Real Pro-Life Activism
My friend Jeff Harrell has taken up a worthy cause: the Suzanne Gonzales Suicide Prevention Act of 2007.
This bill says that you can't use the internet to teach or encourage a suicidal person how to commit suicide. I've looked at the bill and it seems narrowly drafted. It won't jail someone who e-mails "go jump in the lake" to someone who inexplicably jumps in the lake and drowns. The free-speech concerns are minimal. Here's the heart of it:
(a) Whoever knowingly uses any facility of interstate or foreign commerce with intent--There's a story behind this, and it's not a pretty one, but Jeff's set up a website to tell you all about it: suzyslaw.com.`(1) to teach a particular person how to commit suicide, knowing that the person so taught is likely to use that teaching to commit suicide; or
`(2) to provide a particular person with material support or resources to help such person commit suicide, knowing that the person is likely to use the support to commit suicide;
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both, but if the death of any person is caused by the offense, the term of imprisonment that may be imposed for the offense is any term of years or for life.
Blog linkage, media mentions, and congressional badgering would be much appreciated.