Jérémy Bobbio (Lunar) & Debian: from Frans Pop to Euthanasia
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock.
Can a case of euthanasia increase the risk of copy-cat suicides? Discussion started to appear about whether Joel "Espy" Klecker was perceived to be a case of euthanasia and how people may have felt as a consequence of that perception.
Frans Pop was the Debian Day Volunteer Suicide. After his death, people tried to evade any connection to Debian by making references to a previous cancer treatment and the possibility of euthanasia (leaked).
One of the messages in the thread comes from Jérémy Bobbio (Lunar) who has recently passed away. Lunar makes a comment that appears to be permissive of euthanasia and suicide. He wrote this approximately four years before discovering his own cancer diagnosis.
Do online discussion groups like this provide a safe space for the underage developers and people who are at risk of suicide?
Lunar notes that he had sent a private message to Frans Pop. We don't know what was in that message. What we do know is that Pop sent his resignation / suicide email the night before Debian Day but it looks like he did not act on his intentions until five days later on 20 August 2010. It looks like he may have continued to read private emails and maybe debian-private (leaked) emails in the days between his resignation and his death. █
Subject: Re: Death of Frans Pop Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2010 20:49:27 +0200 From: Jérémy Bobbio <lunar@debian.org> To: debian-private@lists.debian.org
On Sat, Aug 21, 2010 at 11:47:34AM +0100, Steve McIntyre wrote: > I have bad news to share with people, I'm afraid. This morning, I've > just received an email from the parents of Frans Pop telling me that > he died yesterday.
I am pretty shaken after reading this. I had just sent him a message after his resignation... which I read quite differently now.
I strongly believe than no one should feel forced to continue playing the "game of life" when they've had enough. Yet, I will miss reading his commit messages, rants and technical corrections...
-- Jérémy Bobbio .''`. lunar@debian.org : :Ⓐ : # apt-get install anarchism `. `'` `-