Dutch writer Karin Spaink has rejected British claims that her website listing of 41 suicide methods is encouraging youngsters to kill themselves.

Spaink, who started writing about suicide when she was diagnosed with MS, is described as a ‘suicide guru’ by British paper the Telegraph in an article about a spate of suicides involving young people in Wales.
‘The British press become completely hysterical about suicide and euthanasia,’ Spaink tells the Volkskrant. ‘[But]If you write and talk about it, it has a preventative effect.’
Spaink’s listing of suicide methods opens by saying the file is ‘provided for the purposes of amusement, and the actual use of any of these methods is not recommended without first considering other possibilities, such as dying of old age’.
‘Please do not pass it onto people whom you know to be actively suicidal… you may find yourself in jail for considerable periods,’ the site adds.