On January 20, the TV soap opera Coronation Street broadcast a storyline involving the death of one of the characters, Hayley Cropper, a transsexual who, with the help of her partner, took her own life.
Calls were made to complain to Granada Television that the programme would normalise euthanasia, as well as distort the facts around terminal illness and the desire for people to take their own lives.
Copycat
The phenomenon of ‘copycat suicide’, documented by the World Health Organisation and Samaritans, was a further concern, as 50 studies have shown that media reporting of suicide can lead to imitative suicidal behaviours.
