More than 700 people in the UK have posted on a pro-suicide website looking for someone to die with, a BBC investigation has found.
The site, which we are not naming, has a members-only section where users can look for a suicide partner.
We have connected several double suicides to the “partners thread”.
Our investigation also found that predators have used the site to target vulnerable women.
In December 2019, Angela Stevens’ 28-year-old son, Brett, travelled from his home in the Midlands to Scotland to meet a woman he had made contact with on the partners thread.
The pair rented an Airbnb and took their lives together.
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Since her son’s death, she has spent years researching the pro-suicide site - in particular, the partners thread.
“It's a very dangerous place,” Angela says.
She compares it to a dark version of a dating app.
“Where else would you go to find a partner to take your own life with?” she says. “It’s just absolutely vile.”
The thread encourages users to end their own lives - and offers instructions on how to do it.
I suspect I’ve got a bad read on this, but I mean… if you’re going to do it, wouldn’t you want someone to do it with too? Companionship in those final moments?
Maybe ‘The Seventh Continent’ had the wrong impression on me.
I'd have thought that the least worst answer is to legalise assisted dying. It won't be easy getting the balance right, and I know disability campaigners are especially concerned about it, but it has to be better than having a "suicide buddy" website that is wide open to abuse.
Yeah. Got to be better. Also rather than banning this website, wouldn’t it be better to look into what is driving people to suicide? I’m guessing a lot of it is social, health and economic conditions that could be addressed by government if they truly cared and weren’t just moralising.