WHO'S TO BE BLAME???

As technology advances every single day we are supposed to become better off but these technology advances sometimes become a terrifying advance that makes us question whether these advances are for the better of the future. Today the internet is a way to communicate, find, or search for any ideals, pictures or any information needed. As technology advances the internet becomes more powerful in all the things you can do with it and what it offers you. Today, the internet has become part of people’s lives: they depend on the internet too much that the world will stop without internet. Internet indeed has helped make life easier but at the same time when not used appropriately it can become a nightmare.

One of the things that internet has advance in is in creating blogs. So what exactly is a blog? “A Blog is short for Web Log and has become a new and exciting form of communication. It is like a diary or a journal personal or corporate that is posted on the Internet for public viewing and updated from time to time. It enables people to publish comments, ideas, and opinions for others to read.” This is a great way to share and read what others have to say about things. While the copyright protects your work from being copied and distributed it doesn’t mean that others don’t use it. The problem comes in when people start taking advantage and start posting things they shouldn’t. If you know other people are viewing this blog don’t you think what you write in it should be something that has a good affect on people, not blogs that can lead others to death? While most of us might say, “Who would want to post something on how to kill yourself?” but the reality is that the internet is being abused and used for thing that shouldn’t be done.  

As we see in the case of the first- year medical student from California posted a blog giving direction on how facilitate and making effective suicide claiming it was in the interest of “serving the rights of competent, terminally ill adults.” This is the type of things that make the use of the internet components a serious danger to users. Like myself you might thinking that why someone would create a blog like this. That, like in this case, causes a teenager that is detected with depression, to commit suicide by overdose of drugs. But then whose fault is it? This is where the laws and morality conflict. Laws are set to have order and punish those who disobey them. But at the same time while its legal, according to a law, to do something doesn’t really mean it is the right thing to do. This is where the use of internet ethics and morality come in conflict with the law.

In this case we can quickly blame the medical student for publishing such a blog that encourages suicide. Doctors are supposed to help and promote health of people not death. So, we think the death of the teenager is the fault of the medical student for publishing this blog. Isn’t it illegal to publish such things? Unfortunately, this posting is protected under the law because the right of freedom of speech and press. The blog is a sort of communication and by posting ones believes, one is protected by the first amendment. While this is legal morality and ethics come into play. It’s just morally wrong to write something that can cause harm and even take lives away of people who read this blog. Good internet ethics include only publishing information, or ideals that do not cause harm to others. So if the medical student is protected by the laws is it then the teenagers fault for her own death? Or is it her parents?

  Realizing that the teenager who committed suicide was being treated for depression one can conclude that she didn’t not had the capacity and complete judgment to realize what she was doing. While it is true that the blog of the medical student did contribute to her decision of committing suicide as she clearly states in her last note to her family that the doctor was “helping her do it right.” But I believe that a person that has depression usually goes through phases where they consider suicide, and she might have ended up committing suicide with or without reading this blog. The parents do have the responsibility to monitor her daughter’s use of internet but there is only up to a point what parents can do for them. They can provide help and support but not change and make the decisions for them.

As we can see in this case, we are not sure who is to blame for this tragedy. While we conclude that it’s the teenagers own fault for doing it, because all other things (posting of blog) is legal but we start questioning the ethics behind the actions of these people. I believe there should be more monitoring of what is being posted. If there had been something that prevented from this post coming to the public view, maybe a life could have been saved. But again it relies back on the morality of users and proper ways of using the internet.

Brister, William. "Ezinearticles." Laws for Blogs (2011): 3. Web. 15 Feb 2011. .