"You don't send a bunch of high-schoolers, particularly girls, off to a foreign island to live it up with little or no supervision. That is stupid, reckless, and in this case, probably deadly."
I disagree. IMO this is not bad judgement by the parents. Natalee was 18 years old. She is legally an adult and was planning on going away, without supervision, to college in a couple months. 18 year old girls are sometimes married, sometimes mothers, sometimes living on thier own, and even fight in the war. Why should they not be able to go on vacation. This situation is sad beyond words but it could and does happen to many others in different places and different situations.
Agree, at 18 personal responsibility comes into play.