

A member of the US Army with a popular fitness and fashion account on Instagram has died by suicide, devastated friends shared on Saturday. Staff Sgt. Michelle Young, 34, took her own life, leaving behind her 12-year-old daughter, whom friends described as “her whole world” in a heart-wrenching post on GoFundMe. “Michelle was a beautiful soul, an amazing friend, a single mother, a soldier, and is proof you never know what someone is going through or what demons they may be fighting,” friend Sarah Maine wrote on the page. “We will never fill the gaps in our hearts and will...

A bill has been introduced in the state of Washington which would force hospitals, including religious institutions, to commit assisted suicide. House Bill 1035 requires that “[a] health care entity may not discharge, demote, suspend, discipline, or otherwise discriminate against a health care provider” for committing assisted suicide. As Alex Schadenberg noted, “The assisted suicide lobby wants to remove the right of religiously affiliated healthcare institutions from prohibiting medical practitioners from participating in assisted suicide.” This bill is in addition to one last year, which already expanded assisted suicide to allow non-physicians to commit it, shortened the waiting period, and...

All My Children star Alec Musser died by suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound aged 50 on Friday. The former fitness model, who was also known for his guest role on Desperate Housewives, was found dead by his fiancee Paige Press with an apparent shotgun wound to the chest on Saturday, January 13 at his Del Mar, California home. Musser was found in his bathroom after Press last saw him alive on the evening of Friday, January 12, per a San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office press release published Tuesday.