On gangrey.com, user "ben" posts an interesting dilemma. Maybe I'm just posting this for Randy, because I know how much he likes to debate ethics. Anyway, this also sort of goes along the same lines of the discussion we had with Diane about holding a dog abandoned during Hurricane Katrina.
If a source with a chronic disease confided in you that he or she thought about suicide but was "too much of a wimp," would you tell someone? Several reporters post on the entry about what they would do. It's not always black and white.
A Question
Without looking at the comments on gangrey ... First, am I in the middle of doing a story on this person (about their struggle w/a disease), or did this just come up in a normal conversation? After that, I'd start asking a lot of questions to get more info to help me make a decision: Has the person sought help? Has the person confided in anyone else? If so, is anyone working w/this person to help them at this time in their life? Has the person begun planning suicide, or simply thought about what it would be like? Could the person be a threat to others if he/she were to carry it out? I would talk to suicide crisis people or experts to ask what the best course of action is in these kinds of situations. I'd go to a trusted editor, perhaps also a trusted colleague, to explain what was happening and talk it through (maybe not naming the person, at least at first) ... And if someone confided in me in that way, and if I then become a part of that person's support system, I would ultimately raise the question of whether the personal relationship represented a conflict that would mean I couldn't cover that person anymore.
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