Citation

Voelker R. J. Am. Med. Assoc. JAMA 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Medical Association)

DOI

10.1001/jama.2019.9492

PMID

31339514

Abstract

With perhaps millions of viewers awaiting the season 3 premiere of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why series, the streaming service made a somewhat unusual decision. A graphic suicide scene that generated 2 years of debate and at least a half-dozen published studies on suicide trends was edited out of the first season’s final episode. A Netflix statement indicated that the decision was made “on the advice of medical experts.”

Victor Hong, MD, medical director of Michigan Medicine’s Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES), is lead author of 1 of the studies the series spurred. “The decision to edit out the suicide scene is at least a step in the right direction,” he said shortly after Netflix made the announcement.

Released in March 2017, the series is based on the best-selling 2007 young adult novel of the same name in which a teenaged girl, Hannah Baker, dies by suicide. She leaves behind 13 cassette tapes that identify the people and circumstances she feels contributed to her death. In the book, Hannah dies by overdosing on pills. In the deleted Netflix scene, Hannah cuts her wrists in a bathtub filled with water ...

Language: en